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News & Events

Two-year funding for Post Doc Knud Dideriksen
Knud Dideriksen has received funding from the Villum Kann Rasmussen Foundation for a two-year project to study the formation of iron oxides and their impact on the chemistry of early oceans. The project will be carried out partly at University of California, Berkeley and partly at the Nano-Science Centre, Copenhagen University.

Minisymposiums - Exchange of research ideas Spring/Summer 2008
A group of UK researchers from 5 different UK universities visited from June 30 - 1 July. At KU they discussed calcite and calcite crystal growth seen from a theoretical as well as an experimental point of view with KU researchers. The purpose was to foster interactions between research groups with common interests and to develop new ideas on the subject.

A minisymposium was held  on June 12^th and 13^th where visitors Dr. Per Persson, Dr. Andrey Shchukarev and Dr. Staffan Sjöberg from University of Umeå, Sweden came to discuss IR and X-ray spectroscopies and their applications on natural materials.

May 30^th a Green Rust minisymposium was held lead by Knud Dideriksen and Bo Christiansen. The NanoGeoScience group was informed the green rust research with talks by Knud, Bo, Sorin and guests David O'Connell, who may join us for a postdoc and Lone Tolstrup Karlby from Koncern Miljø. Plans for future collaborative projects with David O'Connell and Lone Tolstrup Karlby were lined up.

Spring School in Carcassonne France
Early May the NanoGeo group went to Carcassonne in France for a spring course revolving around a 2 day writing workshop run by Dr. Susan Stipp. The writing workshop was be followed by two and a half days of student presentations and round table scientific discussions with other students from the MIR/MINGRO network. The MIR/MINGRO network is comprised of seven universities located in Germany, France, Spain, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. The network offers among other things structured training for students pursuing a PhD or Masters degree. See link for more informations
http://www.min-gro.com/

Five new staff members
During Spring and Summer the groups has grown remarkably. 5 new members have joined us making the group even more international and interdisciplinary. Geologist Caroline Piper Hem and Atmospheric Chemist Meshkat Sadat Javadi have started phds´ and Jonas Olsson is working on his master thesis. Finally Physical Chemist Dr. Nicolas Bovet from France and Biogeochemist Dr. Andrew Mitchell, UK will start their reseach programs in July and August. 

Junior Research Team visiting NGS 
28^th of February the NanoGeoScience group had a visit from "Forskerholdet" a group of youngsters from "Roskilde Ungdomsskole". "Forskerholdet" are defined by being unusually interested in Science and Culture. During their visit the group was informed about nano science and were introduced to lab work by making analysis of water from Roskilde.

New Group Members Winter 2008 
Several new researchers have joined the NanoGeo group.
Dr. Mingjun Yang, Materials Scientist, joined the group in January after two years at University of Sheffield where he has been doing a postdoc at the Department of Engineering Materials. He will be working with molecular modeling of biological control of calcite crystal growth.
Karina Krarup Sand, Geologist and Christian Schack Pedersen, Chemist have started making Phds
Exchange student Sorin Nedel has joined the group from France and will be working on his master thesis during his six months stay.
Finally Professor Leonid Lakshtanov is back in the group and will be doing experiments concerning influence of silica on homogeneous and heterogeneous precipitation of calcite.

NSC Winter School a success
Situated in the Austrian alps this years NanoScienceCenter Winter School was a successful mix of outdoor body and indoor brain activities. The conference gave room for learning new things, teambuilding and seeing people in different ways. 

New member of staff from China

Dr. Xizu Wang is joining the group as postdoc on October 1, 2007. Dr. Xizu Wang will be the key person responsible for the new ultra-high vacuum systems (XPS, AES, LEEDS). He will run his own experiments within the project and help students and guests with theirs.

Xizu Wang graduated from the Xi’an Jiaotong University, China in 2000 with a B.Sc. in Physics and major in Optical-Electronics. In January of 2007 he finished his PhD in Condensed Matter Physics (experimental) from the Fudan University, Shanghai, China.

Temporary member of staff

Dr. Leonid Lakshtanov has returned to the NanoGeo group on September 19. He will during his stay with the NanoGeo group, work on the uptake of nickel by calcite, which is relevant for the groundwater contamination problems often observed in Roskilde Amt and later, he will lead one of the sub-projects in the Nano-Chalk venture, namely inorganic inhibitors to calcite recrystallisation.
He is an experimental chemist with expertise in the adsorption on and solid solution formation of trace components in common soil-forming minerals, both at low and higher temperatures. 

Master Thesis Colloquium by student in NanoGeoScience group

On thursday, August 30th, Torben H. Jensen will be holding his Master Thesis colloquium on the subject of: "Utilizing X-ray methods to characterize micro and nano structures of chalk". More info here.

New student and postdoc in NanoGeoScience group

Anna Johnson, a PhD in microbiology from Göteborg in Sweden, started on June 15th in a PostDoc position in the NanoGeoScience group. She has previously been teaching a chemistry course on Elof Lindälvs gymnasium in Sweden. Her project

A new Phd student, Zoltan Balogh from Hungary, has joined the NanoGeoScience group on July 1st. He got his master from University of Szeged in January 2007 and will work on a project called: "Investigation of the chemical and physical properties of the organic material associated with chalk."

Pre-doc scholarship awarded to NanoGeoScience Masters student

Masters student Kirsten Larsen has been awarded a pre-doc scholarship from the NanoScience-center at University of Copenhagen, which links together the students Masters thesis with a future Ph.D.-project.

Kirsten Larsens project will primarily touch on the subject of examining the effect of the activity-variation of calcium- and carbonate-ions on magnesium as a growth-inhibitor for calcitecrystal growth.

Up and running, May 24th, 2007

This past week has seen a lot of activity. The research group from the Geological Institute has moved to the new offices and laboratories of the NanoGeoScience-group, along with everything from the old location.

The equipment is being unpacked and set up, with the most critical equipment already taken into use. So, from this week on, the laboratories are going to be fully operational.

Inauguration March 30, 2007
The research group NanoGeoScience will be inaugurated as a new research area at the Nano-Science Center, Universitetsparken 5, University of Copenhagen March 30, 2007 at 14.15.

Dr. Susan Stipp, Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen is leader of the research group. She will give her inaugural lecture as professor this day as well.

Minster of the Environment Connie Hedegaard will speak at the opening. Also Director of the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation Carsten Gaarn-Larsen and Director of the Nano-Science Center, Professor Thomas Bjørnholm will speak at the event.

The group's focus is on Environment and Energy. Much of the research aims to understand the reactions that prevent contamination of ground water and that allow safe disposal of waste. The largest of the group's projects is called Nano-Chalk. Its goal is to improve the methods for extracting oil from the chalk reservoirs in the North Sea. With current production methods well over half of the available oil is often left behind. By application of nano-technology, we hope to improve oil recovery.

The Nano-Chalk team is an interdisciplinary group of physicists, chemists, molecular biologists, geologists, mineralogists and engineers. In total, the research group will consist of 30-40 researchers and students.

Staff News
Maj Britt Aronstein recently joined us as Project Administrator. She comes to us with a background in political science from University of Copenhagen. She has several years experience with research and project administration from the university and Copenhagen Business School. Maj Britt has already begun to get us organised and we look forward to seeing the results of her plans for improving our efficiency.

Dr. Keld West joined the NanoGeoScience group as Laboratory Manager on March 1, 2007. Keld West has a degree in Civil Engineering and a PhD from the Department of Physical Chemistry at DTU. Since 2000 he has worked as a senior scientist at Risø National Laboratory. From 2004 he was Head of the research programme: "Nano and micro structured interfaces" - a cross-departmental Risø programme including the new clean-room facility, CleaR. Additionally, from 2005 he was Head of the research programme "Polymer surfaces and interfaces" as well as running the clean-room facility, CleaR.

Dr. Leonid Lakshtanov returned to our group on February 26 from Russia. He is an experimental chemist with expertise in the adsorption on and solid solution formation of trace components in common soil-forming minerals, both at low and higher temperatures. During his stay with the NanoGeo group he will work on the uptake of nickel by calcite, which is relevant for the groundwater contamination problems often observed in Roskilde Amt and later, he will lead one of the sub-projects in the Nano-Chalk venture, namely inorganic inhibitors to calcite recrystallisation.

Prof. Kent Keller, on sabbatical from the University of Washington State, is visiting our group for the year. He is a hydrogeologist with expertise in groundwater compositions. His current research focuses on soil weathering and the role of plant roots, lichen and bacteria in preventing nutrient wash-out from infertile mountain soils (check with Kent).

Estelle Davesne will work with us from February through August 2007. She is an exchange student, studying green rust and its reactivity, especially in the context of radioactive waste disposal. Estelle will graduate in late 2007 from L'Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris, a graduate school of chemical science and engineering, in the top tier of French graduate schools.

Guests this Month
Prof. John Harding, and Dr. Mingjun Yang, Materials Science, University of Sheffield, and Dmytro Atipov, University of Cambridge, UK, from 20 to 21 February, for discussions about their results from molecular and mesoscale modelling of calcite surfaces and their interaction with organic adsorbates.

Lab News
New laboratories are currently being built for the Nano-Chalk project in the C-building at HCØ. The labs are expected to being finished by the end of March.

In addition to renovating and updating the laboratory interior, new equipment is being acquired. Recently, an ultrahigh vacuum system was ordered from Kratos. The system will include facilities for XPS, UPS, AES and SEM and is being custom built for sample treatment optimised for Earth materials and experiments particularly relevant for geochemistry.

A lot of effort is currently being put into evaluating applications and holding interviews for 12 new positions. So far, 4 have been filled and we hope to complete the rest by the end of March.