30. September 2019

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

More information about the summer seminar “Privacy challenges in past, present and future: A multidisciplinary approach” can be found in a press release from the University of Copenhagen 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.

Listen to Carsten Rahbek talk about why biodiversity is important in the Science Stories podcast here (in Danish)

 

 

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

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