BiCMat Activity Summary 2018

We had 46 peer-reviewed journal publications for the year. Among them being the contribution of Dr. Blaise Tardy in the paper titled Biofabrication of multifunctional nanocellulosic 3D structures: a facile and customizable route, which was published in the cover of Materials Horizons (Vol.5, No.3). BiCMat members were also given many awards and grants such as the Anselme Payen Award to Prof. Orlando Rojas. Like every year, we had members whom graduated to achieve their PhD and MSc degrees. This year we had 12 graduates in total. We also welcomed 14 new members and hosted many visiting scholars from various universities around the world.  
 
Let us go a bit more in-depth and start with the research highlights of the year.

BiCMat as a community

Awards & Achievements

In 2018 we were given various awards and grants. One such highlight was Prof. Orlando Rojas receiving the Anselme Payen Award, which is one the highest honor in the area of Cellulose and Renewable Materials. Prof. Rojas, also received the EU Commission ERC Advanced grant, which is the most competitive project awarded in the EU for established scientists.

We also had Annamari Jukkola starting Mö Foods Oy, Luiz Greca receiving his second term as the CHEM Fellowship Aalto Doctoral Program and Jiaqi Guo receiving the Alexander von Humboldt fellowship. For a more complete list refer to the pdf provided at the end of this article.

Internal Activities

This past year also saw many BiCMat members graduate, but we also hosted new members to our fold. Amongst the graduates, seven achieved their doctoral degrees (PhD) and five got their master's degrees (MSc). We would like to congratulate them all on their achievement.

PhD
Meri Lundahl (Aalto University, now with TeraLoop)
Ahsan Uddin (Aalto University, now with Tampere University)
Sanna Virtanen – Ph.D. (Aalto University)
Anurodh Tripathi (NCSU, USA now with LORD Corp)
Joe Lavoie (NCSU, USA now with Glen Raven, USA)
Prajesh Adhikari (NCSU, USA now with Intel, USA)

MSc
Amal Ishfaq
Sonja Päärnilä
Katariina Solin
Klockars Konrad
Riikka Virtanen

As some of graduates pursue their career in various other research facilities, we also welcome new members each year. This past year we had 14 new full-time members and 4 temporary researchers join us. Amongst them 5 joined us as senior and post doc researchers, 7 as PhD students, and 2 as MSc and Licentiate students. Like every year, not only do we welcome new members but we also host visiting scholar in the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems. The 21 scholars whom visited us this year were from China, Brazil, Chile, France, Canada, Spain, and South Korea. A full list of new members and visiting scholar for the past year can be found in the attached pdf at the end of this article.

Contribution to the greater biomaterials community

In his capacity as the head of the BiCMat group, Prof. Rojas represents both the group and Aalto University when we is asked to contribute to the greater biomaterials community. The year 2018 was quite busy in this front. He served in various committees, such as the Aalto University Materials Platform (chair) and Tappi Research Committee for Nanotechnology of Renewable Materials (co-chair). In addition to serving in various PhD committees, he also performed duties as an opponent to doctoral candidates, and was part of evaluation teams for promotion and tenure. Along with being a distinguished researcher also comes opportunities to participates in editorial activities. In 2018, these new opportunities were to serve as editor-in-chief of Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology, co-editor of Bioresources and Bioproducts and as part of the editorial board of ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.

Publishing Activities

As the result of various research activity at BiCMat, many of our members have been published in various publications. Being published in peer-reviewed journals is not only an achievement for the author but also serves as means of contributing to the scientific community and the body of research in order to help others in their work. In 2018, BiCMat members published 46 articles in journals such as Advanced Materials, Green Chemistry, Materials Horizons, and many others. Some of the research areas have already been highlighted at the beginning of this article. Please refer to the pdf at the end of this article for a more comprehensive look at the sources of the published works.

In order to share the research at BiCMat, our members also participated in many conferences and were invited to seminars across the world.

In Summary

As another year full of activity has come to an end, it is pertinent for us to take a look back to contextualize our work, both in terms of our individual research paths, but also as a group. In 2018, BiCMat members have done much to contribute towards understanding how lignocellulose, proteins and other biopolymers might be used as renewable resources. We hope that in of 2019 we will continue in this path while supporting each other, our colleagues at Aalto University, and our external partners.