This week was the first study week for the new Applied Measurement Science students and EACH Erasmus Mundus. Altogether 19 students started their studies. The countries of origin of the students are Vietnam, Philippines, Russia, Serbia, Kazakhstan, China, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Nigeria, Mexico, Lithuania, Tunisia, Pakistan and Greece. During the introductory meeting an overview of the programme was given (see the slides) and a large number of questions were asked and answered, accompanied by tea/coffee and cake.

We wish successful studies to all new students!

In a recent ranking of Eastern European and Central Asian universities by QS, one of the world’s leading compilers of university performance ratings, the University of Tartu scored a high fifth place, maintaining the highest rank among Estonian and Baltic universities.

The winner in this ranking is the Lomonosov Moscow State University, followed by Novosibirsk University, and Saint Petersburg State University. Charles University in Prague comes fourth.

The strengths of University of Tartu are its academic reputation (98/100), citations per paper (96.9/100), papers per faculty (96.2/100) and web impact (93.8/100).

The position of UT in the worldwide ranking lists has during the recent years consistently become better and UT now ranks generally among the top 500 universities in the world. According to the QS World University Ranking University of Tartu is at position 400. According to the Times Higher Education Ranking University of Tartu is in the range 351-400.

On Friday 22.07.2016 The MSC Euromaster Summer School 2016 finished. The feedback from some of the UT participants indicates that it was again a success! They shared their experience:

Tetiana Melnyk (Ukraine):
I want to say a big big thank you for the opportunity to go to summer school! It was a great experience, and I met a lot of new people. If you ask me to evaluate, I would say it was excellent!

Santosh Raman Acharya (Nepal):
Summer school was amazing experience for me. The most challenging and exciting part was to work with people from all over the world with different experience in their respective fields. We made a lot of presentations, lab works and audit practice in the company “Umicore”, and the most inspiring moment was to meet with Sander Sannik at the summer school. In overall it was a full package of learning with fun!

Aleksandra Lelevic (Montenegro):
I have to say that I don’t remember when I had so much fun and when I have been so tired all at the same time :-)! It was a very intensive course that brought together a very interesting group of people and I am very happy I got the opportunity to meet closely many of them. I particularly liked the practical part of the school where we had to carry out analysis ourselves and work out a way to get along and think of good solutions together as a group.

Rabin Neupane (Nepal):
Summer school was a perfect platform where I got challenges as a Analytical Chemist and develop an ability to cope with those challenges. I must thank Ivo for the lectures in Meteorology in Chemistry at UT, which was foundation for me to be confident and perform well in summer school. Besides lectures in summer school, I would miss the bar, friends from different corners of world, those dances and karaoke we had at end of each day in summer school. It has been a life time experience. Thank you Ivo for such an opportunity.

The 2017 MSC Summer school will take place in Lithuania.

This week saw the start (on Mon, Jul 11, 2016) of the 9th MSC Euromaster summer school in Malle (near Antwerpen, Belgium).

As in previous years, a core aim of the Summer school is shifting the activities away from the classical lecture-type of teaching by increasing the share of discussions, hands-on work, teamwork. A key activity of the summer school is the contest of student teams (setting up virtual laboratories and interacting with customers), which tests their knowledge and skills in all areas of metrology in chemistry.

Four students from University of Tartu (EACH programme) take part in the summer school: Tetiana Melnyk, Aleksandra Lelevic, Rabin Neupane and Santosh Raman Acharya (on the photo, left to right).

We wish exciting and enjoyable Summer school to all participants!

(Photo: Irja Helm)

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

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.

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!