This summer, Aarhus University will welcome Professor Anja-Verena Mudring when she joins the Department of Chemistry (and becomes iNANO associated). Professor Mudring is one of the world's top researchers in the field of materials research. She is one of the leaders in materials development for energy conversion, and she has made a particularly prominent impression in the field of ionic liquids, which may help sustainable technologies for green energy in the future.

Polyurethane (PU) is a plastic material used in an infinite number of products. Unfortunately, it is difficult to break down and recycle, which leads to increasing PU waste accumulating every year. However, researchers from Aarhus University have found a way to deconstruct PU, which shows the potential for a circular plastic economy for PU.

An investment fund have acquired and invested over DKK 100 million in the tech-company, RadiSurf, a spin-out from Department of Chemistry and iNANO. This will make it possible to scale the production to supply world’s largest industries.

A new partnership between Skrydstrup Group (iNANO & Dept. of Chemistry, Aarhus University), Vestas, Olin, and the Danish Technological Institute collides industry and research to support circularity of wind turbine blades. The CETEC project paves the way for manufacturing new blades using materials from old turbine blades, thereby creating fully recyclable wind turbines.

Chemically synthesized short DNA sequences are extremely important ingredients with countless uses in research laboratories, hospitals, and in industry, like in the method for identifying COVID-19. Phosphoramidites are necessary building blocks in the production of DNA sequences, but they are unstable, and break quickly. PhD Alexander Sandahl (Professor Kurt Gothelf's group) has, in collaboration with a researcher in Professor Troels Skrydstrup's group, developed a new patented way to quickly and efficiently manufacture the unstable building blocks immediately before they are to be used, and thus streamline DNA production.

The Independent Research Fund Denmark grants DKK 65.5 million for 20 research projects at Natural Sciences. Jeppe Vang Lauritsen, Duncan Sutherland, Jan Skov Pedersen, Mogens Christensen, and Martin Bremholm receive DKK 17 million in total.

The Lundbeck Foundation has granted Manish Debnath DKK 2.4m, who will come to iNANO in order to work on developing chemically modified aptamers for rapid detection of disease-specific biomarkers. This could help SARS COV-2 testing.

Ph.D. in Nanoscience from the Department of Chemistry and iNANO at Aarhus University, Andreas Sommerfeldt, won the Ph.D.-Cup final, which was broadcasted on DR 2 on Friday 30 April.