ChemGeo Alumni-Newsletter WiSe 2020/21
Dear Alumni and Friends of the Faculty of Chemistry and Earth Sciences,
The pandemic still has a firm grip on everyday university life, on the everyday life of all of us. Therefore, there is no section on current events in this issue of the newsletter. Nevertheless, I am sure that you will find interesting information about the faculty and the university - because the activities in research and teaching do not stand still, of course!
I hope you enjoy reading this newsletter - and I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.
Your
Claudia Hilbert
(Dean's Office Faculty of Chemistry and Earth Sciences)
PS: Are you still looking for a Christmas present? Take a look at the university shop. There you can get a 10 percent discount on the entire range of products until 31 January 2021. Online orders are also free of shipping costs: http://www.uni-shop-jena.de/External link
Content
News from the faculty (and university)
- New deanery
- Graduation ceremony and faculty awards 2020
- Timm Wilke ist new professor for the didactics of chemistry
- New offers for prospective chemistry students
News around research and teaching
- Novel glass materials made from organic and inorganic components
- Palaeontological excavation project started at the Thuringian Bromacker
- Tracing the origins of the solar system with asteroid dust
- Research in times of Corona
Prof. Dr Hans-Dieter Arndt (Dean), Prof. Dr Sebastian Henn (Dean of Studies) und Prof. Dr Nina Kukowski (Vice Dean), from left
Image: Anne Günther (University of Jena)New deanery
A new deanery was elected in October 2020: The faculty is now headed by Dean Prof. Dr Hans-Dieter Arndt (Institute of Organic Chemistry and Macromolecular Chemistry). He is supported by Vice Dean Prof. Dr Nina Kukowski (Institute of Geosciences) and Dean of Studies Prof. Dr Sebastian Henn (Institute of Geography).
Award ceremonies on 20 November 2020: Dean Prof. Dr Hans-Dieter Arndt (left) welcomes Friedrich Brandt, the winner of the Graduate Award Geography 2020
Image: Jens Meyer (University of Jena)Graduation ceremony and faculty awards 2020
The graduation ceremony of the Faculty of Chemistry and Earth Sciences has a fixed place in the calendar for many years. Due to the corona pandemic, the celebration planned for 20 November 2020 could unfortunately not take place as usual. But there is - as a digital alternative to the joint celebration - a new "graduate website".
On the new website, all graduates in 2020 are mentioned by name - from the Bachelor's degree to the habilitation - and the winners of the faculty awards will be honoured. The website will be continued accordingly in the coming years. And here is the link to the new "graduate website": www.chemgeo.uni-jena.de/en/absolventenfeier2020
The presentation of the faculty awards took place on 20 November in a small ceremony. Dean Prof. Dr Hans-Dieter Arndt handed over the certificates in five individual ceremonies. In addition, the respective laudator and two of the three donors were present and addressed personal congratulations to this year's award winners. This year's award winners are:
- Graduate Award of the Friedrich Schiller University: Stefanie Lawrinowitz, M.Sc. Chemical Biology
- Doctoral Thesis Award Chemistry: Dr Martin Klapper
- Graduate Award Chemistry: Frieda Nagler, M.Sc. Chemistry
- Graduate Award Geography: Friedrich Wilhelm Brandt, M.Sc. Geoinformatics
- Graduate Award Geosciences: Madeline Richter, M.Sc. Geosciences
In addition, Dr Phillipp Engelmann (AG Chemiedidaktik) received the Doctoral Thesis Award of the Friedrich Schiller University 2020, which was awarded digtial during a central university event on 30 October 2020.
Graduate portraits wanted
We would like to know how our graduates fared after their studies. Such personal experience reports illustrate the wide range of career opportunities and they also help pupils and current students.
Would you also like to tell us about your professional career? Then please contact us by e-mail at claudia.hilbert@uni-jena.de. We are happy about every new graduate portrait!
Timm Wilke ist new professor for the didactics of chemistry
How can new findings in chemistry be transferred into lively, exciting school lessons? What opportunities does digitisation offer for science teaching? These are the questions that Prof. Dr Timm Wilke is primarily concerned with. The 32-year-old is the new professor for the didactics of chemistry at the Friedrich Schiller University. "The challenge is to reconstruct exciting subject areas for school in such a way that they form a didactically viable bridge between top-level research and teaching," says Timm Wilke. Chemistry and also physics still have the reputation of being unpopular subjects, but that doesn't have to stay that way, says the Brussels native.
Learn more about Timm Wilke and his research
Using the App Actionbound, you can interactively explore the study of chemistry in Jena.
Image: Mario ImiellaNew offers for prospective chemistry students
For pupils interested in studying chemistry, there are two new ways to get a taste of what it's like to study: an interactive adventure tour with the app "Actionbound" and a film now complete the range of our offers for prospective students.
Interactive digital tour
In the last issue we already reported about the digital tours with the app Actionbound. Now there is also a interactive tour about studying chemistry: In this tour, you can learn more about the chemical institutes and about the study programme. Now there are three interactive tours of study programmes from the faculty - Geography, Biogeosciences and Chemistry. There are also tours on other topics from the university.
Learn more about the virtual adventure tours. de
New film about studying chemistry in Jena
"Studying chemistry means changing your view. Then you see the world with different eyes." That's what the new image film about studying chemistry at the Friedrich Schiller University says. The film was made in cooperation with the Department for Communications and Marketing, the filmmaker Simon Roloff from Erfurt and the poetry slammer Friedrich Herrmann from Jena. The film is primarily aimed at school students and is intended to arouse curiosity about studying chemistry in Jena. It's worth taking a look!
Dr Courtney Calahoo presents organic (l.) and inorganic glass (r.).
Image: Jens Meyer (University of Jena)Novel glass materials made from organic and inorganic components
A research team from the Universities of Jena and Cambridge has succeeded in producing a new class of hybrid glass materials that combines organic and inorganic components and gives the materials very special mechanical properties. The scientists use material combinations in which organometallic and inorganic glasses are chemically combined. Prof. Dr Lothar Wondraczek and Dr Courtney Calahoo from the Chair of Glass Chemistry are among the researchers involved in the research work. The research team presents the results in the journal "Natur Communications".
Palaeontological excavation project started at the Thuringian Bromacker
After ten years, the "Bromacker" fossil deposit is being dug and researched again. In August 2020, the cooperation project of the Friedenstein Gotha Castle Foundation, the Museum of Natural History Berlin - Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Research, the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the National GeoPark Thuringia Inselsberg-Drei Gleichen started. The first test excavation took place in October. From 2021 onwards, work on the site will be carried out regularly for several weeks a year. The results of the research work will be presented in innovative communication formats at the individual facilities of the project partners.
This unique research project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The "Bromacker" fossil deposit is located between the communities of Tambach-Dietharz and Georgenthal in the Thuringian Forest. It is considered one of the most important and productive fossil deposits worldwide.
Learn more
Dr Dennis Harries (l.) und Prof. Dr Falko Langenhorst explain the aim of the mission "Hayabusa2"
Screenshot: Claudia HilbertTracing the origins of the solar system with asteroid dust
"We examine tiny grains of dust that are only about 50 micrometre in size. But for us that is a whole world," says Prof. Dr Falko Langenhorst. The mineralogist and his colleague Dr Dennis Harries from the Institute of Geosciences are among the first scientists in the world to be allowed to analyse samples from the asteroid Ryugu. Six years ago, the Japanese space agency JAXA launched its mission "Hayabusa 2" to the asteroid, which is 300 million kilometres away and 4.6 billion years old. On the night of 6 December 2020, after more than five billion kilometres, a capsule with the samples collected there landed in Australia. By analysing the samples, the researchers hope to gain important insights into the origin of our solar system.
Research in times of Corona
Actually, geology doctoral student Madeline Richter wanted to fly to Taiwan in the summer semester to explore the Yuli Belt in the central mountains there. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the research trip had to be postponed indefinitely. In a report on research during the lockdown in the research magazine LICHTGEDANKEN, she tells us exactly what her project is about and what her everyday research work at the university looks like now.
The corona crisis became the object of research for Jena's economic geographer Björn Braunschweig and his team: They investigated how the corona crisis is affecting Thuringian companies. Björn Braunschweig reports on the results in a video and in a report in the magazine LICHTGEDANKEN.
LICHTGEDANKEN interview with economic geographer Björn Braunschweig: How does the corona pandemic affect companies in Jena?
Traditional tree planting: Some first-year students planted a Sessile Oak in front of the university's main building on 22 October 2020 together with the university president Prof. Dr Walther Rosenthal (right) and Prof. Dr Frank Hellwig, Professor of Special Botany (2nd from right). Tree planting has been a firm tradition for many years as part of the ceremonial enrolment process: each year receives its own tree. This year, due to the corona pandemic, only a few students were able to participate in the tree-planting campaign. The ceremonial enrolment ceremony took place digitally on 12 November 2020.
Do you remember where "your" tree is?
Traditional tree planting on the occasion of the ceremonial enrollment on 22.10.2020
Image: Jens Meyer (University of Jena)