In a recent edition of the premier journal devoted to quality and metrology in chemistry Accreditation and Quality Assurance Ivo Leito has attempted to express in very simple terms the essence of Metrology in Chemistry. In the article Accred. Qual.…
We are glad to announce that registration for the EcoBalt 2016 conference has been officially opened today! Please see the address The First Circular contains all the important information and is available from the above page. EcoBalt 2016 is…
During Nov 25-27, 2015 the training seminar “Quality assurance for Hg measurements in food and environmental samples” was held at the Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana. Ivo Leito participated as a teacher and conducted discussion sessions Validation data (Reproducibility, recovery,…
We are glad to announce that the 2016 admission is officially open to the Excellence in Analytical Chemistry (EACH) Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree programme! This international two-year joint master degree programme educates specialists in analytical chemistry well qualified to…
On Oct 14, 2015 Tallinn University of Technology and University of Tartu jointly organized the first cooperation festival “Right time, right place” (“Õigel ajal õiges kohas”), venue: Mektory innovation centre, Tallinn). The festival aimed first of all at intensifying collaboration…
On Sept 07, 2015 Ivo Leito gave a presentation Using MOOCs for teaching analytical chemistry: experience at University of Tartu at the Euroanalysis XVIII (Bordeaux, France). The presentation outlined the contents and organisation of the material in the on-line course…
Today (Aug 31, 2015) the introductory meeting of the EACH Erasmus Mundus students with the programme coordinators took place at UT Chemicum. All the 18 students (originating from Ukraine, China, India, Jordan, Congo, Nepal, Nigeria, Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia, USA and…
The MSC Euromaster Summer School 2015 in Pulawy (Jul 12-24, 2015) was again a success and the student feedback were very positive. Two reflections from AMS students are presented here: Sagar Patel: I will remember my time spent in summer…
This week saw the start (on Mon, Jul 13, 2015) of the 8th MSC Euromaster summer school 2015 in Puławy (Poland). As in previous years, a core aim of the Summer school is shifting the activities away from the classical…
The LC-MS group at the UT Institute of Chemistry were recently invited by the journal Analytica Chimica Acta to write a tutorial review on the topic of validation of liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) methods. This work has now been…
Visiting scholars are very important stakeholders in teaching the EACH programme – they teach short (4 days to couple of weeks) courses in their field of competence. The topic of the course does not need to be hardcore analytical chemistry:…
On Apr 16, 2015 the consortium Estonian e-University awarded the title “e-course of the year” to the web course (MOOC) Estimation of Measurement Uncertainty in Chemical Analysis! This, together with the very positive feedback of the participants is a strong…
Agnes Suu, an AMS alumna (graduated in 2013), has in the course of her PhD work made an achievement that literally redefines the way the pH of HPLC mobile phase (eluent) is measured. Her work (a continuation of her AMS…
Four years ago, I was very fortunate to have the professor of Analytical Chemistry at Tartu University to invite me to join the international master degree programme AMS – Applied Measurement Science. At that time I was working as an…
Last week the check of eligibility and ranking of the EACH applications was completed and Thursday-Friday the admission notifications were sent out to all eligible candidates. We are glad to announce that there were altogether 46 qualifying applications, which were…
Studies of host-guest chemistry, in particular, binding of anions by synthetic receptors has become a prominent research topic at the Analytical chemistry research group at UT. This fundamental research prepares ground for developing sensor devices for fast and selective anion…
On Monday, March 02, 2015 the web course “Estimation of Measurement Uncertainty in Chemical Analysis” was launched the second time as a MOOC (Massive Online Open Course). The popularity of the course is this year somewhat higher than it was…
On Feb 20, 2014 AMS student Salgaduge Dinesh Indika Dias from Sri Lanka defended his master’s thesis titled Two-flow system for calibration of hygrometers at room temperature, supervised by research fellow Martin Vilbaste. This work has been performed in the…
On Feb 06, 2015 at the annual meeting of the EURAMET Technical Committee of Measurements in Chemistry Ivo Leito made a presentation about the Measurement Uncertainty in Chemical Analysis Web Course and the EACH Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree Programme.…
On Thursday, Jan 29, 2015 the defence of PhD thesis Uncertainty sources and analysis methods in realizing SI units of air humidity in Estonia prepared by Martin Vilbaste took place (photo on the left). The thesis is focused on several…
The online course of Measurement Uncertainty Estimation in Analytical Chemistry (), which will be running as a MOOC during 02.03.15-12.04.15 couple of days ago got the 100th registered participant! The geographic diversity is wide: already now close to 30 countries…
On Jan 14, 2015 a Webinar took place for the EACH student candidates who either have submitted their applications or are in the process of preparing their application. The central aim of the webinar was to give a short overview…
On December 14, 2014 the AMS autumn seminar took place. It was a long and intense day, full of very interesting measurement science. As a nice feature of the seminar, all the students currently studying in the AMS programme were…
On Dec 19, 2014 AMS student Sinai Mwagomba successfully defended his master’s thesis titled A method for thermal ambient tests of space technology equipment in a thermal chamber – development and validation (main supervisor: Riho Vendt PhD from Tartu Observatory).…
On December 12, 2014 the Measurement Science in Chemistry Euromaster graduation ceremony took place in Brussels (Belgium) in the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts. Altogether 46 students who participated in the MSC edition 2011, 2012…
We are glad to announce that the on-line course Estimation Measurement Uncertainty in Chemical Analysis will during the Spring semester 2015 be offered as a free on-line course (so called MOOC) to participants from all over the world. The course…
There are 23 scholarships available for the students admitted to the EACH programme (until Jan 31, 2015) and they are divided as follows: 13 scholarships funded by the EU (for partner country students and for programme country students) and 10…
The admission is officially open to the Excellence in Analytical Chemistry (EACH) Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree programme. This international two-year joint master degree programme educates specialists in analytical chemistry well qualified to work in industry (food, pharmaceutical, materials, energy,…
Determination of the composition of paints and coatings is important in many fields – materials science, art history, forensic science, etc. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR spectroscopy) is a well-known method for the analysis of paints and coatings. However, the…
On Oct 20-23, 2014 the investigation workshop “Rode Altarpiece in Close-up” took place in Tallinn (Niguliste church) and in Tartu (laboratories of UT Chemicum). It was conducted in the framework of a the project “History, Technical Investigation and Conservation of…
On Sept 30, 2014 Ivo Leito gave a presentation On-line course: Estimation of measurement uncertainty in chemical analysisat the NMKL/Eurachem Workshop on Measurement Uncertainty. The presentation outlined the contents and organisation of the material in the on-line course, the ways…
The 2015 edition of the MSC Euromaster summer school will take place in Puławy (Poland) during Jul 11-25, 2015. Details can be found in the first circular. Topics covered are: · Traceability in chemical and bio-analytical measurements · Validation of…
On Friday, Aug 29, 2014 the defence of PhD thesis Acidity and basicity in non-aqueous media: importance of solvent properties and purity prepared by Karl Kaupmees took place. Karl’s thesis is focused on solvent characteristics, that influence the pKa measurements…
On Friday, Aug 29, 2014 the defence of PhD thesis Novel Tools for Water Quality Monitoring – From Field to Laboratory prepared by Teemu Näykki took place. Teemu Näykki works as team leader at the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE). The…
On Friday, August 8, 2014 the MSC Euromaster Summer School 2014 finished. This year’s summer school took place in Casablanca (Morocco) and was hosted by the ESITH educational centre. Around fourty students from ten countries participated. As in previous years,…
The EU EACEA has made the decision to select the EACH programme for funding by the the Erasmus+ (formerly known as Erasmus Mundus) International Joint Master Degree (JMD) programme scheme. With this it is now clear that the EACH programme…
During July 05-07, 2014 the XXVI Laulupidu (Song Festival) and XIX Tantsupidu (Dance Festival) took place in Tallinn, Estonia, attracting altogether more than 150 000 people. Such festivals are organized every 5 years and the first Song Festival took place…
On April 23, 2014 the in situ Interlaboratory comparison measurement (ILC) of dissolved oxygen concentration Fieldoxy 2014, organised jointly by the Finnish Environmental Institute (SYKE) and University of Tartu (UT) took place in the Gulf of Finland, on board of…
Five AMS master’s students successfully defended their theses today (on June 9, 2014). On picture, from left: Petrică Artene, Roland Hoxha, Kaspars Laizans, Astrid Pung and Shanshan Wu. Traditionally for AMS the topics of the theses were diverse ranging from…
On May 17, 2014 the spring seminar of the Applied Measurement Science programme took place. Students presented and discussed the progress of their master’s theses. _ _ _ As is usual for the AMS programme, a very wide range of…
During May 19-21, 2014 the Eurachem Workshop on Quality in Analytical Measurements is taking place in Lisbon (Portugal). The workshop covers all main issues in ensuring the quality of analytical results, ranging from traceability to validation and from measurement uncertainty…
On Apr 16, 2014 the MOOC Estimation of measurement uncertainty in chemical analysis offered by University of Tartu finished successfully. The course eventually had 270 participants from more than 40 countries. 141 participants successfully completed the course, making the completion…
On Monday, March 03, 2014 the web course “Estimation of Measurement Uncertainty in Chemical Analysis” was launched as a MOOC (Massive Online Open Course). This is the first MOOC created at University of Tartu. The course has turned out to…
The online course of Measurement Uncertainty Estimation in Analytical Chemistry (), which will be running as a MOOC during 03.03.14-13.04.14 has this morning got the 100th registered participant. The geographic diversity is wide: all six inhabited continents are represented! Registration…
Different chiral 1,1’-bi-2-naphthol (BINOL)-derived acids and their analogues (see image on the right) were recently introduced as a highly efficient class of metal-free Brønsted acid organocatalysts, capable also of enantioselective (chiral) catalysis. These catalysts have been successfully used for a…
We are glad to announce that the on-line course Estimation Measurement Uncertainty in Chemical Analysis will during the Spring semester 2014 be offered as a free on-line course (so called MOOC) to students from all over the world. The course…
On Dec 27, 2013 Postimees, a prominent Estonian Daily newspaper, has awarded its annual title “person of the year 2013” to Mart Noorma – the initiator and scientific mentor of the Student satellite project ESTCube-1. This title is each year…
On Nov 7, 2013 Ivo Leito gave presentation titled Measurement Science in Chemistry Education at University of Tartu in Opatija (Croatia) at the conference “Laboratory Competence 2013” organized by CroLab – the Croatian Association of Laboratories. The presentation contains information…
On Oct 24, 2013 a seminar “Quality assurance and validation of analytical methods in the laboratory” was organized jointly in helsinki by the Finnish Chromatography society and Finnish Mass spectrometry society. Ivo Leito from University of Tartu made a presentation…
We are glad to introduce the Online Course of Measurement Uncertainty Estimation in Analytical Chemistry! It has been set up at University of Tartu during 2013 and its version 1 is now accessible from the address This is an…
On Jun 28, 2013 the Report on method for improved gravimetric Winkler titration (by Irja Helm, Lauri Jalukse, Ivo Leito) has been published by University of Tartu in the framework of the European Metrology Research Programme (EMRP), project ENV05 “Metrology…
The research work on accurate measurement method of binding constants in supramolecular chemistry carried out by Kristjan Haav (left) in the framework of his AMS master’s thesis has gained international recognition: it has been published by the Journal of Organic…
On Friday, Aug 30, 2013, the introductory meeting for first-year AMS students was held. Sergei Jurtšenko gave overview of the AMS programme, timetable of autumn semester 2013 and some practical aspects of studying in Tartu. The PDF file of this…
Roland Hoxha (in the middle on the photo), an AMS student who participated in the Measurement Science in Chemistry (MSC) Summer shool 2013 in Lyon said the following about this experience: “Summer school was really a great experience for me.…
Shanshan Wu (third from left on the photo), an AMS student who participated in the Measurement Science in Chemistry (MSC) Summer shool 2013 in Lyon said the following about this experience: “This is an unforgettable Summer I never had before,…
On Friday, Jul 12, 2013 the MSC Summer school visited the Alps and ascended from Chamonix to a nearby mountain – Aiguille du Midi – with the height of slightly over 3800 m. This is a big advancement from the…
Two young scientists – Karin Kipper and Riin Rebane – from UT analytical chemistry research group participated in the recent HPLC2013 conference in Amsterdam. Both of them presented the most recent results of their work. The presentation of Karin Kipper…
On July 08, 2013 the sixth MSC Euromaster Summer School 2013 started in Lyon (France). Altogether 34 students from more than ten countries participate in the Summer school, among them three students from the AMS programme of University of Tartu:…
On Jun 17, 2013 The kick-off meeting of the EMRP project Metrology for Moisture in Materials (SIB64 METefnet) took place in MIKES (Helsinki). Around 70% of industries use drying at some stage of their production process. Active ingredients in pharmaceuticals,…
Ten AMS master’s students successfully defended their theses today (on June 10, 2013). On picture, from left: Hedi Sinijärv, Sander Sannik, Karen Atabekjan, Yingjian Hou, Kristjan Haav, Kamarniso Vrandecic, Pippa Hayes, Agnes Ivanov, Galyna Gryliuk, Agnes Suu. Traditionally for AMS…
Definitions of the International vocabulary of metrology (VIM 3) are the foundation of the language spoken by measurement people. The definitions have been carefully elaborated with the involvementof a number of top experts. Nevertheless, if a near-perfect definition is aimed…
The ESTCube-1 satellite was successfully launched early in the morning of 07.05.2013! Some hours later on the same day it was officially announced that the satellite works. Three AMS students (Kaspars Laizans, Martynas Pelakauskas, Mykola Tverdokhlib) are participating or have…
Hydrogen bond (HB) is by its importance a unique chemical phenomenon in nature and has been widely studied from almost any possible viewpoint. HBs have an enormous role in the structure (proteins, nucleic acids, cellulose fibers, etc) and functionality (enzyme…
An important direction in making measurement instruments is making them simpler, cheaper and accessible to many people. An interesting development in this direction has been made at SYKE (the Finland Environmental Administration): the Secchi3000 Turbidity analyser, in which a standard…
During 17-22.02.2013 The first Analytical Chemistry Winter school “Novel analysis methods”, organized by the St. Petersburg’s State University, took place near St. Petersburg. Ivo Leito participated in the event and gave a short lecture about Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry…
Amer Jamil Aref Al-Malahmeh from Jordan successfully defended his master thesis on January 15, 2013. The title of the thesis was “Methodological development and validation of Sample treatment and Source preparation procedures and Liquid Scintillation counting measurements for Determination of…
On Saturday, Dec 15, 2012, the Autumn semester master’s seminar 2012 of the AMS programme was concluded with presentations from students. Most of the presentations were based on the master’s thesis topics of our students. As is typical for our…
Liquid chromatographic separation of basic analytes is often hampered by problems, such as insufficient retention, wide and asymmetric peaks, etc, especially if carried out at acidic pH. Many modern HPLC coulmns can stand pH values up to 10 without problems…
A new software package for measurement uncertainty calculation called MUkit (shortcut from: Measurement Uncertainty kit) has been recently made available by SYKE, the Finnish Environmental Administration. This is the first software package that offers direct support for laboratories in measurement…
Electrospray ion source (ESI) is the most used ion source type for connecting liquid chromatography (LC) with mass spectrometry (MS) due to its robustness and possibility to analyze a wide range of analytes. ESI is a very good LC/MS ion…
On August 31, 2012 Irja Helm successfully defended her PhD Thesis High accuracy gravimetric Winkler method for determination of dissolved oxygen at Institute of Chemistry, University of Tartu. The essence of the work is development of a highly accurate gavimetric…
On 31.08.2012 the introductory meeting for first-year AMS students was held. Sergei Jurtšenko gave overview of the AMS programme, timetable of autumn semester 2012 and some practical aspects of living and studying in Tartu. The PDF file of this presentation…
Klodian Dhoska, graduated from AMS in 2010 shared his thoughts about how the programme has influenced his life during the last two years: “Experience at Applied Measurement Programme has given to me a very good career. I am technical expert…
The MSC Summer school finished on Jul 27, 2012. Kristjan Haav, one of the participants (from the AMS programme, University of Tartu) shared his impressions. Ivo: What would you single out as the top experiences in the summer school? Kristjan:…
As a nice counterbalance to the serious and challenging programme of the summer school last weekend there was a surfing outing at the summer school. All participants had the possibility to try surfing in the Atlantic Ocean under the guidance…
On Monday, July 16, 2012 the fifth Measurement Science in Chemistry International Summer School started in Fatima (Portugal). In this edition, 48 students from thirteen countries participate. The dense and challenging programme will give the students opportunities to learn and…
Alda Andersone from Latvia defended her master thesis on June 11, 2012. The title of the thesis was “The stereoselective synthesis of 2,2,5-trisubstituted tetrahydrofurans, oriented to the preparation of lilac aldehydes and alcohols”. The thesis was awarded the highest mark…
Hanno Evard defended his master thesis on June 11, 2012. The title of the thesis was “Study of paperspray ionization and its possible applications”. The thesis was awarded the highest mark “A”. Hanno talks about the thesis: “My master thesis…
Seven AMS master’s candidates successfully defended their theses on June 11, 2012. Congratulations! The PDF files of all the theses are available for download from here. (See at the end of the list: Hanno Evard, Karlis Andersons, Alda Andersone, Eyüp…
On May 21-22, 2012 a workshop Validation, Traceability, Measurement Uncertainty: the Challenges for the 21th Century Analysts took place in Berlin. This workshop focused on the relationship between method validation, traceability and measurement uncertainty in various fields of quantitative analytical…
On March 23, 2012 an in situ interlaboratory comparison measurement of dissolved oxygen concentration EstDO-2012 was carried out at the Testing Centre of University of Tartu. Altogether 14 participants from Estonia (different institutions), Germany (IO Warnemünde), France (IFREMER) and Finland…
During Mar 13-16, 2012 Ivo Leito visited University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (USST) and gave a series of lectures/workshops for te students of USST. The lectures/workshops were the following: — A Short Journey into Modern Analytical Chemistry —…
text by: Iuliia Demchuk Portugal… You will hardly find a person who doesn’t like it! This country is charming and most probably you will fall in love with it from the very first sight. Like it happened to me .…
Antonio Semakalu from Uganda defended his master thesis on February 28, 2012. The title of the thesis was “Gammmaspectrometrical Measurement of Radium Content in Water – Validation of Analysis Procedure”. The thesis is remarkable not only because it was awarded…
(text by John C Blackburn) Tartu is a different town in the summer. The days long and the streets quiet, Tartu is a student’s town, and is exciting when the students are in town. Its charm lies in its youthful…
Measurement science influences other sciences and sometimes from quite an unexpected angle. A recent review on extinction of the dinosaurs (the “Mass Extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary”, to put it in a scientifically correct way) published in the prestigious Science…
On Nov 29, 2011 a seminar was held in Tallinn, which summarized the results of the study “Metrology in Estonia, its current status, economic impact, trends and needs analysis” carried out during 2010-2011 jointly by BDA Consulting, University of Tartu…
This week a joint project will finish between University of Tartu and the German National Metrology Institute (PTB – Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt) on providing training in Metrology in Chemistry for Indian analytical chemists. In the framework of this collabortion Ivo Leito…
For elimination of the disadvantages of the traditional procedure of smoking of fish and meat the so-called liquid smoke has been developed. Some steps during the production of liquid smoke reduce the PAH concentration in liquid smoke and in the…
Today on 27.09.2011 on the Laboratory days event at Finnish Environmental Administration – SYKE (Helsinki, Finland) Ivo Leito gave a presentation “Education in Metrology in Chemistry – why and how?”. The first part of the presentation demonstrates the strong need…