Other September News in Brief
Seven researchers with a connection to the DNRF received a Villum Experiment grant; UrbNet has launched a new journal; CeMiSt has discovered a bacterium with great potential; PRIVACY invited international students for an interdisciplinary seminar; and both Carsten Rahbek and Peter Vuust were featured in podcasts for Science Stories. Read more about the Danish National Research Foundation’s Other September News in Brief here.
PRIVACY invited international for an interdisciplinary course on privacy
Last month, the Center of Excellence PRIVACY held a summer course on “Privacy challenged in past, present and future: A multidisciplinary approach” with international students from all over the world participating. Together with researchers, the students discussed the meaning of “privacy,” that is, specifically what privacy is, as the subject is still a relatively new research field. Behind the seminar was professor and head of center Mette Birkedal Bruun, who both initiated the seminar and acted as the coordinator for the entire course. The course, which ran for two weeks, was held at the center at the University of Copenhagen.
Mette Birkedal Bruun has a background in church history and was recently accepted as a new member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. Read more about the admission in the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters here
Science Stories: Carsten Rahbek on biodiversity and the sixth mass extinction event
Sixty-five million years ago, the Earth underwent a mass extinction event. A UN report from this year states that we are now experiencing the next mass extinction event – the sixth – with animals and plants disappearing at a rapid pace. In a podcast for Science Stories, science journalist Jens Degett spoke to Professor Carsten Rahbek, who is head of the DNRF Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate (CMEC), at the University of Copenhagen. The podcast is about what biodiversity means to us and what we can do to preserve it.
CeMiSt researchers find a rod-shaped bacterium with great potential
In a study published in Science Direct, researchers from the DNRF Center CeMiSt explain the discovery of a bacterium, called Bacillus velezensis, that inhibits the growth of various harmful fungi. The bacterium, which was discovered at the DNRF center at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), can inhibit human disease-causing factors. Through chemical detection methods, genetic analysis of the bacterial strain, and traditional microbiological techniques, the CeMiSt research team was able to reveal that the bacterium’s ability to fight fungal pathogens is related to the presence of so-called lipopeptides.
Find the scientific article from the CeMiSt researchers in Science Direct here
Read more about the study in a news story from CeMiSt here
Peter Vuust in Science Stories on the significance of music
Why have humans developed music? How has it helped us survive? In a podcast from Science Stories on the special importance of music, science journalist Charlotte Koldbye invited head of the DNRF Center for Music in the Brain (MIB), Peter Vuust, to talk about why humans have developed music and how it has helped us survive.
Listen to the podcast with Peter Vuust at Science Stories here (in Danish)
UrbNet launches new scientific journal and an online course
Professor and head of center at the DNRF center UrbNet, Rubina Raja, together with the vice-head of center, Professor MSO Søren M. Sindbæk, has just launched a new journal. Called the Journal of Urban Archeology, it intends to fill a hitherto overlooked publication niche in urban archeology.
Read more about the recently launched journal here
In addition to the journal, UrbNet is involved in the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) “Discovering Greek and Roman Cities,” which opened earlier this month. The course, a European collaboration across six universities, sheds light on ancient cities and their significance in the ancient world and now. It runs over eight weeks and is held in English, German, and French.
Read more about the course in a press release at UrbNet here
Seven researchers affiliated with DNRF centers have received a Villum Experiment Grant 2019
For the third year in a row, the Villum Foundation has awarded grants to a number of innovative research projects, as part of the Villum Experiment program. The Villum Experiment grants support research projects that dare to challenge the norm and break conventional thinking. Seven out of a total of 52 grants have been awarded to researchers affiliated with the DNRF Centers of Excellence. The six researchers are:
Timothy Booth, Associate Professor, Center for Nanostructured Graphene (CNG), DKK 2 million for the project “IonGate – Bio-inspired synthetic active transport membranes based on van der Waals heterostructures.”
Read more about Booth’s project here
Nicolas Stenger, Associate Professor, Center for Nanostructured Graphene (CNG), DKK 1.9 million for the project “A single-photon emitter at mid-infrared frequencies.” Read more about Stenger’s project here
Magnus Kjærgaard, Assistant Professor, Center for Proteins in Memory (PROMEMO), DKK 2 million for the project “Self-assembled protein droplets as reaction platforms for biotechnology.” Read more about Kjærgaard’s project here
Victoria Antoci, Assistant Professor, Stellar Astrophysics Center (SAC), DKK 1.9 million for the project “Exploring the interplay between hot stars and exoplanets – A new spectrograph prototype for a unique nano-sat mission.”
Read more about Antoci’s project at Aarhus University here
Juanita Bocquel, post-doc, Center for Macroscopic Quantum States (BigQ), DKK 1.9 million for the project “Quantum Sensing of a Biological Compass.”
Hitesh Kumar Sahoo, post-doc, Center for Silicon Photonics for Optical Communications (SPOC) DKK 2 million for the project “Handshaking of light and sound: enabling on-chip silicon light source and optical amplifier.”
Thomas Friborg, Associate Professor, Center for Permafrost (CENPERM), DKK 1.9 million for the project “Drone borne LiDAR and Artificial Intelligence for assessing carbon storage” (MapCLand).
Further reading about the Villum Experiment grants and the other grant recipients can be found here