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ESS in Lund will become Sweden's largest research facility, and create 1000's of jobs
2013 the largest research facility in Sweden, ESS, will begin construction outside of Lund. ESS stands for "European Spallation Source" and will be the world's most powerful neutron source in 10 years time. ESS can be associated to a microscope and will be a research center funded by several European countries.
Approximately 450 scientists and engineers will be needed to eventually operate the facilties. There will also be a need for housing, schools and surrounding businesses.
Read more about the wide research project ESS and what it will mean for Swedish research on research site forskning.se.
Author: Carolina Löfstrand
Published: 2012-02-17
URL: ESS in Lund will become Sweden's largest research facility, and create 1000's of jobs
Delft University of Technology takes Perfect chemical reactors one step further...
The project presents a pioneering step towards transferring some fundamental concepts of chemical physics and molecular reaction dynamics into the engineering science of chemical reactors. It aims at the development of structured reactors, in which reaction efficiency will be drastically increased by local control of alignment, orientation and activation of molecules. In the project we pursue the use of alternative forms and transfer mechanisms of energy (such as laser, electric or microwave fields) in a controlled milli- or microreactor environment. We will build on the Nobel Prize-awarded fundamental works in the area of the reaction dynamics and molecular reaction control (Herschbach, Lee and Polanyi, 1986), which were never considered in the chemical engineering field thus far.
The control of chemical reaction pathways at molecular level presents undoubtedly the most important scientific challenge on the way to fully sustainable, thermodynamically-efficient chemical processes. The most obvious advantages of enhanced molecular reaction control are i) higher reaction rates leading to low-temperature processes and smaller equipment, ii) better selectivities leading to minimization or elimination of waste, iii) reduction of separation operations, which are responsible for circa 40% of energy consumption in chemical and related industries, and iv) the possibility for tailored manufacturing of new, advanced products. An excellent example of such enhanced molecular control can be seen in the fundamental work by the group of Richard Zare at Stanford, where the application of a laser field for the excitation and “stretching” of the C-H bond in methane molecule during its chlorination introduced the so-called “stripping” collisions increasing the reaction rate by a factor of more than 100 (Kandel and Zare, 1998). This clearly proves that a targeted introduction of an alternative energy form can improve the reaction performance dramatically. It can enable getting far beyond the limits of the “conventional inherent kinetics” which is based on the macroscopic temperature, pressure and concentrations.
Factors responsible for the effectiveness of a reaction include: number/frequency of molecular collisions, geometry of approach, mutual orientation of molecules at the moment of collisions and their energy. Unfortunately, current chemical reactors offer a very limited degree of control of molecular-level events. In order to bring more molecules at the energy levels exceeding the activation energy threshold conductive heating is conventionally applied. However, conductive heating offers only a macroscopic control upon the process and is thermodynamically inefficient. It is non-selective in nature, which means that non-reacting (bulk) molecules heat up together with the reacting ones. Also, other elements of the reactor are unnecessarily heated up. Secondly, the conductive heating generates temperature gradients, which creates a broad Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution of molecular energy levels. I illustrate that problem with a simplified example shown in Figure 1. 
In a conventional system with temperature gradients, the energy of molecules is distributed. In case of a parallel reaction scheme of the type shown in the figure, where P is the required product, a part of molecules (A) has energy insufficient to pass the transition state P*. Another part (B) has sufficient energy to get over the threshold and form product P. A large portion of these molecules has in fact more energy than it is needed to form P. Finally, there are molecules in the pool that possess enough energy to generate also the transition state W* which eventually leads to the formation of the unwanted waste product W. Ideally, one should provide all molecules with a narrowly distributed amount of energy, just exceeding the potential energy level of P*, as it is illustrated by the dashed curve D.
It is clear that in order to meet the future needs of the sustainable world, a new generation of chemical reactors, which I call here “perfect reactors”, must emerge. A groundbreaking solution in those reactors will consist in creating a reaction environment, in which the geometry of molecular collisions is controlled while energy is transferred selectively from the source to the required molecules in the required form, in the required amount, at the required moment, and at the required position (Fig. 2). Creating such “perfect” reaction environment will in turn require several basic functions to be integrated in the reactor, including:
-removal of molecules not participating in the reaction
-equalizing molecular trajectories and velocities, minimization of random motions
-spatial orientation of molecules
-controlled activation of the molecules
-control of energy distribution among the reaction products
- instantaneous removal of the reaction products 
The enhanced control of molecular collisions in perfect reactors addresses directly the first of the four generic principles of Process Intensification: maximize the effectiveness of intra- and intermolecular events (Van Gerven and Stankiewicz, 2009). However, perfect chemical reactors need to address the other three principles as well:
-They need to provide each molecule with the same processing experience since processes in which all molecules undergo the same history, deliver ideally uniform products with minimum waste. This means reduction of the macroscopic residence time distribution, dead zones, bypassing, and temperature gradients on one hand and enhancement of meso- and micromixing on the other hand. It can be easily shown that most of the reactor concepts developed thus far come short of this principle.
-They need to optimize the driving forces at every scale and maximize the specific interfacial areas to which those forces apply. This enables optimum transport rates across interfaces.
- They need to maximize the synergistic effects from partial processes. An example of such synergistic effects can be seen in reactive separations, where the reaction equilibrium is shifted by removing the products in-situ from the reaction environment.
The challenges depicted in Figure 2 are obviously not new to the science and have been addressed by numerous fundamental research works in the field of chemical physics, using various forms of energy to align, orient and excite chemical molecules. An example of such fundamental research approach is shown in Figure 3, where carbonyl sulphide molecules are first aligned and oriented in an electric field and then dissociated by a laser beam. However, no attempts of developing reactor concepts directly addressing the above challenges have been made so far.
Fig. 3. (A) - Orientation of a molecular beam of carbonyl sulphide molecules moving along the z-axis by a hexapole electric field (left) followed by their dissociation by a laser beam acting along the x-axis (from Rakitzis, et al, 2004); (B) - Probability plot of the molecular orientation of the OCS molecule; dotted arrows are proportional to the orientation probability of the OCS dipole moment along each direction.
The main objective and the ambition of the project is to make a groundbreaking step towards the perfect chemical reactors. The project addresses two basic challenges depicted in Figure 2 and focuses on engineering the enhanced control of molecular alignment, orientation and activation in spatially structured reactors consisting of arrays of milli- or microchannels, using different forms of electric or electromagnetic fields or combinations thereof.
More specifically, new concepts of reactors will be developed, in which the molecular alignment and orientation are controlled by the laser or by the electric field, or combination thereof, while the molecules are activated by
-the laser field,
-the light generated via in-situ nano-illumination of the catalyst, or
- the locally applied microwave field.
The methodology put forward in the project is entirely novel and consists in simultaneous and multi-scale application of the selected concepts of Process Intensification in four domains: spatial, thermodynamic, functional and temporal (Van Gerven and Stankiewicz, 2009). Table 1 summarizes those concepts and presents the corresponding argumentation.
Table 1. Concepts of Process Intensification relevant for development of perfect chemical reactors addressed by the present proposal
The project consists of two closely related phases. The first phase, which comprises two 2-year postdoctoral research activities, focuses on the control of molecular alignment, orientation and activation in milli- or micro-channels using laser and electric field as means for controlling molecules. Both research activities are expected to generate fundamental knowledge concerning the behaviour of the molecules moving in confined regular channels subjected to external fields. The second phase, which comprises three 4-year PhD research activities, focuses on the development of structured-reactor concepts with molecular activation control by means of the laser field, the in-situ nano-illumination of the catalysts and the locally applied microwave field, respectively.
In the project we focus on three molecules: H2O, CO2 and CH4. The reasons for this choice are fivefold:
-these molecules are simple and their properties are well described;
-they represent three out of four classes of molecules with regard to the rotational behaviour: linear (CO2); spherical tops (CH4) and asymmetric tops (H2O);
-the orientation and excitation of these molecules can be manipulated by external energy fields (e.g. Metz, et al., 1993; Kandel and Zare, 1998);
-reactions of these molecules are either monomolecular or bimolecular and present very good models for the experimental studies intended in this project;
- reactions of these molecules, which deliver hydrogen or synthesis gas, are of paramount importance for solving the sustainability issues concerning clean fuels and CO2 management; they include methane steam and dry reforming, water splitting and carbon dioxide splitting.
References
Herschbach, D. R., 1986, Nobel Prize Lecture.
Kandel, S.A., Zare, R. N., 1998, J. Chem. Phys, 109, 9719.
Lee, Y. T., 1986, Nobel Prize Lecture.
Metz, R. B., Thoemke, J. D., Pfeiffer, J. M., Crim, F. F., 1993, J. Chem. Phys., 99, 1744.
Polanyi, J. C., 1986, Nobel Prize Lecture.
Rakitzis, T. P., Van den Brom, A. L., Janssen, M. H., 2004, Science, 303, 1852.
Van Gerven, T., Stankiewicz, A., 2009, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 48, 2465.
3 PhD Positions: Perfect Chemical Reactors
Author: Prof. A. Stankiewicz
Published: 2012-02-14
URL: Delft University of Technology takes Perfect chemical reactors one step further...
Open position within the project
The project entitled “Roles of the p62 interactome in selective autophagy and cell signalling” is financed by the Norwegian Cancer Society. The aim of this project is to gain more knowledge of the functional roles of p62. We want to study the entire interactome of p62 and the functionality of some of the interactions partners in relevant signalling pathways and/or selective autophagy.
We have identified p62 and NBR1 as selective autophagy substrates and cargo receptors for degradation of ubiquitinated targets by autophagy. p62 also plays a pivotal role in several important cell signalling pathways. We therefore aim to determine the possible relationships between their autophagic degradation and cell signalling. Our discovery of the interaction of p62 and NBR1 with the ATG8 family of proteins involved in autophagy and vesicle transport enabled us to identify novel interaction partners for the ATG8 family proteins.
For further information about the project or the position, please contact: Professor Terje Johansen. Email: terje.johansen@uit.no. Phone: +47 77 644720.
Postdoctoral fellow in molecular cell biology
Author: Per Freibergs
Published: 2012-02-13
The Interactive Information Access group invites 2 new PhD students
Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica now opens up 2 PhD positions on the subject of Interface design for heterogeneous user contributed media.
The Interactive Information Access group performs advanced research in areas combining information retrieval, web data and human computer interaction. We have a strong international track record in experimental computer science research, publishing in such diverse venues as SIGIR, ISWC, JWS, IJHCS, Interact and participating in TREC and INEX. We have a diverse and growing research team with new job openings for PhD candidates funded by European FP7 and the national COMMIT programs.
Each candidate is expected to carry out research in the field of public Web data. The European broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg and Dutch cultural heritage institutes such as the Rijksmuseum, Naturalis, Beeld en Geluid and the Royal Library provide the general public with more and more opportunities to interact with their collections online. The user-generated content and metadata (UGC) that results from these interactions enriches the collections, and is considered of high potential value. In parallel, advances in computer vision allow automatic analysis of audio-visual content on a large scale, also resulting in potentially valuable enrichment. Both types of enrichment share the characteristic that their quality can differ from extremely useful to totally useless, or even harmful.
In the context of these projects we are interested in how the use of such content affects the design of applications, especially for research tasks in which the quality of the data is important, and where the user contributed media metadata and video-analysis results are used in combination with professionally curated data. Example research questions include:
• How should we support researchers in selecting data subsets of sufficient quality for their study?
• How can we unobtrusively convey the availability of potential enrichments, such as hyperlink interactions in streaming video, or the provenance of data from different sources?
Results are to be published in international journals and major conferences and lead to a PhD thesis within 4 years.
The research will be carried out in the context of the EU FP7 project LinkedTV and the Dutch COMMIT (http://www.commit-nl.nl/) program.
Requirements:
Candidates are required to have a master degree in computer science and have affinity with
HCI and/or IR-related research.
Preferable qualifications for candidates include proven research talent, system programming skills (C/C++), practical experience with ??? (bijvoorbeeld: using and implementing database systems, and software development in a team).
Candidates are expected to have an excellent command of English, and good academic writing and presentation skills.
2 PhD Students in Interface Design for Heterogeneous User Contributed Media
Author: Per Freibergs
Published: 2012-02-13
URL: The Interactive Information Access group invites 2 new PhD students
Applications Now Open for Opportunities for Excellence
On February 1st, 2012, a new applications round will start for «Opportunities for Excellence», a prestigious fellowship program provided by the Biozentrum and the Werner Siemens Foundation (WSF). This program enables highly qualified Master of Science graduates from around the world to undertake their doctoral studies in the field of «Molecular Life Sciences» at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel. Applications are invited till June 30th, 2012.
It is the goal of «Opportunities for Excellence» to foster and further talented young scientists from around the world by providing them with the exceptional opportunity to carry out their PhD project in the field of “Molecular Life Sciences“ in Basel. This program is co-financed by the Werner Siemens Foundation (WSF).
International PhD program at the Biozentrum
The «Opportunities for Excellence» program gives successful applicants direct access to the international PhD program at the Biozentrum. This provides the unique chance to become acquainted with various research groups from the five research areas (Infection Biology, Growth & Development, Neurobiology, Structural Biology & Biophysics, Computational & Systems Biology) before deciding on a PhD project. Scientific meetings and courses as well as generous financial support are included in the program.
Admission and Application Procedure
Interested students are invited to apply online until 30th June, 2012. The best candidates will then be invited to the Biozentrum in the week from 28th to 31st August, 2012 to present themselves at personal interviews. Applications will be accepted from candidates who hold a university degree or equivalent (MSc, Diploma, DEA etc.), which qualifies them to enter a PhD program in their home country or who expect to have this degree by the time of enrolment.
Further Information:
www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/wsf
PhD positions International PhD program in Molecular Life Sciences
Author: Per Freibergs
Published: 2012-02-13
URL: Applications Now Open for Opportunities for Excellence
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Latest articles
Delft University of Technology takes Perfect chemical reactors one step further...…
Open position within the project "Roles of the p62 interactome in selective autophagy and cell signalling"…
The Interactive Information Access group invites 2 new PhD students…
Applications Now Open for Opportunities for Excellence…
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