The Chair of Analytical Chemistry at University of Tartu

Defence of AMS Master’s Theses 2016

Today (June 06, 2016) 11 AMS master students successfully defended their master’s theses. Congratulations to all of you!

Photo on the left, from left to right: Xiaozhou Ye, Martinš Jansons, Oluwamayowa Sharon Sanni, Sylvestre Tc Pagkeu, Sofia Raquel Alves Oliveira, Stanislav Andres, Theofanis Panagiotopoulos, Max Hecht, Sagar Ramanbhai Patel, Rūta Veigure, Francis Gyakwaa.

As is usual for AMS the topics of the theses were diverse ranging from artificial photosynthesis to measurements in biochemistry and from determination of dangerous radionuclides to calibration of hygrometers. The full list of the defenders and their thesis titles is below. This list demonstrates well the ubiquitous nature of measurement science. The scientific/technological quality of the theses was high: a number of research papers are planned to be published on the basis of the theses and the results of one of them will be patented. (Photo on the right: Rūta Veigure discussing with the opponent)

Full list of students and thesis topics:

Sylvestre Tc Pagkeu, Joint application of an ARC-probe and antibody in homogeneous TR-FRET assay for determination of the concentration of protein kinase Pim2
Max Hecht, Investigations of chlorophyll interactions in Water Soluble Chlorophyll Binding Protein
Sofia Raquel Alves Oliveira, Role of the stringent response in antibiotic tolerance of Escherichia coli
Rūta Veigure, Development and validation of UHPLC-MS/MS method for analysis of sedative drugs and their metabolites in blood plasma
Oluwamayowa Sharon Sanni, Development and validation of gamma spectrometric analysis procedure using a high purity Germanium detector
Sagar Ramanbhai Patel, Development of foreign body detection methodology in industrial food preparation process
Theofanis Panagiotopoulos, Calibration of hygrometers at fluctuating and transient conditions
Francis Gyakwaa, Validation of alpha spectrometric analytical measurement procedure for the determination of Polonium-210 (210Po) in environmental samples
Xiaozhou Ye, Relationships between Environmental Factors and the Growth of Above-Ground Biomass in Boreal Forest
Martinš Jansons, Characterization of natural sedimentary dolomite and limestone reference materials from Geological Survey of Estonia using LA-ICP-MS
Stanislav Andres, Development of method for preliminary identification of cyclic dinucleotides in bacterial cultures

Measurement uncertainty online course (MOOC) successfully finished!

On May 17, 2016 the MOOC Estimation of measurement uncertainty in chemical analysis offered by University of Tartu finished successfully.
Altogether 757 people registered (270 in 2014, 489 in 2015) from 85 countries. 455 participants actually started the course (i.e. tried at least one graded test at least once) and out of them 308 successfully completed the course (169 in 2015, 141 in 2014). The overall completion rate was 40% (52% in 2014, 34% in 2015). The completion rate of participants who started the studies was 67% (67% in 2014, 60% in 2015). These completion rates can be considered very good for a MOOC, especially one that has quite difficult calculation exercises, which need to be done correctly for completing the course.

The participants were very active and asked lots of questions. These were often very much to the point and addressed things that are really important to analysts in their everyday work. The course had several forums (general and by topic) and the overall number of posts to them during the course period reached beyond 500! (overall number of posts, both from participants and from teachers)

This active participation made teaching this MOOC a great experience also for us, the teachers. The discussion threads gave a lot of added value to the course and some of them triggered making important modifications to the course materials.

We want to thank all participants for helping to make this course a success!

We plan to repeat this course again in Spring 2017.

(Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Establishing Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization Efficiency Scale

The series of works from the UT Analytical chemistry group on measuring and predicting ionization efficiency in the electrospray (ESI) ion source of MS and LC-MS has reached a new milestone: for the first time an ionization efficiency scale for the atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) source has been established.

The work led by Dr Riin Rebane (photo on the left) resulted in APCI ionization efficiency scale containing 40 compounds with widely ranging chemical and physical properties and spanning 5 orders of magnitude of ionization efficiency. Analysis of the resulting data challenges the common knowledge about APCI as ionization method. Contrary to the common knowledge, ionization efficiency order in the APCI source is surprisingly similar to that in the ESI source and most of the compounds that are best ionized in the APCI source are not small volatile molecules. Large tetraalkylammonium cations are a prominent example. These findings suggest that the atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mechanism can be more complex than generally assumed and most probably several ionization mechanisms operate in parallel and a mechanism not relying on evaporation of neutral molecules from droplets has significantly higher influence than commonly assumed.

See the original publication Anal. Chem. 2016, 88, 3435-3439 for more information.

(Photo: Andres Tennus)

Career seminar – composing CV and motivation letter

A key ability in today’s world is applying for a job. In order to be successful, writing CV and job application is of critical importance. For this reason these topics are included in the EACH/AMS programme.

On Wednesday 13.04.2016 Ms Heleri Olo from the UT Career service conducted a seminar (jointly for EACH and AMS students) on the “DO-s and DON’T-s” of writing a CV and motivation letter when applying for a job.

This seminar was the follow-up of the Employment/career session conducted by prof. Reiner Salzer at the EACH 2016 Winter School. At the winter school all participants were given a task to find a job offer at the RSC Jobs website and compose suitable CV and motivation letter. The CVs and motivation letters of students were then analysed both by prof. Salzer and by the UT Career service experts and the feedback was given by Heleri during the seminar.

Students found the whole exercise very useful. The employment-related session was one of the most liked sessions at the Winter school.

Master Class on Quality Assurance in Analytical Measurements

On 9-11 June, 2016 a Master Class on Quality Assurance in Analytical Measurements, jointly organized by the European Centre for Laboratory Excellence and the TrainMiC training community.

There are still some places available, so be quick and check it out at www.ec4le.eu/program

This Master Class targets those teaching or training in the area of metrology and quality assurance in chemical analysis (Metrology in Chemictry, MiC), either regularly (as teacher) or occasionally (e.g. adult learning). The aim of the master class is to:

Keep up to date trainers’ technical knowledge, expertise and competence through a continuing professional development course
Enhance training effectiveness and efficiency by raising knowledge on adult learning strategies and active learning theories through workshop and discussion
Establish a long-term community of practice

It will also be an opportunity for you to network with the TrainMiC® and EC4LE communities and participate in the TrainMiC® convention as well as celebrate its 15th Anniversary. You can also join to brainstorm about the future. Who knows, if you are a newcomer, you might be interested in joining one of these communities?

We look forward to seeing you in Zagreb in June 2016! We promise you an educational experience unlike any other!

Measurement Uncertainty MOOC: 744 participants from 85 countries!

On Monday, March 28, 2016 the web course “Estimation of Measurement Uncertainty in Chemical Analysis” was launched the third time as a MOOC (Massive Online Open Course).

The popularity of the course is this year somewhat higher than it was in 2014 and 2015: 744 participants from 85 countries (ranging from Bahama to Vietnam and from Zambia to Canada) have registered! (in 2014: 270 participants, in 2015: 400+) Image on the left shows the countries where the participants come from. As in the previous years, the majority of participants are from analytical laboratories, once again demonstrating the continuing need for training in measurement uncertainty estimation in analytical chemistry.

The full course material is accessible from the web page https://sisu.ut.ee/measurement/uncertainty. Some developments and improvements have been made to the course material, in particular, some more self-tests ave been added. The course materials include videos, schemes, calculation files and numerous self-tests (among them also full-fledged measurement uncertainty calculation exercises). In order to pass the course the registered participants have to take six graded tests and get higher than 50% score. These tests are available to registered participants via the Moodle e-learning platform. Participants who successfully pass the course will get a certificate from the University of Tartu.

It is planned to run this course as MOOC again in Spring 2017.

(Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Measurement Uncertainty MOOC, Mar 28 – May 8, 2016: Registration is open!

The third edition of the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) Estimation of Measurement Uncertainty in Chemical Analysis will be running during Mar 28 – May 8, 2016. Registration is open!

We currently have more than 250 registered participants from more than 50 countries.

The full course material is accessible from the web page https://sisu.ut.ee/measurement/uncertainty. The course materials include videos, schemes, calculation files and numerous self-tests (among them also full-fledged measurement uncertainty calculation exercises). In order to pass the course the registered participants have to take six graded tests and get higher than 50% score. These tests are available to registered participants via the Moodle e-learning platform. Participants who successfully pass the course will get a certificate from University of Tartu.

You are welcome to distribute this message to potentially interested people!

Second day of the EACH Winter School 2016

The second day of the EACH Winter school was full of excitement.
The key event of the second day was dissolved oxygen intercomparison between the student teams. The samples were water samples from the nearby lake Pühajärv. The student teams used optical oxygen sensors (based on luminescence), see the photo on the left. The seriousness of the intercomparison is underpinned by the independent reference values determined using the highly accurate primary Winkler titration procedure (developed by Irja Helm in her PhD thesis).

The results of the intercomparison will be summarized at the closing of the Winter school.

On the right you can see the group photo (Lake pühajärv is behind the trees) taken right after the lunch and followed by a spontaneous snow fight (photo on the left, below) where the “African team” (Ime and Olivier, in the centre) performed stunningly well in comparison to the Nordic snow fighters!

The consortium committee spent most of the day interviewing students and discussing (including negotiations with university officials about maximum possible numbers of students) for distributing students to study tracks. The day ended with the long-awaited announcement that it will be possible to grant every student the preferred study track!

On the photo on the right you can see prof. Bergquist and his team taking pictures of the students selected for the Uppsala study track.

Excellence in Analytical Chemistry Winter School 2016 successfully started!

Today, on Jan 25, 2016, the first Winter School of the EACH programme started in Pühajärve (Estonia). Altogether 24 students from 17 countries participate (besides EACH students, also some other international students from Tartu have been invited). Leading European analytical chemistry experts act as teachers and supervisors at the Winter School.

The Winter School offers a diverse set of activities to the participants. There are lectures on advanced analytical chemistry topics, tasks on data analysis and choosing analytical strategies. One of the sessions is specifically dedicated to employment opportunities of analytical chemists. The most ambitious part, a full-fledged in situ intercomparison measurement (between student teams) of dissolved oxygen concentration in lake water, will be carried out on the second day of the Winter School.

The intense working is counterbalanced by winter sports activities and relaxing in spa/swimming pool.

Full information about the Winter School activities is available at https://each.ut.ee/EACH/each-winter-school/

Metrology in chemistry in a nutshell

In a recent edition of the premier journal devoted to quality and metrology in chemistry Accreditation and Quality Assurance Ivo Leito has attempted to express in very simple terms the essence of Metrology in Chemistry. In the article Accred. Qual. Assur. 2015, 20, 229–231 he arrived at three main recommendations:

1. Whenever possible, comparisons with reference values should be carried out. The reference values can be realized in different ways: Certified reference materials (CRMs), Laboratory reference materials (LRMs), Measurements with reference methods, etc.

2. Data on stable samples should be collected over long time periods (e.g. as the X chart), in order to evaluate as many sources of variability in the analysis method, as possible. The longer the time period, the more systematic effects will become random and thus easier to evaluate (more on this topic can be found in a recent review on bias).

3. “Do not stop there!”, meaning that the above mentioned activities should run in a lab on a continuous basis.

As a conclusion, it can be said that constant improvement is the key to reliable analytical results.