Author: Waldemar Kulig

The next colloquium in the fall series will take place on December 8) at 14:15. Our speaker will be Teemu Siiskonen, who has been recently appointed as the Professor of Practice at Department of Physics, University of Helsinki.

Teemu did his PhD in nuclear physics at the University of Jyväskylä. After that, he worked at CERN and Finnish Meteorological Institute before coming to STUK (Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority). At STUK, he worked on the fields of radiation dosimetry, medical use of radiation, environmental surveillance, and emergency preparedness. Currently, he is a deputy director at Measurements and Environmental Monitoring department of STUK. In 2022, Teemu was appointed as the Professor of Practice at Department of Physics, University of Helsinki.

The title of his talk is: Safety and efficacy of modern radiotherapy: Techniques and development toward accurate patient-specific dosimetry.

The event will be held on Friday 08.12.23 at 14:15, in Exactum CK112.

Abstract of the talk:

Modern external beam radiotherapy techniques often rely on small, conformal dynamic beams. Many different beam qualities are used, including  photons, electrons, protons and neutrons. However, the techniques traditionally used to determine the dose may not be reliable in these beams. I will discuss recent developments to improve the accuracy of patient dose determination, with measurements in laboratory and at clinics, and using computational approaches. To avoid adverse side effects, attention must also be paid to the overall exposure of the patient, and I will discuss the methods to assess personal doses from the whole radiotherapy process, including imaging.

The next colloquium in the fall series will take place on Friday (November 3) at 14:15. Our speaker will be Matilda Backholm, who is an associate professor in Soft Matter Physics at the Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, Finland.

Matilda Backholm is an assistant professor in Soft Matter Physics at the Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, Finland. Her Living Matter research team studies the mechanics, dynamics, and flow of soft, living, and fluid systems. Prof. Backholm received a BSc in Physics from the University of Helsinki (2009), a MSc in Nanoscience from Aarhus University (Denmark, 2011), and a PhD in Physics from McMaster University (Canada, 2015). Matilda then worked as an Academy of Finland postdoctoral researcher in the Soft Matter and Wetting group of Prof. Ras at Aalto University. She was recently awarded an ERC StG, a Research Council of Finland Research Fellowship, as well as grants from the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation and the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters.

The title of her talk is: How to swim at the mesoscale.

The event will be held on Friday 03.11.23 at 14:15, in Exactum CK112.

Abstract of the talk:

Swimming is ubiquitous in nature and crucial for the survival of many organisms. The physics behind how to swim has been extensively studied at the viscosity-dominated microscale and inertia-dominated macroscale. Between these extreme regimes lies a mesoscale that is full of interesting living organisms, such as small larvae, shrimps, and jellyfish. However, little is known about how these meso-organisms swim. Here, both viscous and inertial forces are important, rendering complicated non-linear and time-dependent effects on the meso-swimming dynamics. In this talk, I will give a background to this field and present our work on developing new experimental tools to directly measure the tiny swimming forces of mesoscale organisms. Our goal is to resolve major open questions at the mesoscale through new experimental approaches.

 

 

The next colloquium in the fall series will take place on Friday (October 27) at 14:15. Our speaker will be Jaan Praks, who is an associate professor at the Aalto University, Finland.

Jaan Praks is an associate professor (tenured) at Aalto University who is working with small satellite and remote sensing technology. His research interests are small satellites, space technology and microwave remote sensing. Jaan Praks is the PI of the first Finnish satellite, Aalto-1 and founder/advisor in many New Space start-ups in Finland. His team is part of Finnish Centre of Excellence in Research of Sustainable Space, where Aalto is building Foresail satellites. Jaan Praks is a space enthusiast and frequent public speaker on space topics.

The title of his talk is: Quo vadis, New Space. 

The event will be held on Friday 27.10.23 at 14:15, in Exactum D123. The talk will also be streamed via Zoom: https://helsinki.zoom.us/j/61261922897 .

Our next Kumpula Physics colloquium in the spring series will take place on Thursday, June 8th at 13:15 (notice the change of day and time!). Our speaker will be Adrienne Traxler, who is an Associate Professor in the Department of Science Education at the University of Copenhagen.

Adrienne Traxler is an Associate Professor in the Department of Science Education at the University of Copenhagen. Her research focuses on university physics learning environments, as well as other science education contexts. She uses network analysis to model student collaborations and mixed methods to study gender equity issues. Her current work includes characterizing collaboration networks and activity profiles in university physics courses, and investigating the professional support networks of women and LGBTQ+ physicists in the United States.

In her colloquium, titled Gender and physics education: Systemic issues and levers for change, Adrienne Traxler will discuss the role of gender in physics education.

The event will be held on Thursday 08.06.23 at 13:15 (notice the change of time!), in Physicum E204 and on Zoom (Meeting ID: 631 5504 8211 – Passcode: kumpula).
Link to video: https://unitube.it.helsinki.fi/unitube/embed.html?id=18834189-91da-4e7f-8b71-bbe23c7de81e

Here is the abstract:

The percentage of women in science, technology, education, and mathematics (STEM) fields has risen in recent decades, but physics continues to lag in gender and racial representation. It is reasonable to ask: What factors drive talented women out of the field, and what can physicists do about it? Decades of research has documented various types of bias faced by women in physics and other STEM fields, as well as emerging research on the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ scientists. This talk will review large-scale statistical trends and selected specifics. I will discuss what physicists can do to help, in terms of how we structure our courses, how we talk with our students, and how we mentor them. In physics education research, treatment of gender has often focused on gender differences in introductory courses, especially via gaps on standardized tests. This work is now being supplemented by a growing number of qualitative and critical perspectives. I will end by highlighting recent work that questions binary deficit-based models of gender, explores complexities of identity such as the intersection of race and gender, or takes up under-studied areas such as disability in physics. As conversations in education shift from increasing diversity to broader issues of equity and inclusion, our research agendas and our classroom spaces must keep up.

Our first Kumpula Physics Colloquium for the year 2023 will take place on Friday, March 24. We will have a presentation on the regulation of cell fate and integrity to be given by Sara Wickström who is the director of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Münster.

Sara’s lab aims to understand how mammalian epithelial tissues are generated and maintained, and in particular how mechanical forces and cellular interactions integrate single cell behaviors to pattern these structurally  extremely robust yet dynamic tissues. Sara Wickström received her MD in 2001 and PhD in 2004 from the University of Helsinki, Finland. After postdoctoral training at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biochemistry she became Group Leader at the MPI for Biology of Ageing in 2010. In 2018 her laboratory moved to the University of Helsinki where she was professor of Cell and Developmental Biology. In 2022, Wickström was appointed as Director of the MPI for Molecular Biomedicine in Münster.

In her colloquium, titled Regulation of cell fate and integrity by nuclear mechanotransduction, Sara will discuss her recent research on how dynamic changes in chromatin organization in response to force change the mechanical properties of the nucleus and chromatin to prevent cell damage.

The event was held on Friday 24.03.23 at 14:15, in Physicum E204.
Link to video: https://unitube.it.helsinki.fi/unitube/embed.html?id=a8a84735-372e-496d-8f28-24e590f5d0f3

Here is her abstract:

The structure of tissues is tightly linked to their function. During formation of functional organs, large-scale changes in tissue elongation, stretching,  compression, folding/buckling, and budding impact the shape, position, packing, and contractility state of cells. Conversely, changes in single cell contractility, shape and position locally alter tissue organization and mechanics. Thus forces function as important ques that are transmitted to the nucleus to coordinate gene expression programs. On the other hand, excessive mechanical stresses have the potential to damage cells and tissues. In my presentation I will discuss our recent research on how dynamic changes in chromatin organization in response to force change the mechanical properties of the nucleus and chromatin to prevent damage, as well how cells integrate mechanical signals with biochemical inputs to alter their state.