Excellent research grants to Peter Schurtenberger and Melvyn Davies

Wednesday 8 Oct 2014, 15:15 → 16:15 Europe/Stockholm

Lundmarksalen (Astronomy Building)

Two research projects at our faculty have been awarded grants from Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation:

• Professor Peter Schurtenberger with the project “Anisotropic Forces in Colloid Chemistry” has been awarded 42 million SEK. This research area explores how particles and macromolecules interact with each other. Among other things, the researchers will investigate how biological and synthetic colloidal particles interact with cell membranes. The field of research has very broad applications in technology, biology and medicine. Co-investigators are Johan Bergenholtz, Jerome Crassous, Per Linse, Tommy Nylander, Ulf Olsson, Emma Sparr, Anna Stradner and Håkan Wennerström.
• Professor Melvyn Davies with the project “IMPACT: Comets, asteroids and the habitability of planets” has been awarded 22,5 million SEK. This project is a collaboration between astrophysics and geology. Based on extraterrestrial minerals found in seabed sediment it is possible to reconstruct astronomical events several hundred million years back in time. The researchers will also use data from the European Space satellite Gaia to determine the solar motion in the Milky Way. By comparing astronomical observations with geological data from the Earth they hope to determine how and if astronomical events coincide with eg. ice age and mass extinctions. Co-investigators are Anders Johansen and Birger Schmitz.

Of course we are very happy and proud – and also curious about the projects and how the grants will be used. We therefore invite you all to a seminar with Peter Schurtenberger and Melvyn Davies on October 8^th at 3:15 pm in Lundmarksalen.
Peter and Melvyn will talk about their research projects and discuss with Olov the importance of the grants. Afterwards fika will be served in the lobby.