News Archive
News and events
News 2014
September 2014: Nanowire forests used for precise control
Nanowire forests can be used to precisely control the nano- and micro-topography of lipid bilayers over millimeter-sized areas. A recent article describes how the bilayers follow the contours of the nanowires to form continuous model membranes that are locally highly curved.
The work is part of a collaborative project between researchers from the Divisions of Physical Chemistry and Solid State Physics at the Nanometer Structure Consortium, Lund University.
Participating researchers: Aleksandra Dabkowska, Cassandra Niman, Gaelle Piret, Henrik Persson, Hanna Wacklin, Heiner Linke, Christelle Prinz, Tommy Nylander.
June 2014: Peter Schurtenberger elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Professor Peter Schurtenberger has been elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. At the General Meeting on 11 June, Peter Schurtenberger was elected alongside Professor Jens Nielsen of Chalmers University of Technology.
June 2014: Senior Scientists gathered
Most of the Senior Scientists were gathered for a planning day on 2 June. They discussed future research projects.
From left: Tommy Nylander, Malin Zackrisson Oskolkova, Per Linse, Håkan Wennerström, Emma Sparr, Björn Lindman, Daniel Topgaard, Olle Söderman, Peter Schurtenberger, Viveka Alfredsson, Ulf Olsson, Anna Stradner, Maria Miguel and Andrew Jackson.
May 2014: Redefining moisturizer
The recent article by Emma Sparr and Daniel Topgaard and colleagues showing how small polar molecules ("mosturizers") influence the molecular components in skin was highlighted in an article with the title "Redefining moisturiser" in Chemistry World, and as an "Hot Article April" at the Soft Matter Blog.
May 2014: Students debate: "MAX IV and ESS, what for and are both needed in Lund?"
Master Students from Lund University were debating MAX IV and ESS in the presence of high school technique students from Polhemsgymnasiet, a school in Lund. What does it mean for Lund that these two large researche plants are built here, and what will it mean for research and scientists in the future?
The debate aimed at creating interest for the research plants among the high school students, and the Master Students practiced presentation techniques and to debate science - an important knowledge for working life.
- Our Master Students shall practice in communicating natural science to reach the next generation of natural scientists. When working, you are expected to present and defend your research findings, and it is therefore important to train to argue, says Malin Zackrisson Oskolkova, the Master Students' teacher in Nano Chemistry at Lund University, who initiated the debate.
March 2014: Björn Lindman: Fifty years in science and technology
Professor Håkan Wennerström has published an article in Advances in Surface and Colloid Science, vol. 205 pages 1-8 (2014), in honour of Professor Björn Lindman.
Abstract: Björn Lindman has for fifty years had an active role in science and technology. His main contributions are briefly described. In the science part particular emphasis is put on his studies of ion binding, of amphiphilic self-association, of molecular diffusion in solution and of polymer–surfactant systems. Furthermore we describe his role in introducing scientific areas, his role in scientific collaborations and his contributions to scientific organizations. The text is concluded by some personal reflections by the author.
February 2014: SSF framework grant for MRI methods development
The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) awards a 20 MSEK framework grant for the development of Multidimensional Diffusion MRI. The research group includes members from Harvard Medical School, Linköping University, Lund Bioimaging Center, and Professor Daniel Topgaard from Physical Chemistry.
News 2013
October 2013: Professor awarded for skin research
Professor Emma Sparr has been awarded the Sven and Ebba-Christina Hagberg Foundation 2013 personal prize. The prize includes research funding of SEK 300.000. Professor Sparr receives the prize for her biophysical studies of protein-lipid systems and properties of skin. Her research has relevance for drug development and cosmetics.
September 2013: ERC Advanced Grant to Peter Schurtenberger
Last week the European Research Council announced the 2013 ERC Advanced Grants. Professor Peter Schurtenberger received this prestigious grant for the project “Colloids with complex interactions: from model atoms to colloidal recognition and bioinspired self assembly”.
The ERC Advanced grants are awarded to well-established top researchers of any nationality/age, scientifically independent and with a recent research track-record and profile which identifies them as leaders in their respective field(s). Of a total of 2408 applications 284 were granted and 3 of those come from Lund University. More information can be found in the press release from the ERC, on webpages of Lund University homepage (in Swedish only) and the Swedish Research Council (in Swedish only).
September 2013:Valuable formulation research. Fredrik Tiberg, President and Head of Research for the pharmaceutical company Camurus and Adjunct Professor at Physical Chemistry, reports that Novartis has acquired an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialize CAM2029, a long-acting peptide drug developed by Camurus for the treatment of patients with acromegaly and neuroendocrine tumors. The aquisition triggers an undisclosed milestone payment to Camurus from potential payments of up to US$ 700 million. Read more here.
August 2013: The Aug 20 issue of Langmuir features an Invited Feature Article by Lennart Piculell on "Understanding and exploiting the phase behavior of mixtures of oppositely charged polymers and surfactants in water". The article is also highlighted on the cover of the issue. Read the article here.
June 2013: The master program "Organizing Molecular Matter" in nanochemistry, taught by teachers from Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, was the only one to receive the top grade in a national evaluation all 29 bachelor and master chemistry programs offered by the science faculties at Swedish universities.
June 2013: Daniel Topgaard was promoted to Professor.
May 2013: Our former PhD student Joakim Stenhammar has received 2013 year's Inga Fisher-Hjalmarsons Award for his thesis Theoretical Studies of Simple Polar Fluids. Read more here.
April 2013: A recent work dealing with fundamental questions of how nearly spherical viruses are formed through a co-assembly process was highlighted on the cover of Journal of Chemical Physics. The study was made by Ran Zhang and Per Linse.
January 2013: The confocal microscopy study of structural ordering, dynamics, and phase behavior of dense microgel suspensions by Divya Paloli, Priti Mohanty, Jérôme Crassous, Emanuela Zaccarelli, and Peter Schurtenberger was highlighted on the cover of Soft Matter.
News 2012
December 2012: The latest diffusion NMR pulse sequence by Stefanie Eriksson, Samo Lasic, and Daniel Topgaard was featured on the cover of Journal of Magnetic Resonance. Read the article here.
October 2012: Anna Stradner was appointed Associate Professor in Physical Chemistry - Biocolloids and Scattering Methods.
News 2011
December 2011: Viveka Alfredsson was promoted to Professor.
October 2011: The recent article about measuring water exchange with diffusion MRI by Daniel Topgaard and colleagues was highlighted in the Spinsights NMR blog.
October 27, 2011: Physical Chemistry Alumni Day: Approximately 45 former doctoral students from the Division of Physical Chemistry attended the division’s alumni day (from Finland, Gothenburg, Gävle, Uppsala, Portugal, Norway...). read more
October 25-27, 2011: Soft and hard matter - A symposium on surface and materials chemistry, Kårhuset, Lund
October 2011: Daniel Topgaard was granted SEK 2,500,000 by the Faculty of Science for the formation of an NMR-center including most of the current NMR spectrometers at the Department of Chemistry.
May 2011: Emma Sparr becomes Young Academy member. The Young Academy of Sweden has been founded. The initiative comes from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (KVA). The academy is an independent organization for young researchers from all scientific areas. It´s aim is to strengthen Sweden as a nation of knowledge. More information
October. 2011:
The Division had a very successful alumni day at October the 27th. Read more.
March. 2011:
Emma Sparr was appointed Professor in Physical Chemistry - Colloidal Biology.
February, 2011:
News article. The new article about magnetic nanoparticles by Peter Schurtenberger and colleagues was featured in the news section of J. Phys.: Condens. Matter:
“Magnetic properties of silica coated spindle-type hematite particles ”, M Reufer et al. J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 23, 065102 (2011)
February, 2011:
Hot article in Soft Matter. A new article from researchers at Physical Chemistry has been highlighted on the Soft Matter blog:
“Work hardening of soft glassy materials, or a metallurgist’s view of peanut butter”, Romaric R. R. Vincent and Peter Schurtenberger, Soft Matter, 2011
February, 2011:
Financial Times highlights successful Phys Chem - Procter & Gamble research collaboration. In an article from 28.12.2010, the Financial Times highlights the successful long-standing research collaboration between Procter & Gamble and researchers at Physical Chemistry: "Last year's IRI list included Tide Total Care, a premium version of its Tide detergent, which was number two by sales on IRl's 2009 top 10 nonfood products launch list. It was developed with external research from Sweden's University of Lund and from two small chemical companies." (IRI = the Industrial Research Institute.) The research collaboration concerns polymer-surfactant deposition at solid surfaces, and the article emphasizes the importance of external collaborations for new products development at Procter & Gamble.
January, 2011:
Hot articles in Soft Matter. Two articles from researchers at Physical Chemistry have been identified by the journal Soft Matter as “hot articles” and have been highlighted on their blog:
“Phase diagrams come alive: understanding how to create, destroy or change ordered surfactant structures by polymerizing the counterions”, Salomé dos Santos, Lennart Piculell, Ola J. Karlsson and Maria da Graça Miguel, Soft Matter, 2011
“Phase separation and dynamical arrest for particles interacting with mixed potentials - the case of globular proteins revisited”, Thomas Gibaud, Frédéric Cardinaux, Johan Bergenholtz, Anna Stradner and Peter Schurtenberger, Soft Matter, 2011
News 2010
November 24-26, 2010: Molecular Processes at Solid Surfaces
10th ASCS, Kårhuset, Lund.
October, 2010:
Professor Peter Schurtenberger has been recruited to the Division of Physical Chemistry. Peter’s scientific interests are focused on the use of light scattering, X-ray scattering and neutron scattering in the study of soft materials and colloids. He will as a consequence be an important actor in building the scientific activities related to ESS and MAX IV. Peter arrives in October with several co-workers and a large set of advanced scientific equipment. Recruiting Peter Schuretenberger to Lund is a part of the efforts to further strengthen the vital development of the research at the Department of Chemistry at Lund University.
September, 2010: Div. of Physical Chemistry and Div. of Theoretical Chemistry have moved and are now cohabitant in house III, floor +2.
News 2009
October, 2009: Swedish Inventor of 2009
Daniel Topgaard in collaboration with Anna Stenstam and Karin Bryskhe, Colloidal Resource AB, received the “National Development Stipend” and the title “Swedish Inventor of 2009” from SKAPA founded in the memory of Alfred Nobel. The invention is based on techniques developed within the project Diffusion NMR methods for biological tissues.
June, 2009: SSF supports material program at Div Physical Chemistry
The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) supports a project on controlled deposition of mesoporous colloidal particles on surfaces at Physical Chemistry with 18 000 000 SEK. Main applicant is Håkan Wennerström.
March, 2009: KAW supports State-of-the-art Laboratory
The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation supports a State-of-the-art Laboratory for Experimental Studies of Molecular Assembly at the Division of Physical Chemistry with 17 950 000 SEK.
January, 2009:Daniel Topgaard in collaboration with Anna Stenstam and Karin Bryskhe, Colloidal Resource AB, received a grant from VR and VINNOVA within the program "Innovationsprogram för grundforskning - pilot 2009" aiming to commercialize research from the Linneaus Centers.
News 2008
November, 2008:
Karin Schillén was appointed Professor in Surface and Colloid Chemistry at the Division of Physical Chemistry.
October, 2008: Gesellschaft Deutcher Chemicer (GDCh) Fachgruppe prize 2008
Olle Söderman received this years prize of the Gesellschaft Deutcher Chemicer (GDCh) Fachgruppe – detergency in acknowledgment of his manifold contributions to surfactant science.
September, 2008: Overbeek Gold Medal 2008
Björn Lindman has been awarded the Overbeek Gold Medal 2008 from the European Colloid & Interface Society (ECIS).
September, 2008: Celsius medal in gold
Håkan Wennerström has been awarded the Celsius medal in gold, the Highest Award of The Royal Society of Sciences, Uppsala, for his pioneering research on molecular interactions, in particular his profound studies in surface and colloid sciences that have important applications in basic research as well as in chemical engineering and biotechnology.
August, 2008: Dan Lundberg received the Akzo Nobel Nordic Research Prize in Surface- and Colloidal Chemistry
April, 2008: First prize in Venture Cup South
Daniel Topgaard together with Karin Bryskhe and Anna Stenstam (Colloidal Resource) received first prize in Venture Cup South for the invention of OncoPulse. A new technology for extracting valuable information from a MRI scan. By a unique design of the pulse sequence micro structural parameters of great importance for pathological conditions e.g. breast cancer can be accessed. With the same information as a biopsy it saves time, pain and money.
Venture Cup is a business plan competition that helps students, researchers and others to take their business idea from concept to actual startup.
February, 2008: Emma Sparr - Future Research Leader
Emma Sparr received a individual grant (SEK 8.5 million) for "Future Research Leaders" from The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF). The grant is intended for innovative research and given young scientists who have the potential to and are prepared to become future leaders of academic
and industrial research in Sweden. It is a big honor for Emma and we all congratulate her.