Our COMMONS co-worker Julia Ravanis has recieved the prize "Forskarfyren" for “for her innovative way of spreading knowledge across generations through a unique combination of poetry, the humanities, and the natural sciences.”

We are very happy to have Julia with us driving forward activities in the COMMONS Academic Forum, and thereby following in particular the lines outlined as motivation for the prize.

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November 24, 2025 – The Loop, Lund

An informal and friendly event for PhD students, postdocs, and early-career researchers from Sweden, Denmark, and beyond.

The program includes opportunities to:

Present and discuss ongoing projects
Exchange ideas and experiences in a relaxed, peer-only environment
Explore topics in research and academia that are often left unsaid
Build connections across institutions and disciplines

Registration via: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/kZzZqi2AeK

The idea is to not only discuss the important aspect for chemistry's notion in the society, but also experience the seminar format hands-on as a possible teaching and examination method.

Open lectures; KC:G zoom
13.00-13.15 Julia Ravanis (CTH and LU, Academic forum), on seminar aims
13.15-13.30 Lovisa Brännstedt (LU, History), on seminars in the humanities
13.30-13.45 Fredrik Höök (CTH, Physics), on using seminars in biophysics

Seminar; KC:Marie Curie
14.00-15.45 The societal (mis)conceptions of chemistry.

Please register before November 12 for the seminar via 
https://almjxboz.formester.com/f/ZfORF3mNw
 

Two speakers present research that fall under one overall theme;   providing two perspectives on a common underlying phenomenon. The aim is to create an interactive thinking and collaboration process focusing not only on specifics, but rather on the commonalities.
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2025-11-19
Marité Cardenas & Emma Sparr
Coarcevation and Segregation

2025-12-10
Jon Pallbo-Arvidsson & Sara Linse
Nucleation at Interfaces
 

COMMONS postdoc Ferdinand Fandrei took the stage in Helsingborg in front of 500 upper secondary school students to explain their research in the most engaging way possible — in just four minutes!

The occasion? Forskar GrandPrix Sweden’s national competition in research communication, where researchers are challenged to combine clarity, storytelling, and stage presence. 

The topic of the presentation - the function of skin - is one of the many important cases where understanding of biomolecular assembly provides unique insights into biofunction - and thus a great example for COMMONS!

Interview
 

Last month, our COMMONS postdoc Nicole Galenkamp spent a few days in the north of Sweden with the another Center of Excellence, Icelab @ Umeå during their IceLab Camp. The camp brings together early-career researchers from many different fields to do something we rearly get to do in science: to slow down.

Instead of chasing results or ticking off deadlines, the week was about giving curiosity some room to breathe. People from different fields shared ideas, bounced concepts around, and took the time to really listen. It was a good reminder that creativity doesn’t thrive under pressure. It grows when there’s space to explore.

Along the way, we also learned that finding common ground sometimes starts with learning each other’s language. Not Swedish this time, but the many different scientific “dialects” we each brought from our own fields. Bridging those perspectives wasn’t always easy, but it was where some of the most exciting insights began to form.

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The network grant will be used to develop a proposal for an excellence cluster titled "EXCITE: Excellence Cluster for Innovative Soft Adaptive Materials and Technologies."

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On September 18, the ESS Lighthouse: Colloids and Interfaces in Food and Pharma (CaIFF), lead by COMMONS-PI Professor Martin Malmsten, was officially inaugurated.

CaIFF focuses on out-of-equilibrium multi-phase colloidal systems, their investigation with large-scale neutron- and synchrotron methods, and their application in pharmaceutical and food products (https://pharmacy.ku.dk/research/caiff/).

While formally run from the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University, the links to COMMONS are strong through already established collaborations and mutual participation in both directions in workshops and seminars. Looking forward, synergies between COMMONS with CaIFF are expected to develop further. Reflecting this, colleagues from Lund University, Copenhagen University, and Aarhus University all joined the inauguration (together with participants from ESS, industry, and the healthcare sector) and contributed to fruitful and enjoyable discussions about future joint opportunities. 

Joakim Stenhammar’s essay ”On starlings and the thermodynamics of life” is now published at EuroZine.  The essay was originally published in Glänta’s issue ”Life ” as part of the collaboration with COMMONS  Academic Forum.

During last week of August, we explored the physics of electron microscopy, cryo-specimen preparation, and a range of applications to soft matter. We also shared unforgettable experiences together, from in-depth technical lectures, lab visits and visiting the Cryo-EM@MAX IV facility in Lund.

This week was not just about learning but also about building a community at the frontiers of cryo-EM research. We look forward to seeing where the knowledge, collaborations, and ideas from this Summer School will lead!