ChemGeo Alumni Newsletter WiSe 2021/22
Dear Alumni and Friends of the Faculty of Chemistry and Earth Sciences,
139 students started a Bachelor's programme at the Faculty of Chemistry and Earth Sciences this winter semester, 200 a teacher training programme and 101 a Master's programme. A new phase of life lies ahead of these young people with many ups and downs, with many lectures, exams, scientific papers and laboratory practicals, but hopefully also with many exciting encounters and happy experiences. Around 170 young people have again successfully completed their Bachelor's, Master's or doctoral studies at the faculty this year. We were able to celebrate with some of them together in the auditorium on 22 October. For the entire Dean's Office, the graduation ceremony is always a special highlight of the year. Incidentally, this time the event was broadcast live and recorded for the first time. You can watch the video on the faculty's website, and maybe it will bring back some - hopefully positive! - memories of your own student days at the Friedrich Schiller University!
I hope you enjoy reading - and wish you a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2022!
Your
Claudia Hilbert
(Dean's Office Faculty of Chemistry and Earth Sciences)
Content
News from the faculty (and university)
- This is how the graduation ceremony was on 22 October - video available on website
- 2nd MINT-Festival Jena with many online offers
- Ute Hellmich is new professor for Biostructural Interactions
- Schubert research group opens its labs on YouTube
News around research and teaching
- Chemists develop method for producing glasses from non-fusible compounds
- Digitisation of chemistry studies at the University of Jena to be further developed with new project funding
- Interdisciplinary team researches the change in social behaviour in the wake of the Corona pandemic
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!
The graduation ceremony on 22 October 2021 took place in a small setting in the auditorium - and was livestreamed and recorded for the first time.
Image: Claudia Hilbert (Universität Jena)This is how the graduation ceremony was on 22 October - video available on website
This year's graduation ceremony took place on 22 October in the auditorium at the University's main building - on a small scale due to the pandemic situation. Dean Prof. Dr. Hans-Dieter Arndt and Dean of Studies Prof. Dr. Sebastian Henn said goodbye to the graduates of the Master's programmes as well as the freshly graduated doctorates. In addition, the winners of the doctoral and examination prizes received their certificates.
The ceremony was broadcast and recorded via livestream for the first time. You can watch the event again at any time on the faculty website. By the way, all Bachelor graduates are also listed by name there.
Prof. Dr. Felix Schacher and two colleagues during their presentation "Plastics in everyday life" at the MINT-Festival Jena 2021
Image: Jürgen Scheere (University of Jena)2nd MINT Festival Jena with many online offers
Plastics in everyday life, species extinction due to climate change, Amazon research, renewable energies: these and many other topics were the focus of the 2nd MINT Festival Jena - the science festival all about mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology for school students. After the premiere three years ago, the festival celebrated its second edition from 14-16 September 2021. Around 1200 pupils from 29 different schools were guests at the Abbe Campus and the external locations. More than 20 institutions and over 50 speakers - including many researchers and teachers from the Faculty of Chemistry and Earth Sciences - were involved and put on a colourful programme with lectures, workshops and shows.
And the MINT-Festvial Jena continues! Because in addition to the on-site programme, this time there were also many digital offerings - which STEM fans of all ages can continue to explore online: These include a short film on study and career opportunities in the STEM field, digital scavenger hunts and the videos of the live lectures.
Here you can explore the online offers for the MINT Festival Jena de
Prof. Dr Ute Hellmich is the new Professor for Biostructural Interactions
In order to fight infectious diseases effectively, they must be understood as precisely as possible - down to the molecular level. "We want to know how certain proteins interact with other molecules in the context of infections. And we want to learn what such proteins look like at the atomic level and how they move, i.e. what their dynamics are like," says Prof. Dr Ute Hellmich, who joined the University of Jena this year as Professor of Biostructural Interactions. The professorship is based at the Jena Cluster of Excellence "Balance of the Microverse" and within the faculty at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Macromolecular Chemistry.
Learn more about Ute Hellmich and her research work
AG Schubert provides insights into the various research laboratories with several videos.
Image: Schubert GroupSchubert research group opens its labs on YouTube
From bio labs to GMP clean room labs to thermal analysis labs: Prof. Dr Ulrich S. Schubert's working group has produced several videos in which staff members guide you through the various research labs and report on their research work. In this way, the working group would like to give a vivid overview of the doctoral opportunities - for both German and international students.
The lab tours on the YouTube channel of the AG SchubertExternal link
Vahid Nozari from the University of Jena uses a microscope to examine the synthetic glass, which is made of a MOF material.
Image: Jens Meyer (University of Jena)Chemists develop method to produce glasses from non-meltable compounds
Chemists at the University of Jena, together with British researchers, have developed a way to melt what are actually non-meltable metal-organic framework compounds - so-called MOFs. This allows the melt-based production of glass components for applications in energy and environmental technology. The team led by Prof. Dr-Ing. Lothar Wondraczek has published the results in the scientific journal "Nature Communications".
Learn more about the work of the research team
Digitisation of chemistry studies at the University of Jena to be further developed with new project funding
The Chemical Industry Fund is providing 25,000 euros to further develop digital teaching in chemistry studies at the University of Jena and thus make Jena's study programme even more attractive. Specifically, the project "Automatic synthesis and online monitoring of reactions in chemical practical courses using cloud applications" by chemists Prof. Dr Ulrich S. Schubert and Prof. Dr Timm Wilke has been funded for one year since October 2021.
Learn more about digital teaching in chemistry
Interdisciplinary team researches the change in social behaviour in the wake of the Corona pandemic
How have people's social relationships changed in the lockdown and what are the long-term consequences? That is what an interdisciplinary research team at the University of Jena wants to find out. Among others, the two geographers Jun.-Prof. Dr Simon Runkel and Prof. Dr Sebastian Henn are involved. The research group has developed questions on five topics and sent them to recognised experts from the humanities and social sciences in German-speaking countries. The results of the research are to culminate in a paper that will provide recommendations for action for policy-makers and civil society actors in Thuringia.
Learn more about the research project
The lecture hall building at the Ernst-Abbe-Platz campus is currently very busy: after setting up a self-test centre for students in October and vaccination campaigns by the mobile vaccination team of the Thuringian Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians in November, Thuringia's first municipally run vaccination centre has opened there on 1 December 2021. All interested parties - whether university members or not - can now get vaccinated against COVID-19 at the university campus.
Learn more about the Vaccination Centre on campus and its opening hours de
Students and employees of Friedrich Schiller University Jena wait in the foyer of the university campus in Jena on 10 November 2021, during a vaccination campaign against COVID-19 virus by the mobile vaccination team of the Kassenärztliche Vereinigung Thüringen (KVT).
Image: Jens Meyer (University of Jena)