Sommerstipend
Hver sommer deles det ut sommerstipender til fremragende studenter på bachelor-nivå. Studentene vil i perioden juni – august 2025 være en del av forskergruppene ved SMN og gjennomføre et avgrenset prosjekt, se oversikt under over mulige prosjekter.
Hvert stipend er på 50.000, - kr for 6 uker. Dersom man ønsker en kortere tid, er dette mulig, og det gis da et mindre stipendbeløp. Vær oppmerksom på at stipendet er skattepliktig i henhold til norsk lov. Hver enkelt student er ansvarlig for å oppgi nødvendig informasjon relatert til skatt. Stipendet utbetales etter at oppstart er bekreftet.
Det forventes bakgrunn i kjemi, fysikk eller materialvitenskap, og studenter som planlegger å ta en mastergrad ved en av gruppene tilknyttet UiO/SMN prioriteres. Vi ønsker fortrinnsvis kandidater med gjennomsnittskarakter tilsvarende B eller bedre.
Tema for oppgavene kan ikke være del av studentenes eventuelt planlagte masterarbeid.
Søknadsinformasjon
Søknadsbrev og CV må være på engelsk.
Søknaden må inneholde:
- Motivasjonsbrev som bør inneholde
- motivasjon for å søke sommerstipend ved SMN.
- faglig interesse, spesifiser hvilke(t) sommerprosjekt tema(er) som passer med dine interesser. Om du er interessert i flere av temaene må du sette opp en prioritert rekkefølge.
- relevant erfaring for å gjennomføre et forskningsprosjekt.
- tilgjengelighet i perioden juni – august og om du ønsker fullt eller redusert stipend.
- CV
- Karakterutskrift for avlagte eksamener fra universitet/høyskole
Søknaden sendes på e-post til k.h.nygard@smn.uio.no. Skriv «SMN sommerstipend 2025» i emnefeltet.
Søknadsfrist: 24. mars 2025
Aktuelle søkere kan bli invitert til en samtale.
Spørsmål?
Har du spørsmål til søknadsprosessen kan du kontakte Kristin Hubred Nygård på e-post: k.h.nygard@smn.uio.no. Om du har faglige spørsmål til et av forskningsprosjektene kan du ta kontakt med en av personene oppgitt som veileder for hvert prosjekt.
Mulige temaer for årets sommerstipend-prosjekter
(Merk at SMN kun vil tildele et begrenset antall stipend.)
Integration of pyrolytic carbon microelectrodes onto a flexible probe for electrochemical detection of catecholamine neurotransmitters
Supervisors: Ørjan G. Martinsen / Lasse Vines, Florian Dapsance
Availability: June 2nd - August 15th
Integration of pyrolytic carbon microelectrodes to flexible SU-8 probes for the detection of neurotransmitters. The student will work on developing a process that combines the pyrolysis of SU-8 structures into carbon microelectrodes together with the fabrication of SU-8 polymer probes by photolithography. The fabricated microelectrodes will be validated by optical and electrochemical characterization. Here we combine microfabrication techniques in the clean room/UiO MiNaLab (pyrolysis, photolithography, microscopy), material science and surface chemistry (SU-8 polymer, carbon materials) and electrochemistry (electrical impedance spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, voltametric detection of neurotransmitters). The proposed project takes place in a highly collaborative research environment between sensor technology at Department of Physics (Ørjan G. Martinsen), and solid-state physics & quantum technology group/ UiO MiNaLab (Lasse Vines).
E-MAP: EELS and ePDF Mapping of Amorphous and Crystalline Films
Supervisors: Anuj Pokle, Andreas Rosnes, Animesh Bhowal
Availability: July – August (6 weeks)
This project investigates the electronic structure and local ordering of amorphous and crystalline films using Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS) and electron Pair Distribution Function (ePDF) analysis, providing experience with advanced electron microscopy techniques.
Porphyrinic Zr-based metal-organic frameworks for coupled thermal- and electrocatalytic CO2 reduction
Supervisor: Petra Agota Szilagyi
Availability: July-August
The project involves the synthesis, characterisation and testing of porphyrinic metal-organic frameworks PCN-222, PCN-223, and PCN-224 and their post-synthetic modification for thermal/electrocatalysis. Most of the practicals are to take place at UiO and there is an opportunity to collaborate with SINTEF on the (electro-)catalyst testing.
Fabrication of proton ceramic electrolysis cells with thin film electrolyte
Supervisors: Jonathan Polfus, Thomas Ferriday
Availability: June to August
The project will be part of a group effort to establish fabrication of high-performance proton ceramic cell with anode supported architecture and thin film electrolyte. These types of cells are important for the development of electrochemical energy conversion technologies (fuel cells and electrolyzers) and membrane reactors involving exchange of hydrogen. Methods include solid state reactive sintering, dip/spray-coating, SEM, XRD and PLD depending on progress. The project will involve close collaboration with a post doc researcher and expects international exchange students.
High-temperature TAP reactor studies of ammonia oxidation
Supervisors: Evgeniy Redekop (KI/SMN), Daniela Farmer (Yara International)
Availability: June-August
Ammonia (NH3) is a key energy vector in the emerging hydrogen-based economy and remains the main intermediate to produce fertilizers. Ammonia synthesis, decomposition, and oxidation are all industrially-relevant reactions that require heterogeneous catalysts. In this project, the students will obtain a hands-on experience with applying Temporal Analysis of Products (TAP) kinetic measurements to investigate challenging high-temperature NH3 oxidation and/or decomposition reactions. TAP is a transient technique for kinetic measurements, in which the transport of gas through the reactor packing occurs at low pressure conditions (10-8 mbar) by means of Knudsen diffusion. This well-defined transport regime provides a reliable process against which the reaction kinetics can be assessed with high precision and temporal resolution for gaining in depth insights into the reaction mechanism. The Catalysis and Inorganic chemistry section at UiO operates the only TAP facility in the Nordics, one of only ca. 20 such instruments in the World. In this project, the candidate will have a unique chance to participate in a collaboration with industrial researchers from Yara Int., the leading fertilizer producer who operate nitric acid production industrially.
Depending on the background of the candidate(s), the following two scopes of work will be executed, in tandem or separately.
Scope 1 – Experiments
- Learn (hands-on) the basics of operating the TAP reactor
- Conduct temperature calibration of the reactor up to 900 °C
- Perform pulsing of neon, oxygen, and ammonia at several temperatures between 800-900 °C
- Plot and discuss experimental data
Scope 2 – Modeling
- Learn (hands-on) the basics of modeling data from the TAP reactor
- Participate in selected high-temperature experiments to gain appreciation of experimental work and place the modeling efforts in perspective
- Model the transport of Ne, O2, and NH3 through the reactor at 800-900 °C
Defect engineering in the ultra-wide band gap semiconductor α-Ga₂O₃
Supervisors: Javier Garcia Fernandez, Øystein Prytz and Holger von Wenckstern
Availability: June – July – August
In this project, we will explore different strategies to minimize the strain generated at the α-Al₂O₃/α-Ga₂O₃ interface due to the lattice mismatch. This strain causes the generation of dislocations, and therefore, the degradation of the conductive properties. As the main analysis technique, we would perform transmission electron microscopy (in the national infrastructure NORTEM) to analyze crystalline phases. The student will be introduced to sample preparation for TEM, and analysis of the TEM results. Depending on the student's ability, the TEM can be operated by the supervisors or by the student with the supervisors present.
Mapping invisible with visible
Supervisor: Alexey Y. Koposov
Availability: June -August
The candidate will use photoluminescent labels for mapping organic binders in battery electrodes. Understanding the chemistry of binders in battery electrode is an important quest, which has not been addressed before. Furthermore, the lack of this knowledge impedes the development of efficient battery chemistries and implementation of new active materials in metal-ion batteries. The work will include the study interaction between organic and inorganic components in electrodes for Li-ion batteries, specifically chemical synthesis – creation of composites of polymers and photoluminescent labels, fabrication of electrodes, as well as electrochemical testing.