First prize at the Estonian contest for student research

Elo Joandi (in the picture on the right), a gymnasium student of the Miina Härma Gymnasium, won the first prize at the Estonian Research Council’s contest for student research. Congratulations to Elo and her supervisors!

In her work “Identifying diet based on hair isotopic analysis: a case study of modern and archaeological material” Elo studied the dietary habits of present and past individuals through the stable isotope analysis of hair keratin.

A thorough theoretical work with the literature allowed her to conduct real experiments in our Archemy lab to analyse contemporary and archaeological hair samples. She demonstrated that the nitrogen values are clearly different for vegan and carnivorous people, and that both carbon and nitrogen isotope values change when a person changes their diet from omnivorous to that of a vegetarian one.

Elo’s work is the first of its kind at the University of Tartu, aiming to understand and develop the stable isotope analysis on hair keratin. She demonstrated that the pre-treatment has an effect on the stable isotope values, allowing a better-informed sample strategy for archaeological specimens in the future. Elo’s work is an exceptional example of bridging humanities and natural sciences in the study of cultural heritage.

The research was supervised by Holar Sepp, Helen Semilarski, and by two members of our group – Mari Tõrv and Ester Oras. 

Here you can find more information about the contest and awardees (in Estonian).

 

 

Unified pH – what, why and how?

On March 10, 2023, Ivo Leito presented “Unified pH – what, why and how?” at the Chemistry and Chemical Technology 2023 Vilnius (Lithuania).

Acidity is one of the most critical characteristics of solutions. Its measurement is crucial to understanding and controlling essential processes in fundamental chemistry, industry and living organisms, such as catalysis, extraction, chromatography, processes in micelles/bilayers, etc.

Acidity refers to the activity of the solvated proton and is typically expressed as pH. However, the conventional pH scale is well established only in dilute aqueous solutions at medium pH values. It has severe limitations at extreme values, in other solvents or more complex media where most real-life chemistry occurs. Most importantly, comparing the conventional pH values between different media is impossible because every solvent has its pH scale.

Given the above, a decade ago, the concept of a “unified pH scale” was put forward, defining unified pH via the absolute chemical potential of the solvated proton. The merits of this approach are a strict thermodynamic foundation and direct comparability of values between any media.

In recent years, to a large part thanks to the European Union UnipHied (17FUN09) project, the measurement possibilities have been developed and the concept has now been published as an IUPAC technical report.

The first part of the presentation gave theoretical background and explained the need for unified pH. The second part described the experimental method, and the last part gave an overview of the work done and future perspectives.

 

Prof. Ivo Leito – recipient of the UT teaching staff awards

This year’s recipients of the teaching staff awards in the University of Tartu have been announced. The UT Student Union chose the recipients based on proposals submitted by the students. We are glad to announce that the Faculty of Science and Technology award was given to prof. Ivo Leito!

According to his students, prof. Ivo Leito is an incredibly charismatic and lively lecturer who is a role model for all. In each lecture, he gives real-life examples of how analytical chemistry can be applied to study the environment around us. Using the flipped learning method, he constantly engages students in discussions and creates a safe environment for asking questions. It is worth noting that Professor Leito does not proceed with the lecture until he is convinced that every last person in the room has understood what he has just said. 

In addition to his dedication to educating students in the classroom, he is always available for every student outside of lecture hours. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is available 24/7, even when he is abroad. He takes a genuine interest in the progress and development of every student. Ivo Leito also holds regular meetings with all his students planning to graduate in the spring to see if their thesis is going well and to give advice on how to advance with the task.  

Here is more information about the award and the other recipients. 

Congratulations!

We have a new laser!

At the end of January, our new laser from Quantum Light Instruments (Lithuania) arrived! By now, the laser has been set up in the lab, and the team members have been trained to work with it. Work on the laser-MS project can continue at full speed now. The first laser-MS experiments with the new laser are promising and we hope to get many more good results in the near future.

 

 

The laureates of the Ann Mihkelson’s scholarship have been announced!

Sigrid and Marta-Lisette

This year, the laureates of the Ann Mihkelson’s scholarship are Sigrid Selberg and Marta-Lisette Pikma.

The scholarship was founded in 2011 by Anu Ebbe Mihkelson and its purpose is to support female scientist and doctoral students, especially chemists, with their research or supervision of master’s and doctoral students. We are happy to announce that this year the scholarship was awarded to two young females who are both members of the Chair of Analytical Chemistry – researcher Sigrid Selberg and junior researcher/doctoral student Marta-Lisette Pikma.

Congratulations from all of us to you, Sigrid and Marta!

 

 

 

 

3rd Iberoamerican Conference on Mass Spectrometry

Ernesto and Larissa

Larissa and Ernesto attended the 3rd Iberoamerican Conference on Mass Spectrometry from the 10th to the 15th of December in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

Larissa: “The excellent scientific program provided a wide range of topics, but the topics metabolomics and proteomics in biomarker discovery were of most interest to me. Besides, it was interesting to learn how mass spectrometry is playing a role in unraveling Covid-19. The companies held interesting workshops about their latest instruments and their applications too.

The conference also had amazing after-hours activities. For instance, attendees were able to watch a performance by “Mangueira” (famous Samba school from Rio), a capoeira (Afro-Brazilian martial art) performance as well as a party with live pagode (Brazilian style of music). Moreover, the conference was held in the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro. It was a pleasure to attend an international mass spectrometry conference in my home country.”

Rio de Janeiro
Conference venue

Ernesto: “There were very good talks during the conference, even though the use of mass spectrometry usage in the medical field (including COVID-19 detection) was one of the main topics, the conference also offered excellent presentations in a varied range of areas such as metabolomics, proteomics, natural products, etc.

The new trends and applications of new instrumentation were also shown by the different instrument providers companies during the workshops.
Something that I really liked were the social activities held every day after the conference, for example capoeira performance, live music, etc.
The fact that the 3rd Iberoamerican Conference on Mass Spectrometry took place in Rio de Janeiro, also allowed to the participants to discover a bit of the beauty that a big country like Brazil has to offer.”

 

The laureate of the Katritzky scholarship is Silvia Hiie Aabloo

Every year the Katritzky scholarship is rewarded to a first-year chemistry MSc student at the Institute of Chemistry, University of Tartu. The scholarship was established in memory of Professor Alan Roy Katritzky, the Honorary Doctor of the University of Tartu. We are glad to announce that this year the scholarship was awarded to a member of our Analytical Chemistry Chair – Silvia Hiie Aabloo!

Silvia Hiie Aabloo

Silvia is doing her MSc project in the Cultural Heritage workgroup, supervised by Dr. Anu Teearu-Ojakäär and Dr. Signe Vahur. Her research revolves around the study of matrix materials used in the matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) analysis. MALDI is a suitable ionization technique for the analysis of large and poorly soluble molecules, which has been used somewhat for the analysis of cultural heritage objects. However, research is still needed to find suitable matrix materials for different cultural heritage materials. An interview with Silvia after receiving the scholarship can be found here (in Estonian). 

Congratulations from all of us, Silvia!

 

 

The continuous rise of UT in the World University Rankings

A recent ranking of the world universities has been published by The Times Higher Education (THE). THE is a British journal known for the most reliable rankings of the world’s universities. For the first time, the University of Tartu has reached the top 250!

The 2023 list includes 1799 universities from 104 countries and regions. For the seventh year in a row, the winner in this ranking is the University of Oxford, followed by Harvard University, and the third place is shared by the University of Cambridge and Standford University.

The performance indicators that are taken into account when calculating the ranking were grouped into five areas: teaching (the learning environment, 30% of the overall score); research (volume, income, and reputation, 30%); citations (research influence, 30%); international outlook (staff, students, and research, 7.5%); and industry income (knowledge transfer, 2.5%). The biggest strength of the University of Tartu is its citations per paper – in this area the UT lands at position 115.

The UT has been represented in this worldwide ranking list since 2011. In recent years, the position has consistently improved. Toomas Asser, the Rector of the University of Tartu says that this high ranking affirms the very good level of our academic community and the relevance of the objectives. The Rector also added that the fact that the research and higher education of Estonian’s national university is on the same level as the world’s top universities is an important achievement for the whole Estonia.

More information can be found here. 

Summer School: Automation and miniaturization in sample preparation

Two PhD students of our Analytical Chemistry Chair – Larissa and Ngan – recently attended an exciting Summer School: Automation and miniaturization in sample preparation, 13 – 15 September 2022, Charles University, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové (Czech Republic).

Group photo provided by Charles University

Larissa: “The main topics of the summer school were supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), on-line solid phase extraction (SPE) in liquid chromatography, automation of extraction procedures in flow systems, and micro-SPE. Personally, the topics that stood out the most to me were SFE and micro-SPE, especially the latter, because of how straightforward, and yet tricky, this sample preparation technique is. In the afternoon workshops, we analyzed eucalyptus plant with SFE by varying some parameters (e.g., temperature, extraction time, etc.) and we were able to build our own pipette tip for micro-SPE. Apart from the great knowledge acquired, the summer school was well-organized, and I was able to meet and connect with people from different countries.“

Ngan: “Despite this was the first time the summer school was organized in the Department of Analytical Chemistry, I felt a warm welcome from the host. Professors from different fields at Charles University and Lund University made sure we all have take-home knowledge and demonstration of many techniques. My favorite part was about Extraction Disks, for example using Polycaprolactone – Graphene Nanoplatelets to preconcentrate the analyte. This is such a clever idea to minimize the sample preparation process and control lab waste.’’

Ngan and Larissa would like to thank FMTDK for the financial support.

Eucalyptus plant extract with SFE – micro SPE pipette

 

 

Our new master students have started to explore Tartu

The new EACH and AMS intake has started exploring Tartu and with it, Estonian history and culture!

Merili (in the picture – in the middle of the front row), one of the newest EACH master students wrote about their visit to ERM:

“Last Saturday, a group of us visited the Estonian National Museum (ERM). We first got an overview of the main exhibition with a tour guide and then explored the rest of the museum ourselves. The design and interactivity of the exhibitions were amazing, and there was a lot to see, from relics of the stone age to beautiful artwork from the Golden Age of Estonian Art! What really made the museum visit special was the fact that while we were there, the President of Estonia himself was giving a tour there. So the day definitely was a crash course to Estonia!”