Study Tour 2011 Russia and Finland

April 4th – April 18th

Table of Contents

Preface ...... 4 Scientific staff ...... 5 Case studies ...... 7 Preliminary studies and retrospective views ...... 13 Program ...... 79 Daily reports ...... 80 Committee reports ...... 100 Financial report ...... 104 People ...... 105 Acknowledgements ...... 107 Colophon ...... 109

Preface

Dear reader,

After a long process of finding a destination, searching for funding and organizing the study tour, you get to read a summary of the whole experience study tour 2011 to St. Petersburg and Helsinki.

The study tour was a real experience of its own. Especially Russia was so different from what we know here in Western Europe. I am still amazed about finding chemicals stored in plastic bottles next to new technology equipment. After Russia Finland was a real contrast. A bit more like at home but still different .We learned for example that the passion of Finnish people for sauna was not just a legend. It was picked up enthusiastically by the study tour participants who really enjoyed this part of the Finnish culture.

I would like to thank all the people that gave us such a warm welcome in Finland and Russia. Thanks for answering all of our many, many questions so patiently. I think that I can say that we all learned a lot on this trip and from the people that we met. This amazing trip would not have been possible without the people who supported us. I would like to thank our sponsors and the departments who gave us case studies for the financial support that made this study tour possible. I would also like to thank our two supervisors Lutgarde Buydens en Wilbert Boelens for going on this trip with us. Last but not least, I would like to thank all the participants and my fellow committee members for a great study tour.

Barbara Ridder Chairwoman

Scientific staff

Already at the departure on Monday 4 April early in the morning the code of conduct, that would remain preserved during the entire trip, was set: an organization team that arranged and was in control of every little detail and that demanded the same discipline of all participants. This approach was the key to a very successful, fascinating and enjoyable study trip.

Saint Petersburg was a cultural surprise. Its history, totally different from ours, has resulted in a quite interesting city. Her Oriental culture origin, the hallucinatory richness of the Czars dynasty, the subsequent Soviet era and later Western influences have all left their marks and created of Saint Petersburg a city where we fell from one surprise into another. Highlights were definitely the visit to the immense Hermitage museum where some of us got an instructive tour behind the scenes, in the laboratories where works of art are restored and analyzed. Also the museum of Mendeleev, in the Technical University, the place where he lived and worked for many years was a unique experience.

A visit to the Aurora, the submarine, from where the 1917 revolution was launched with a cannon shot, was for many a not to miss event on the agenda. The city also protrudes of an incredible number of impressive Orthodox churches, each in itself worth a visit. The Church of the Savior on the Blood, by the students very aptly called the “sweets Church” defies all imagination. The Interior consisting of hundreds of square meters of beautiful mosaic work beats the lot of unexpected greatness. Also a walk on the frozen sea was a unique experience.

The visits to the universities, however, left us with mixed feelings. On the one hand, we were impressed by the performances of the past, with big names like Sakharov and Mendeleev. The Chemistry show, brought to us by a scientific son of Sakharov confronted us, however, with the present-day reality of those universities. A distressing lack of money and of people makes it very difficult to do advanced research. Yet the visit to the biophysical Department was a pleasant surprise where biological oriented research started to flourish.

A Russian variant of the TGV brought us to Finland. The difference with the advanced high- tech biological research at the University of Helsinki could hardly be greater. A visit to the "Finnish institute for verification of chemical weapons convention", Verifin, reminded us of the fragility of today’s peace. ECHA (European chemicals Agency), on the other hand, showed us that, thanks to new ambitious European regulations for registration of chemicals (REACH), we are able to make of the world a place where it is a bit better livable.

The trip to the maritime fortress, Suomenlinna, also known as the "Gibraltar of the North ' was a worthy end of our trip. Suomenlinna is the icon of the turbulent power swings in this part of the world and is therefore a UNESCO World Heritage site.

It is obvious that the study tour 2011 was an unforgettable, breathtaking, interesting trip. The pleasant and friendly atmosphere in a group, where everyone conscientiously takes up his or her responsibility together with the outstanding travel organization has certainly been an important part of the success.

Wilbert Boelens en Lutgarde Buydens

Scientific staff

Prof. dr. Lutgarde Buydens Background: Lutgarde Maria Celina Buydens has studied pharmacy and informatics at the Brussels Free University (Belgium). She obtained her PhD in 1986 at the same University on the subject "Structure activity relationships: contributions of gas chromatography and study of neuroleptics". In 1992 she was presented the 'Elsevier Chemometrics Award' for noteworthy accomplishments in the field of chemometrics by younger scientists. Currently, she is the head of the Analytical Chemistry department of the Radboud University.

Dr. Wilbert Boelens Background: Wilbert Boelens has studied chemistry in Nijmegen. He graduated in 1988, after which he did a PhD at the Department of Biochemistry of Professor Van Venrooij with the subject: Interactions between U-snRNP proteins and their associated RNAs. In 1992 he went to the EMBL in Heidelberg and has worked in the lab of Ian Mattaj. Since 1994 he has worked at the Department of Biomolecular Chemistry, where he studies the function of the small stress proteins and the cross-linking enzyme transglutaminase.

Case studies

A large part of the income of the study tour was the concept of case studies. These studies were carried out by participants and can best be defined as doing some work for a research department, independent institution or company. This work would consist of about 50 hours of work, equal to the amount of time participants need to spend in order to receive European Credits (EC, ‘study points’) for the study tour. Next to that, the study tour committee receives a fee from said departments for the work that was done by the participants. This makes the case study a valuable asset for both the committee and the participants.

Here, the abstracts of the case studies that were carried out by some of the participants are listed. This will give you an impression of the great diversity between these case studies and the work that went into them.

Alinda Alfring and Rianne Hommersom SynAffix

The aim of our case study was to design a booklet for the spin-off company SynAffix. This is a spin-off of the Radboud University in Nijmegen that was started in early 2010. SynAffix’ expertise lies in the synthesis of molecules that affix. The company’s main focus is the development and application of molecules for catalyst- and reagent-free cycloaddition. SynAffix’ molecules undergo highly efficient ligation, applicable in life science, medical imaging, material sciences and other areas of interest that require a clean and efficient conjugation reaction. (http://www.synaffix.com)

The overall assignment included: - Obtaining pictures for use in the booklet as well as on the website, by shooting photos of the staff and equipment in the laboratory, and subsequent imaging with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom®. - The graphic design of the brochure itself, using programs like Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop. - Designing the company’s own writing paper.

Since we both had no prior experience working with either one of these programs, there was a lot for us to learn. Luckily, a ‘pro’ offered to help us get started. We have definitely learned a lot about graphic design programs, and these skills will be of benefit to us for the rest of our career. Our main contact within the company was Sander van Berkel. He provided us with many ideas and inspiration. The collaboration went very well and most importantly we can say that the company is pleased with the result. The end product is a six page gatefold booklet of which the front and rear page can be seen below.

Case studies

Sanne Bakker and Luuk van Summeren TI-COAST

TI-COAST aims to advance Dutch excellence by providing pivotal analytical knowledge and instruments based on fundamental science and by ensuring transfer of analytical expertise between application areas. COAST plans to achieve this by securing and improving Dutch expertise in analytical science and technologies. It was launched November 2010 at the Dutch Analytical conference. During this kick off TI-COAST was introduced using a promotion video. In this video various participants in the project shared their opinion about TI-COAST and the importance of analytical chemistry for the Dutch industry.

This 10 minute promotion movie was the product of our case study. The movie deals with TI- COAST, the different goals TI-COAST wants to achieve during the next couple of years and statements by various people from Dutch industry and academia.

Maurits Boeije The Turing Machine

The project I worked on was to determine whether is was possible to construct some sort of a molecular Turing Machine. This was of interest to dr. Nolte because he had made a similar system, but he was not aware of its full potential.

A Turing machine is a fictitious machine conjured up by Alan Turing. For a Turing machine to work, two things are needed: tape and the machine itself. The tape has infinite length and is divided into squares and on each square there can be a symbol. The symbol can be anything, but ones and zeros are most effective. The machine itself contains machine code and a “head”. The code holds the various operations to be executed on the tape and the head executes these operations. The machine code is an algorithm which consists of a finite set of states which can affect the machine and the tape. A combination of the state of the machine and the location on the tape is called the configuration.

The state of the machine contains three elements: the symbol on the tape, the operation and the final state. Operations are: move left, move right, change symbol. In a molecular system, things are different, but theoretically, it is possible to build a molecular Turing Machine (MTM), as I discovered during the case study. It could look like this:

Case studies

The tape is now a polymer, which has a finite length. The operations which can be performed on the polymer are: facilitate in reaction x and move the head left or right. The head now consists of three parts: two openings for molecules to pass through, and a catalytic centre. This catalytic centre can be influenced by the “machine code”, for example by changing the geometry of the head. The last part, the machine code, contains sites for functional groups, which affect the head.

It is thus possible to create a molecular Turing machine, but with a lot of limitations. Nevertheless, this is a good start in making the next generation of nanodevices.

Gitte Bunthof Bioinformatics in Finland

I have done my case study for Gert Vriend. It was about the bioinformatics in Finland, but it mainly focused on the education part and the funding for bioinformatics.

The funding for the bioinformatics is mainly coming from the government and only partly from main companies. Next to universities, the Finnish IT Center for Science (CSC) is receiving money from the government. CSC is a non-profit company that provides services for all universities in Finland, in many scientific fields. The services can also be used by other research institutes and companies but then they have to pay a fee.

In Finland, bioinformatics education is mainly focused on the masters phase. There is one study that provides a complete program (bachelor and master degree) for the IT field. This study is called Computer Science and is located at the University of Helsinki, but the focus of this study in not only on bioinformatics. In the bachelor phase of other universities there aren’t any courses only focused on bioinformatics. In the master phase, however, there are three masters only focused on bioinformatics.

While the education of bioinformatics in Finland is not at the same scale as in the Netherlands, it is growing and becoming more and more notable.

Simon Gückel Biophysical Chemistry

The case study was commissioned by the biophysical department of the Radboud University and consisted of creating a new homepage for the department. This new homepage was necessary since all NMR-departments plan to split up their shared homepage. On this homepage all information concerning the department can be found; e.g. recent publications, internships, staff, etc..

At the moment of writing, the case study is still in progress because a lot of texts still need to be collected from the researchers

Also the task is to design a new layout but still in the colors of the Radboud University. This is to be done at the end when all texts are finished. The case study is done under supervision of professor S. Wijmenga and M. de With.

Sander Habets UltraSense NMR

This case study was received from the departments of Biophysical Chemistry and Solid State NMR. These departments are involved in a unique collaboration between technological (Future Chemistry, University of Twente) and healthcare (UMC St. Radboud, Spinnovation, NovioGendix) institutes. Together, this consortium is developing new techniques that may prove to be invaluable analytical tools in the future: UltraSense NMR

Case studies

In the 21st century, healthcare diagnostics will be focused on personalized, individual care. This new phase will be characterized by personalized, individual diagnostics and medicine, catering to every patient’s unique needs. Important parts of this new phase include new methods for early diagnoses and biomarker discovery, so that knowledge of medical and chemical processes in the body further increases. For this purpose, a new analysis method using the specificity of NMR is being developed by this consortium.

NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) is a technique which is highly suitable for the distinction of different biomolecules. Though NMR is very specific and can yield structural information about molecules, it is not particularly sensitive and it is often hard to identify low concentration metabolites. Using the UltraSense NMR technique, it is possible to enhance the sensitivity by a factor of at least 100, making the technique useful for a large diversity of applications from drug development and the analysis of chemical processes. Applying the same technique, new screening and analysis methods for pharmaceutical and medical applications will also be developed, in particular a new diagnostic test for early traces of prostate cancer, allowing for much earlier diagnoses and increasing the patient chance of recovery

The UltraSense NMR project will also focus on developing new medical screening methods for biomarkers, optimized to fully utilize the new possibilities ultrasensitive NMR provides, a new diagnostic test to signal early traces of prostate cancer in particular. This new test can be used as a diagnostic in large scale population research, in which hundreds of thousands of elderly men can be tested.

Maarten Jaspers, Sander Groenen and Bart Roose Rotaxanes

For our case study, we wrote a review for Alan Rowan about rotaxanes. A rotaxane is a molecular architecture that consists of two components: a macrocyclic component and a dumbbell-shaped component (see figure 1). These two components are held together by a non- covalent mechanical bond. Because rotaxanes are a hot topic nowadays, a lot of research was done in the last years. Due to the versatility of rotaxanes, in a relatively short time there are many applications developed. We have discussed briefly their capacity to perform unidirectional motion, gelation of rotaxanes and some rotaxanes related to biology. Other types and applications are e.g. fluorescent rotaxanes, rotaxanes as logic gates and information storage devices, rotaxanes on solid surfaces, sensory rotaxanes and molecular transport. See figure 1 for an example of molecular shuttling.

Figure 1. The diphenylbiisoquinoline ligand (dpbiiq) site in the macrocyclic ring is complementary to either the diphenylphenanthroline (dpp) or bipyridine (bipy) sites and therefore shuttling is possible 1.

Case studies

Rotaxanes also play an important role in nature. The best example is the clamp protein, which clamps onto a DNA chain and helps the DNA polymerase to stick to the DNA chain and slide along it. Without the rotaxane clamp protein, this process would be way less efficient. Because of this important role in nature, scientists have tried to mimic the function of rotaxanes. Well known examples are cucurbiturils, cyclodextrins and crownethers. However, the molecule that mimics natural rotaxanes best is the porphyrin clip system developed by the group of Nolte and Rowan. This catalyst is able to catalytically convert double bonds into epoxides in its cavity.

1 Konstas, K; Langford, SJ and Latter, MJ; Advances towards synthetic machines at the molecular and nanoscale level, Int. J. Mol. Sci. 11, 2453-2472 (2010)

Imke Mandemaker Sequence the PCR products of histone H3 gene

For my case study I worked at the department of Molecular Biology. During my internship I was working on 17 different histone H3 genes. The sequences of these genes are almost similar to one another. Often there is a difference of only a few base pairs. The results from my internship are mostly based on data produced by qPCR on the mRNA of these genes. The primers were specifically designed for the each gene, but there were primers which had just one mismatch with other histone H3 gene primers. Because the expression pattern in our results didn't completely match the expectations, the question rose: Are the primers specific, or are also some non target histone H3 genes duplicated?

In order to get the answer to this question, my case study was to sequence the PCR products. The goal was to have 10 samples of 15 different histone H3 gene, so a total of 150 samples. In order to achieve this, I used the following method: I isolated all PCR products on an agarose gel. The products were then ligated into a pGEM T vector and the plasmid was transformated into E.coli. The special thing about the pGEM T vector is that this is an easy way to screen for the colonies with insert by color. The colonies were miniprepped and checked with pVUII digestion.

Kess Marks Organic Chemistry

This case study was perfomed for the department of Organic Chemistry, specifically for the Rutjes group. The Rutjes group website was outdated for some time already. This was true for both the website itself and the information on it. I had two tasks to increase the quality of the website.

Firstly, my task was to improve the information by updating the list of publications to 2010 and supplementing all publications with the corresponding DOI code. Secondly, to improve the website physically, I assisted the website administrator in designing a new layout. For this I first made 6 designs in Adobe Photoshop and after we selected the one we liked best, some more details and changes were added.

The new website is not finished yet but the layout will be implemented eventually.

Sybrin Schröder Microdroplets in Microfluidics

This case study was assigned by professor Wilhelm Huck. The aim of this study was to explore the research field governing microdroplets in microfluidics in China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore in order to clarify who is currently working on this research topic. Only research groups with a substantial amount of recent publications about this subject were taken into account. Also, the groups had to have a reasonable amount of people working on this subject (>5 people). It was quite hard to find these groups, as almost all their websites were not in English. So in most cases, a Google search resulted in no hits.

Case studies

Another method was used to track these groups, as described below. References from Huck’s review article about microdroplets were used for this purpose.

As a final result, four groups were found in South Korea; three groups in China; three groups in Singapore; and three groups in Japan. The result was a bit disappointing, but apparently this is because this is a quite novel research field.

Search method: The following references from the article ‘Microdroplets in Microfluidics: An Evolving Platform for Discoveries in Chemistry and Biology’1. were looked up via the ISI Web of Knowledge database. From there, every article which refers to this article can be viewed ( ‘times cited’). The articles were filtered by country of origin (Japan/China/S-Korea/Singapore). The information provided with the articles found often showed email addresses of the author(s). A Google search was performed on each of these email addresses, with and without additives as microfluidic(s), (micro)droplet(s),research, laboratory etc. Some of them lead to the group website, but often these email addresses led to no hits. Each group found was selected as useful whenever they had three or more publications in 2011, 2010 and 2009 together.

1 W. T. S. Huck et al.; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2010, 49, 5846 – 5868.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Alinda Alfring and Rianne Hommersom Tertiary education in Finland and Russia

Brief introduction to the countries

Finland

Finland is one of the largest countries in Europe. Of the 338.00 km2 surface area it counts, about three quarters is covered by forests. Among that, Finland is famous for its abundance of lakes and archipelagos.1 Finland has only 5,4 million inhabitants, thus making it one of Europe’s most sparsely populated countries, with only 16 people per square kilometer. 2 Actually, more than half of the Finnish population is concentrated in the south, where the biggest cities are situated. This area makes up less than 10% of the entire country. 3

Finland is officially bilingual, with 92% of the people speaking Finnish. Swedish, the second official language, is spoken only by 6% of the inhabitants. The Sami population, that lives in North-Finland, counts about 8000 people of whom 2000 speak the minority Sami language. As well as Finnish this is also not a Scandinavian, but a Finno-Ugric language. Both Finnish and Swedish have equal rights according to the constitution.

The Swedish-speakers mainly live on the Åland islands in the southwest, which have a very special legal status: they form an unilingual Swedish-speaking territory, an autonomous region of Finland, with their own flag, stamps and license plates. This unilinguality is a serious disadvantage for Finnish-speakers living on the islands. On the other hand, Swedish-speakers living on the mainland need Finnish more than Finnish-speakers need Swedish. In principle, both languages must be taught already at primary school, but because of the lack of necessity to learn Swedish, a vast majority of Finnish-language schools teach English as their first foreign language, making Swedish come in third place. Swedish-language schools of course do the opposite, teaching Finnish before English.

Since the entry of Finland into the European Union in 1995, also other foreign languages like German and French were gradually introduced into Finnish education. 4

Russia

Russia (officially called the Russian Federation) is the largest country of the world. With its 17.098.242 km², it is approximately 1.8 times the size of the US. Russia is partly located in Europe and partly in Asia. From a political perspective, the country belongs to Europe, because the most important parts of it are in the European part and largely 70% of the inhabitants are living here.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Russia has about 142 million inhabitants, but a low population density. The major cities of Russia are: Moscow (10.523 million inhabitants), Saint Petersburg (4.575 million), Novosibirsk (1.397 million), Yekaterinburg (1.344 million) and Nizhniy Novgorod (1.267 million). The official language of Russia is Russian, but there are also many minority languages. The ruble is the monetary unit in Russia.

Russia has different climates. It ranges from steppes in the south through humid continental in the European part. In Siberia there’s a subarctic climate and in the polar north there’s a tundra climate. In Siberia the winters are frigid and along Black Sea coast it may be cool. Summers vary from warm in the steppes tot cool along the Arctic coast. West of the Ural mountain range Russia has broad plains, with low hills. In Siberia the terrain has vast coniferous forests and tundra. Along the southern border regions there are uplands and mountains

General overview of Dutch education system 5

In the Netherlands, most university education programs consist of four years. After three years of education the students obtain their Bachelor’s degree. Next, an optional Master’s program can be followed. In most cases this program covers one additional year, but especially for exact sciences and also for medicine this program can be two or three years. During the first year, the student will get to know the study by following major courses in different scientific disciplines. The next two years are used to expand this basic knowledge, by following in-depth compulsory courses as well as electives. After obtaining the Bachelor’s degree, the student can be admitted to the corresponding Master’s program, or another Master’s program within the same discipline, at the same or at another university. With a so- called premaster, one can also attend a Master’s program in a different field of expertise. After completing the Master’s program, a Doctoral degree can be achieved by doing usually four years of research at a university or company.

The education system, as it is now, is the outcome of the Bologna Convention, which will be described in the next section.

Towards the modern-day education system

The EHEA and the Bologna Convention

The Bologna Convention is an agreement, started by 29 European countries, to reform the structures of their higher education systems in a convergent way. The purpose of the Bologna Process was to create a European Higher Education Area (EHEA), by defining comparable and compatible academic degree standards and quality assurance standards throughout Europe, thereby promoting student mobility between institutions of higher education in different countries. 6

It is named after the place it was proposed, the University of Bologna. In 1999, 29 Education Ministers from different European countries signed the Bologna Declaration, including the Netherlands and Finland. The Netherlands already had an education system based on four degrees: propaedeuse, candidate, doctorandus (drs.) and doctor (dr.). These were adjusted to the new Bachelor-Master structure. 7

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Finland also already had a Bachelor’s-Master’s system for university higher level education, but not for engineering and military higher education, so the degrees within these fields were in need of adjustment.

Russia signed the convention in 2003, but in Russia a multi-level education system already existed. In 2007, President Putin signed a law, to really introduce the Bachelor’s-Master’s system, going from a five-year study, to a “four plus two”-year study. 8

The Bologna Process, thanks to the extraordinary achievements of the last few years, has become an increasingly concrete and relevant reality for the Union and its citizens. Today, the Process unites 47 European countries, all committed to the goals of the European Higher Education Area.

Brief comparison of Russia and Finland

Number of … Russia Finland Square kilometers surface area 17.098.242 338.0001 Inhabitants 142 million 5.4 million Students 2.5 million (1995) 168.000 10 3.7 million (2000) 9 Universities > 640 16 universities non-university and university 28 polytechnics (HBO) higher level education

Foundation of the first university

Finland

The first university of Finland was the Royal Academy of Turku, founded in 1640. As the name suggests, it was located in Turku, the former capital op Finland, when the country was being ruled by the Swedish Empire. It was the only university in the entire country for almost three centuries.

In 1809, Finland was taken over by the Russian Empire, and the capital was transferred to Helsinki. Nearly two decades later, in 1827, the Royal Academy of Turku was almost completely destroyed in the Great Fire of Turku. Since Helsinki was now the new capital of Finland, the university was rebuild there, under the name of the Russian Tsar Alexander the First. The university became a major center of Finnish cultural, political, and legal life in 19th Century Finland.

In 1917, Finland gained its independence and became the Republic of Finland, resulting in the last renaming of the university until now. The University of Helsinki thus is the oldest (even after reconstruction) and also the largest university in Finland, with a wide range of disciplines available.

Russia 11

It’s not clear which is the first university of Russia. Saint Petersburg State University claims to be the oldest university, but also does the Lomonosov State University of Moscow (Moscow State University). This is because the Saint Petersburg State University was first founded on the 28th of January 1724, but it was refounded on 8 February 1819. 12

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

The Lomonosov State University of Moscow was founded in 1755. 13 So when looking at the first founding of the Saint Petersburg State University, this would be the oldest university of Russia, but when looking at the second founding, the Lomonosov State University of Moscow would be the oldest university.

Number of universities

Finland

A list of Finnish universities is given below. The universities are sorted by their year of establishment.

University of Helsinki (1640/1827) Åbo Akademi University in Turku (1918) University of Turku (1920) University of Tampere (1925) University of Jyväskylä (1866, promoted to university status in 1934) University of Oulu (1958) University of Vaasa (1968) University of Lapland in Rovaniemi (1979) Aalto University (1849/2010) University of Eastern Finland in Joensuu and Kuopio (2010)

Finland also has a number of specialized universities. These are institutions of higher education with a full university status, which are specialized in a specific academic field.

Academy of Fine Arts (Finland) Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki Lappeenranta University of Technology Sibelius Academy in Helsinki Tampere University of Technology Theatre Academy in Helsinki

The University of Vaasa can also be counted as a specialized university, since it has evolved from a school of economics to a business-oriented university, and it only has a small technology department.

In addition, there is also one military academy, the Finnish National Defense University, which also has the authority to award students with a Bachelor’s, Master’s or doctoral degree. However, it is not considered a university by Finnish law. 14 Two of all 16 universities mentioned above operate entirely in Swedish.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Russia

At the moment, the system of university level higher education in Russia consists of 590 state higher education establishments. They consist of: 91 classical Universities; 156 Pedagogical Institutes including 91 pedagogical universities; 47 Medical Institutions; 59 Agricultural Institutions; 56 Economics Institutions; 48 Fine Arts Institutions; 145 Engineering Institutions; 21 Civil Engineering Institutions; 7 Law Institutions; 12 Physical Culture and Sports Institutions.

Russian higher education system

In the Russian Federation there are two kinds of higher education, namely non-university level higher education (educational programs not leading to an academic degree) and university level higher education (educational programs leading to an academic degree). In this report only the university level higher education will be discussed.

According to the Standard Statue for University Level Higher Education Establishments adopted by the Government of the Russian Federation on 26 June 1993 and based on the ‘Law on Education’, higher education in the country is built upon three establishments; universities, academies and institutes. Universities are higher education institutions on which the activities are aimed at the development of education, science and culture. This is done through conducting fundamental and applied research and offering training programs at all levels of higher, postgraduate and continuing education in a wide range of natural and social sciences and the humanities. In the areas of its activity, the university must be the leading research and methodological centre.

Now the universities are subdivided into the following groups: Universities for Humanities and Sciences; Pedagogical Universities (former Pedagogical Institutes); Medical Universities (former Medical Institutes); Agricultural Universities (former Agricultural Institutes); Technical Universities (former Polytechnic and Specialized Institutes);

The academies in Russia are higher education institutions of which the activities are aimed at the development of education, science and culture. This is done through the conducting of fundamental and applied research and the offering of training programs at all levels of higher, postgraduate and continuing education in a single major area of science, technology or culture. An academy must be the leading research and methodological center in its area of activity. An institute is an independent higher education institution or division of a university or academy which offers educational programs at all levels of higher, postgraduate and continuing education in a number of fields of science, technology and culture and conduct research. Not all higher education establishments are State higher education establishments. Beside this there are State regional authorities. Another sector is the sector of non-state higher education establishments run by private, public and religious organizations. Most of these private institutions are small institutions. They are particularly active in fields such as Law, Management and Finance.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Study duration

Russian higher education has had a multi-level structure since 1992. Higher education institutions may confer the following degrees and diplomas: an Intermediate Diploma (at least two years of study); a Bakalavr Diploma (at least four years of study); a Specialist Diploma (five to six years of study); a Magistr Diploma (six years of study).

The term multi-level indicates that degrees now may be obtained at three levels. In the former Soviet Union it was only at one level. After the changes in the early 1990’s, the Intermediate Diploma, Bakalavr Diploma and Magistr Diploma were introduced in addition to the traditional Specialist Diploma. They are modeled on the Anglo-Saxon system of Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees. After the Bakalavr comes the Magistr, which is based on the Bakalavr. The Government of the Russian Federation adopted the ‘State Educational Standard of Higher Professional Education’ of 12 August 1994, to establish the relationship between these qualifications in the future. It designates three levels of studies: Level 1 comprises the first two years of studies for the Bakalavr or Specialist Diplomas. It is concentrated on compulsory fundamental courses in the given specialty. Students may continue their studies after this period. If they don’t want to continue they leave the institution with an Intermediate Diploma; Level 2 is the continuation of studies for the Bakalavr degree. The duration is at least another two years. It will lead to the four-year Bakalavr degree; Level 3 represents an educational level common both to the Magistr Diploma and the Specialist Diploma. Magistr degree programs are based on a Bakalavr degree program, while Specialist Diploma programs are not.

The Intermediate Diploma To certify that a student has successfully finished the first two years of basic higher education in a particular field of study, the student will be awarded the Intermediate Diploma after at least two years of studies for the Bakalavr or Specialist Diplomas.

In all fields of study this Diploma is awarded. Courses follow a curriculum that teaches the fundamental contents of the education offered in the appropriate field of study. The Intermediate Diploma is only an intermediate qualification; it is not a degree. With the Diploma a student gets the right to practice a professional activity in accordance with the level of education it represents. At the request of the student the Diploma is handed to him. The Diploma inset lists the results the student got for the exams taken during the first two years of study. The Intermediate Diploma is called upon to facilitate mobility among the different types of higher education institutions.

The Bakalavr Degree After at least a four-year course of study a student can get the Bakalavr Degree. Bakalvr programs can contain all disciplines except medicine. The function of the Bakalavr degree is to provide a more academically rather than professionally oriented education. For admission to Magistr studies, a student should have a Bakalvr Degree.

To get the Bakalavr Degree a student should defense a thesis. Each Bakalavr program holds a defined portion of fundamental education, with courses taken from the humanities, the social sciences and economics, and the natural sciences. The next stages afford basic professional and specialized education and field work relating to professional training.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

At the end of each semester examinations must be taken and passed. After a period of four months the student has to defend a thesis for the State final attestation. When the student is successful, he will get the Bakalavr degree. The supplement to the Diploma includes the list of disciplines taught during the period of education. Also the number or hours, the grades, the practical training and the results of the final state examinations and the defense of the thesis or project are included in the supplement to the Diploma.

The Specialist Diploma The traditional qualification of Specialist Diploma has two functions. It opens access to professional practice (e.g. to engineers, teachers, chemist, etc.) and it also is the traditional prerequisite for admission to doctoral studies. After studies lasting five to six years the qualification of Specialist Diploma is conferred. The diploma is awarded in all fields of study (specialties). Students have to take and to pass the examinations at the end of each semester. The State final proof for a Specialist Diploma is the defense of a thesis or project and State final examinations. The procedures for the final proof and the award of the Diploma and also the content of the supplement to the Diploma are the same as for the Bakalavr degree.

The Magistr Degree A Magistr program is at least a two-year course program, centered more on research activities than the Specialist Diploma. The Ministry for General and Professional Education grants the license to conduct Magistr studies only to those higher education institutions that are accredited and possess adequate academic staff and facilities. Only general requirements for Magistr educational programs are defined in the State educational standard and not the requirements regarding the content of education. In Russia, higher education establishments are free to make their own decisions regarding the contents of programs, when they are interested in introducing Magistr degree programs. The recommendations prepared by the teaching and methodological associations of higher education institutions are taken into consideration. If a student has a Bakalavr degree, he can access a Magistr study. When the student wants to pursue a Magistr degree in the same field of study (specialty), the higher education institutions themselves set up admission procedures (examinations, interviews, etc.). When the student wants to pursue a Magistr degree in another field of study (specialty), he must pass an additional test which reflects the requirements for the Bakalavr program in the specialty corresponding to the chosen Magistr program. Each Magistr program consists of two more or less equal components: the course component and the independent research component. To finish the study, a student should defend a dissertation and he should pass the State final examinations. The Magistr dissertation is an independent research, prepared with the help of a supervisor. The procedures are the same as for the Bakalavr degree.

The Bakalavr Diploma, the Specialist Diploma and the Magistr Diploma give their holders the right to exercise professional activities in accordance with the qualifications indicated on the diplomas. Specialist and Magistr Diplomas also entitle their holders to be admitted to doctoral study programs.

Admission / limited enrollment

To go to university a diploma is required. This diploma can be earned at institutions offering secondary (complete) general education and non-university level higher education. The admission to higher education establishments is competitive. Students are selected based on entrance examinations, school leaving certificates, interviews, etc.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

The major component of the selection procedure is the entrance examination. The number and the list of entrance tests are stipulated by the admission regulations of given educational institutions. The individual institutions set the subjects of the entrance examinations according to the requirements of the faculties to which admission is sought. These subjects, however, should correspond to the subjects taught in secondary general schools. For individuals who have graduated either from institutions of secondary general education and have been awarded a medal, or graduated from non-university level higher education institutions that have been awarded an honors diploma or other awards, the university level higher education establishments should reduce the number of examinations and change the nature of the tests. Admission depends on the grades obtained in the examinations and on the number of places available. The decision for admission may be based on the school leaving certificate, when candidates have identical examination results. Depending on the reputation of the institution and on the general interest in the subject, the number of applications may be several times higher than the capacity of the faculty. A person is permitted to apply only to one educational institution at a time, in the Russian Federation.

Finnish higher education system

There are two sectors in the tertiary education: universities and polytechnics (non-university level higher education). The focus of universities lies on doing research, so this type of education is a bit more theoretical. The polytechnics focus on practical skills and seldom pursue research, but they do engage in industry development projects. Polytechnics will not be discussed further here.

Study duration

The Finnish university education degree system consists of a lower degree, called Kandidaatti (Bachelor’s degree) and a second, higher degree, called Maisteri (Master’s degree). The Bachelor’s degree comprises a total of 180 credits and should be completed in three year. The Master’s degree counts for 120 credits, and thus should be completed in two years.10 After the master's degree, there are two further post-graduate degrees: an intermediate degree, called Licentiate, which comprises two years, and the Doctoral degree, which comprises four years. In medical studies, the Master’s degree does not exist and the Licentiate degree directly follows to the Bachelor’s degree after a total of six years of study. 15

Academic year

The academic year is divided into four seven-week teaching periods. Between two periods there is always a free week. Examinations and special courses may also sometimes be arranged outside the teaching periods. The Faculties of Law, Medicine, Biological and Environmental Sciences, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine and Behavioral Sciences (either entirely or partly) observe different teaching periods than those generally observed at the University.

Admission / limited enrollment

To all fields of study in Finnish university higher education, a numerous clauses applies. Applicant volumes usually far outweigh the places that are available. Universities use different kinds of selection criteria, which they may choose themselves. Students may be ranked according to the grades they attain in their matriculation exam and, in general, to the grades they attained in secondary education (school leaving certificate).

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Students can also be subjected to an extra entrance exam. The results of all these methods can be averages, but a university can also choose one result to outweigh the others.10 A student that has been admitted to the Bachelor’s level, and has obtained its degree with success, has the right to continue on studying to achieve a Master’s degree. So in the transition from Bachelor’s to Master’s level there is no additional selection.

Tuition fees / state contribution

A central objective of Finnish education policy is to provide all citizens with equal opportunities to receive education, irrespective of their age, domicile, financial situation, sex or native language. So, in principle students don’t pay tuition fees. They do have to provide for their own housing and living expenses, but for Finnish citizens, this usually is partly subsidized by the government.

Studying chemistry in Russia

Courses 16

During their first year of studying chemistry, the students get subjects like: mathematics, physics and general chemistry. Besides that, they also get history and a foreign language. They both have lectures and practical lessons. During their second year they get: physical chemistry, organic chemistry, thermodynamics, informatics, statistical thermodynamics, analytical chemistry and modern physical methods for analysis. They also have economics, a language and they have to choose one subject. The subjects during the third year are: quantum chemistry, colloid chemistry, organic chemistry, macro molecular chemistry, polymer chemistry, environmental chemistry, radio chemistry and electro chemistry. Also they have philosophy, world religions, psychology and pedagogy, safety and again they have to choose a subject. For their fourth year, the students have to choose a main direction. There also will be a general part. They can choose one of the following directions: radiochemistry, physical chemistry, chemical thermodynamics and kinetics, colloid chemistry; electro chemistry, chemistry of amorphous materials, inorganic chemistry, quantum chemistry; organic analysis, organic synthesis, bio-organic chemistry, macro molecular chemistry; spectro-chemistry, environmental chemistry.

For their masters, the students will get special courses, modern research methods, computer technology and mathematical modeling, history and approach of the chemical science, principles and concepts of the modern chemistry. They will also get modern problems of philosophy and a foreign language.

Academic year

The university level higher education curriculum stipulates 36 weeks of study a year. The proportions of mandatory and optional courses in a curriculum are around the following (depending on the field of study): mandatory courses: 80 to 85%; optional courses: 15 to 20%. Including class work and independent studies, the total workload of a student should not exceed 50 hours a week. On average, a student’s total workload of class work is 27 hours a week (for the Magistr program it’s 14 hours a week). The academic year starts on 1 September and ends at the beginning of June.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

St. Petersburg State University

History

On January 28, 1724 the decree of Peter I (also known as Peter the Great) on establishing a university in St. Petersburg was approved by the Senate of the Russian Empire. Actually all Russian academicians of the eighteenth century were educated at St. Petersburg University. Many of them taught at other major educational institutions in Russia.

In 1747 the basic document legalizing the University and Gymnasium practices (The Regulations of the Imperial Academy of Sciences and Arts in St. Petersburg) was adopted by Empress Elizabeth of Russia. Also the first Rector of the university was appointed then (Gerhardt Friedrich Müller; a renowned historian and ethnologist). Since then 60 persons have ever held the post of the university head (Rector or Director).

In the years 1758-1765 the St. Petersburg Academic University and Gymnasium were headed by Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov. His diversified activities for the post of Rector resulted in composition democratization and the consolidation of the relations with foreign universities and science academies.

After the death of Lomonosov in 1765, the university and Gymnasium were transformed into the Academy College. In 1783 the Duchess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova was appointed director of St. Petersburg Academy of Science. She was the first Russian woman in civil service. An indisputable merit considered to be of Ekaterina Dashkova is keeping to the university course within the College.

Following the Decree of Alexander I of Russia, St. Petersburg University was re-established on February 8, 1819 on the basis of Pedagogical Institute (founded in 1806 after the Academy College liquidation). Initially the university consisted of three faculties: Faculty of Philosophy and Law, Faculty of History and Philology and Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. In 1854 the Faculty of Asian and African Languages also was added. This composition of faculties remained until 1918.

In 1838 Nicholas I gave a order for the building of twelve colleges. They are an architectural monument of the first half of the eighteenth century. They are now a symbol for the first university of Russia.

The university adopted a new charter, which is based on the idea of its autonomy as a corporation of professors, for the first time in the history of St. Petersburg State University. The Council is the main and largely independent body of university management. The Council of the university owned the right to choose the rector, the vice-rector, the deans and the professors. The real approval has to be done by the Minister of Education.

In the 1860s-1890s within the St. Petersburg University a number of scientific societies were created, including the Society of Naturalists, Russian Chemical Society, Philological Society, Anthropological and Historical Society as well as the Botanic Garden and the Astronomical Observatory. A new chemical laboratory was created in 1893 and in 1901 the first Russian Institute of Physics.

In 1878, the universities professors took part in the opening of the Women’s University Courses, known as the Bestuzhev’s Courses, named after their first director K.N. Bestuzhev- Ryumin. In 1918 the Courses became part of the university.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

St. Petersburg became one of the largest universities in the world in the beginning of the twentieth century, with about 10,000 students belonging to four faculties.

Despite various structural transformations caused by the changes in the social life in Russia, old scientific schools of the university continued developing and new schools were established after the October Revolution in 1917. In the 1920s-1930s, the relevant departments of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics developed into new independent faculties: the Faculty of Physics, the Faculty of Mathematics and mechanics, the Faculty of Geography, the Faculty of Geology and the Faculty of Biology. Also new departments and research institutes were created and a number of faculties where humanities were taught: the Faculty of History (1934), the Faculty of Philology (1937), the Faculty of Political Science and Economics (1939) and the Faculty of Philosophy (1934). After this the university consisted of ten faculties and seven research institutes in 1941. The Faculty of Asian and African Studies and the Faculty of Law were re-established in 1944.

In the winter of 1941-1942, the university continued working under the harsh conditions of the Siege of Leningrad. Part of the university was evacuated to Elabuga in September 1941, another part was evacuated to Saratov in February 1942. Only a small staff of the university employees remained in the besieged city. They managed to preserve the immense scientific and cultural values of the university under the harsh conditions.

New faculties were created in the 1960s: the Faculty of Psychology, the Faculty of Journalism, the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Control Processes as well as a number of new academic departments.

At the same time the construction of buildings for the faculties engaged into natural sciences began in Stary Peterhof. The university has started developing a system of two training and research complexes since the 1960s, the Vasilyevsky Island Complex and the Petrodvorets Complex.

Faculties

The St. Petersburg State University consists of a lot of different faculties and colleges. 17 Some examples are the Academic Gymnasium, the Faculty of Biology & Soil Science, the Faculty of Mathematics & Mechanics and the Faculty of Chemistry.

Study programs

At the St. Petersburg State University, specialists are trained in 71 specialties; Bachelors in 41 fields of study and Masters in 30 fields of study. A student can choose to study full-time, part- time and extramural. There are also postgraduate and doctoral programs. For the postgraduate programs, specialists with degrees or Masters are admitted on a competitive basis. Admission to doctoral programs is held for persons with the degree of Candidate of Science.

Students

The St. Petersburg State University has over 32,000 students; 4,000 postgraduate and doctoral students (both enrolled and unenrolled). To teach these students, there are about 6,000 teachers and researchers. Also there are over 40 academicians and corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Sciences as well as other academies. Beside that the university also counts over 1,000 professors.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Funding 18

The federal and local budgets are the main source of funding of the state educational establishments. After receiving state accreditation, non-state educational establishments are entitled to funding from these sources.

Also other sources of funding can be used by the state educational establishments, including the following: - income achieved for the rendering of additional educational services (additional educational programs, special courses, in-depth course study, etc.) in addition to the framework of relevant educational programs and of the State educational standard; - fees charged to students (in educational establishments allowed to enroll a certain number of students who must pay for their education) including foreign students; - income derived from business activities (the leasing of fixed assets and property, the selling and buying of goods and equipment, the rendering of intermediary services, etc.). - The founders of an educational establishment also finance it. The Ministry of Health and Medical Industry finances medical education institutions, for example.

The level of financing of educational establishments is carried out on the basis of state and local norms (standards). This is determined by the expense per student for each type and category of educational establishment. Federal funding norms are adopted every year by a federal law, along with the adoption of the federal budget for that year. The norms regarding the financing of non-state educational establishments cannot be lower than those for state educational establishments.

Studying chemistry in Finland

The information in this section is mainly based on the information available from the University of Helsinki.

Students who want to study chemistry at the University of Helsinki can choose from two disciplines. Choosing one direction, the student will become a chemist, while the other route leads to chemistry teacher. The study will provide the student with basic knowledge of science, and gives the student the opportunity to specialize him-/herself in one chemical discipline/field. The chemistry certificate is divided into two parts, the Bachelor’s and Master’s degree, which respectively comprise 180 and 120 ECTS. The first couple of years of the curriculum mainly consist of lectures, assignments and practical courses. For students who want to become chemistry teachers, another curriculum has been set up.

In order to facilitate the long-term planning of their study, each student has to come up with a personal study plan, the so-called HOPS.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Courses

Below, an overview of the Bachelor’s program for chemistry is given, in the way it is mentioned in the study guide for the University of Helsinki. The Bachelor of Science consists of a selection of the following major courses:

Basic chemistry courses Physical chemistry, basics General chemistry Physical chemistry Solution chemistry R&D, Organic chemistry Practical course (9 ECTS) Inorganic chemistry Bachelor thesis (6 ECTS) Major chemical intermediate courses Maturity test (compulsory) Inorganic chemistry (3 different additional Electives (6 ECTS total, each course is 3/4 courses) ECTS) Organic chemistry II (2 different additional Introduction to polymers chemistry courses) Molecular structures of organic compounds Radio chemistry Biochemistry Introduction to environmental chemistry, Structure of atoms and molecules Introduction to computational chemistry Thermodynamics

It is also possible to follow a minor study within the Bachelor’s program. This minor has to comprise at least 50 ECTS, with a maximum of 60 ECTS. The possible subjects that can be chosen for a minor are: Mathematics Physics Computer science (IT) Geology Methodology Environmental chemistry Biochemistry Medicinal chemistry

Next to these compulsory courses and electives, there are also some standard courses, which are applicable for the Bachelor’s program of every discipline. These courses are: Orientation course Safe working in the lab HOPS (personal study plan) Mathematics for chemists Information and communication studies Integrated ICT studies Report on chemistry jobs and carrier possibilities Second domestic language course Foreign language course

One of the courses above should contain an oral presentation. Last but not least, there still is some more room scheduled for electives (10 ECTS). 19

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

University of Helsinki

As mentioned before, the University of Helsinki is the oldest university in Finland. It was founded in 1640 in Turku and was transferred to Helsinki in 1828. The University of Helsinki is bilingual, with teaching and services provided both in Finnish and Swedish. The number of courses taught in English is also growing. For written examinations, language does not tend to be a problem, since many departments also accept tests written in English.

Faculties

Until 1950, the entire university was located in the city centre. Nowadays, the University of Helsinki has four campuses accommodating eleven faculties:

City Centre Meilahti Kumpula Viikki Faculty of Theology Faculty of Medicine Faculty of Science Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry Faculty of Law Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences Faculty of Arts Faculty of Pharmacy Faculty of Social Faculty of Veterinary Sciences Medicine Faculty of Behavioral Sciences

Helsingin Yliopiston Ylioppilaskunta

All undergraduates and graduate students at the University of Helsinki automatically become members of HYY, the Student Union of the University of Helsinki. This is an autonomous corporation subject to public law and its status and purpose are defined in the Universities Act (Section 46):

“The purpose of the student union shall be to act as liaison for its members and to promote their societal, social and intellectual aspirations and their aspirations regarding studies and students’ status in society.”

Since studying requires a considerable amount of private time, a social life must be sought in other activities. HYY represents its members, provides them with a variety of services and looks after their interests. Often, activities like dance parties, excursions to museums and discussions with academicians are arranged. The membership of HYY also entitles students to discounts provided by society, such as public transportation, student priced meals and discounts to many cultural events. In addition, there are also 260 sub-student organizations working under the Student Union, for which HYY provides service, and a large part of the HYY members participates in their activities. Next to undergraduates and graduates, also postgraduates can join HYY voluntarily. 20

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

References 1) P. Harking, J. Brewer, Finland , Lonely Planet, 2003 2) http://www.visitfinland.com/en/web/guest/finland-guide/about-finland/facts/area 3) http://www.landenweb.net/finland/bevolking/ 4) D. Bradley, M Bradley, Language endangerment and language maintenance , RoutledgeCurzon, 2002 5) Brochure Radboud Universiteit 6) http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/hogeronderwijs/bologna/ 7) http://www.euroeducation.net/prof/netherco.htm 8) http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071025/85407429.html 9) http://en.russia.edu.ru/edu/description/sysobr/923/ 10) Orientation Handbook 2010–2011 http://www.helsinki.fi/admissions/materials/orientation_handbook.pdf 11) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_universities_in_continuous_operation 12) http://www.priem.spbu.ru/about_spbu/history.html 13) http://www.msu.ru/en/info/history.html 14) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Finland 15) http://tertiary- education.studentnews.eu/serwis.php?&s=2328&pok=57788&c1=15384&l=&id=2879255 16) http://www.chem.spbu.ru/ru/table/74-table-course.html 17) http://eng.spbu.ru/university/today/ 18) http://en.russia.edu.ru/edu/description/sysobr/906/ 19) Study guide chemistry, University of Helsinki, 2010 20) http://www.hyy.helsinki.fi/english/5/

Anne Bakker History and international relations of Russia and Finland

Origin and early history; Russia After the Migration Period in the very early Middle ages the centre of what would become the Russian empire was inhabited by Slavonic peoples. There is not much information about their way of living and in most books the history of Russia starts in the ninth century. During this period Scandinavian people called The Varangians conquered Novgorod and Kiev. During the rule of their leader Rurik different tribes around Novgorod were united. The Varangians were also called ‘Rus’ so this is how the name ‘Rossiya’, country of the Rus, came up. However, it was Rurik’s successor Oleg who is considered to be the real founder of a Russian state which was called Kievan Rus. The Varangians were in power and they conquered more and more land, but the culture stayed Slavonic. In 998 the ruler of Kievan Rus, Vladimir, married Anna, the daughter of the emperor of Byzantium. A requirement for this marriage was the baptizing of Vladimir and his entry into the orthodox Christianity. This resulted in a state religion which became very important to the further development of Russia.

During the reign of Vladimir’s son, Kievan Rus became one of the richest and most powerful countries in the Christian world. But starting from 1054 it became weaker and in the thirteenth century it felt apart as a consequence of internal conflict about the succession. Because of the fragmentation it was not hard for the Mongols to invade Kievan Rus and conquer the area.

The Mongols stayed in power for two century’s. In the mean time the principality of Moscow obtained more political power and they started to capture more land. The rising power of

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Moscow was even more enhanced when the head of the Christian Orthodox church, the metropolitan, fled from Kiev to Moscow in 1299. A few years later he established the permanent headquarters of the religion in Moscow. So the city became both religiously and politically the capital of Russia. Eventually Moscow became the core of a new state and completely independent of the Mongols. But it was not before 1462, when Ivan III came into power and incorporated all Russian principalities, that there was really something like a great Russian unified state. Ivan III was the first who tried to call himself tsar, the Slavic term for Caesar, in the contact with other royal houses. They would not accept this title until in 1547 Ivan IV was officially crowned tsar of Russia. After his entry a range of changes was established. For example, in 1550 a law book was set up and Russia started trading with England and other European countries. He also successfully extended his kingdom. On the other hand, Ivan IV was a cruel man and executed everyone who stood up against him. Mainly the Boyar, Russian feudal nobles, had a relative difficult period and had to give up many old rights. At the end of his reign Ivan IV became paranoia and he even created a second court outside Moscow with only loyal people. All other people with some land, power or influence had to be careful for their lives. This behavior resulted in the famous nickname Ivan the Terrible. In 1584 Ivan the Terrible died and he was succeeded by his son Feodor who unfortunately was not mentally capable of ruling the kingdom. This was done by Boris Goedonov who first acted as a regent and later on he became the official ruler of Russia. In 1604 a time period called de time of treble began. This period is known for its civil wars and total chaos between opposing throne successors. In 1613 the clergy and nobility from several cities tried to end the confusion. In a joined effort they gathered a state meeting. There Michael, a nephew of the last tsar was elected tsar and with him a new time period arrived: the time of the Romanovs.

Period of the Romanovs After tsar Michael was crowned, he made sure that civil wars ended and Russia became stable and quite peaceful again. Also during this year’s Russia expanded its territory by colonizing Siberia. Although the dynasty of the Romanovs ruled for over 300 years the male line died with probably the most famous tsar of Russia and the first emperor of Russia: Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov, also known as Peter the Great.

When he became tsar he was still very young so several other people took advantages of this and ruled in his place. Eventually he grew up and became a solo ruler after all. Peter the Great was very interested in ship-building and he wanted to set up a Russian navy. Furthermore, he wanted Russia to be more European. To learn more about Western Europe he travelled for about eighteen months incognito with his nobles through Europe. Main goal was to create an alliance to fight the Ottoman Empire.

(Right: Portrait of Peter the Great.)

Because Russia did not have enough coast to create a significant navy, Peter wanted to get control over the Baltic sea. Unfortunately for him none of the European kingdoms was

Preliminary studies and retrospective views interested in his plans, so the trip became just educational. He spend, for example, a few months in the Netherlands, in Amsterdam and Zaandam in particular. He worked at the shipyard and learned a lot about shipping. This knowledge was used to build ships for the new Russian navy. Hereafter, he travelled to England were they told him how to build a new city. This knowledge resulted in the building of a new capital of Russia: Saint Petersburg.

At the time Peter returned to Russia, there still was one problem for his ambitions since Russia had no secure northern harbor that was not frozen for most of the year. He formed an alliance against Sweden with Denmark and Poland-Lithuania. The great Northern war started in 1700 and was not easy for Russia. The first attempts failed and it took until 1721 before Sweden surrendered and Russia became in control of the Baltic sea where almost 20 years earlier Saint Petersburg was built. This now became the capital of the Russian Empire and Peter the Great called it his ‘window to Europe’. But Peter achieved more during his rule than winning wars. He carried trough a lot of changes to make Russia more Western. An example is the ban of beards and the beard taxes. More serious developments were the reform of his government to a western model and his Table of Ranks. With this new ranking of nobles, nobility was not heritable anymore but it became more a matter of achievement and loyalty. The introduction of compulsory education for the children of nobles and high officers was just another example of the many things that changed during his reign.

Unfortunately when Peter the Great died, there was no real successor, because the father to son succession was abolished. Russia was ruled by his second wife, Catherina the Great, his grandson and later by his daughter Elizabeth. Russia gained great power and even defeated Napoleon and his army. However, this only covered up the bad government of Russia. When Europe experienced the Industrial revolution Russia stayed behind because emperors were afraid of un-Russian things and left the course Peter the Great had started. They maintained a policy of orthodoxy, autocracy and nationality which led to the first revolt in December 1825. Several tsars tried to make concessions by abolishing serfdom or by the October manifest of tsar Nicholas II in 1905. This manifest allowed the creation of a national parliament, called the Duma. But nothing could stop the new socialistic movements leading to the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917.

Communism, World War I and II and the Cold war The defeats of Russia during World War I and the war with Japan made tsar Nicholas resign and a temporary government of Socialists and Liberalist was formed. At the same time workers and soldiers formed ‘Soviets’, councils where democratic decisions were made about a factory or a village. The temporary government was not capable of ending the starvation and the war with Germany, so a group of socialists under the leadership of Lenin committed a coup. This Bolsheviks started negotiating with Germany and their leaders Lenin and Trotsky signed the pact of Brest-Litovsk which involved the loss of Estonia and Ukraine by the young Russian republic. In the meantime opponents of the Bolsheviks had gathered an army and a civil war started. The white army was supported by England and France and tried to defeat the Bolsheviks. It was only because of the lack of solidarity in the White armies that made it possible for the red army of Trotsky and Lenin to win this civil war in 1922. At that time it was not possible to introduce the ideological system Lenin and Trotsky had in mind. Not enough people knew about the communistic ideas and Russia, or officially the Soviet Union, was economically not in a position to give the power to the people. So the New Economical Politics, NEP, were started by Lenin. This meant more freedom for farmers and private factories were allowed. The NEP didn’t exist for a very long time because Lenin died in 1924.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Inside the communistic party began a fight for power between Trotsky, who was popular by the people and Stalin who, had power inside the party. Stalin won and immediately started to reform the economic system. He wanted to build a strong communistic country that would catch up with the Western capitalistic wealth. He introduced the five year plans in which the government decided how much there should be produced during this period. Stalin was in power for 25 years and during this period it was hard to live in the Soviet Union. With support of terror, propaganda and a powerful intelligent service Stalin created a totalitarian regime which he purged from all possible resistance. Many detention camps, the so called goelags, were created in Siberia and they were always crowded. Stalin also made sure he was worshipped by the people with, for example, propaganda posters like this one (right).

In the mean time an economical crisis started in the western world. This led to high unemployment and dissatisfaction. As a result, Hitler came into power and the Second World War started. Hitler and Stalin signed a pact of no aggression. This pact nowadays seems more a way to win some time because both parties were not prepared to fight each other. A few years earlier Stalin had killed all his officers in the army so he had no leaders there. Eventually Hitler violated the pact by attacking the Soviet Union in 1941. The German soldiers were not prepared for the cold Russian winters and a lot of them froze to death. Eventually Germany was defeated and The Soviet Union took this opportunity to extend its influence further in Europe. This resulted in great tensions between America and the Soviet Union. Their opinions considering the post-war world were very different. The Soviet Union created a sphere of influence and spread communism, while the United States set up the NATO and the Marshall aid. The Iron Curtain felt through Europe and it was a time with no real peace and even so no real war and now it’s called the Cold War. The Cold War knew periods of crises and quiet periods. One of the first crises was the blockade of west Berlin by Stalin. The result was an airlift created by Canada, France, the United States and other countries to supply west Berlin. 10 years later the Berlin Wall was build through Berlin to stop emigration from east to west. Another aspect of the Cold War was the arms race between the United States and Russia who both also worked on nuclear weapons. A nuclear war was a threat during the whole Cold War and the world came very close to it during the Cuba crises in 1962. With the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro was now the leader of Cuba and he made a secret alliance with the Soviet Union for military support. The Soviet Union would then be allowed to place nuclear missiles in Cuba which could hit the United States. Kennedy, the president of the United States at that time decided to build a blockade around Cuba so the Russian ships would not be able to deliver their nuclear weapons. Fortunately the Soviet Union ordered the ships to return and nuclear war was avoided.

During the start of the Cold War Stalin reigned the Soviet Union with an iron fist until his death in 1953 a few years after the first nuclear bomb was tested. His successor Khrushchev made an end to the worshipping of Stalin and a lot of people returned from the goelags in Siberia. In this period the Soviet Union experienced a huge economical and technical growth and the even won the space race when Yuri Gagarin was launched as the first men in space. This communistic, conservative and anti- capitalistic politic was maintained until Gorbachev became the new leader in 1985. He introduced two new terms in the politics of Russia: Glasnost and perestroika. The first one means openness and the second is about political freedom. With this new policy, the Soviet Union became more open to the west. Gorbachev was not the first who tried to talk with Western leaders but he was the most successful.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Very soon after he started his attempt at conciliation and talked to Ronald Reagan, the communistic regimes in East Europe became independent and after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 the changes couldn’t be stopped. Gorbachev stayed for two more years and with his retire in 1991 the Soviet Union ceased to exist.

Map of area’s influenced by the Soviet Union (red) and the United States (blue)

Recent history, after the Berlin wall The largest state in the former Soviet Union was Russia, so it was accepted as the successor of the Soviet Union. It was anything but a stable country at this time. Still there were conflicts with satellite states who wanted to become independent and a lot of people wanted to move to the West. In combination with the poor economy Russia was a difficult country to lead. It was Boris Yeltsin who tried with variable success. He had to deal with several economical crises and with rich bankers who bought political influence. In 2000 the ex-KGB agent Vladimir Putin won the elections for Russian president and from then on the economy slowly stabilized. Russia seems a stable country nowadays but still there is a trace of governmental control on the press and daily life.

Origin and early history; Finland The Roman history writer Tacitus was the first who mentioned a people in the region of current Finland. He called them the Fenni and they were concentrated in three regions of Finland. They were primitive farmers in an area of strategical importance. For that reason Sweden annexed the land in the 12th century and stayed in control until 1809. The Finns did not have a central authority at that time, so they were easy targets. Consequence of the authority of Sweden was the forced conversion of the Finnish people to Christianity. At that time Sweden was in a personal union with Norway and Denmark so Finland experienced Western influences from that time on. Still it was a wanted area to control, so it was the stage of wars between Russia and Sweden many times. These wars had a negative effect on the development of the area and growth of the population. Around 1750 the situation stabilized and a small resistance against Sweden occurred. In 1809 Sweden had to give up its power and from that time Finland was a grand duchy of Russia for more than a century.

Recent history At the time of the Russian revolution a sense of nationalism came up in Finland. It declared itself independent in 1917, which resulted in a civil war. When a stable republic was formed the Treaty of Tartu was signed, regarding that Finland would not demand original Finnish territories in East Karelia and that in return it got Petsamo, the only ice-free harbour during winter. However, in November 1939 the Soviet Union attacked Finland unannounced, which resulted in the Winter War. Finland lost 30% of its industrial capacity and 11% of its territory, including Petsamo in a long war in which the Finnish were initially performing better, despite being outnumbered. The vile Russian attack made the Finnish to have a grudge against the Soviet Union . After the Second World War Finland had lost much of its power and was not communistic. Therefore, in the years of the Cold War, its major objective was to make clear to the Soviet Union that it was no threat, to ensure its independence. For example, to show its willingness to the Soviet Union it did not participate in the Marshall Plan and several treaties were signed. Due to the policy of loyal separatism it was able to keep itself independent.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

From 1955 its position improved when Finland was allowed by the Soviet Union to enter the United Nations and the Nordic Council. Especially this last made it possible for Finland to profile itself among its Western oriented neighbors and ease border procedures. This also resulted in improvement of the economy, because Finland industrialized. In the following decades Finland was allowed to enter the European Free Trade Association, but had to be careful in criticism regarding the Soviet Union and its foreign policy. Therefore it criticized the USA more often. Since many Finnish grew up in those years, they are quite critical towards American foreign policies even today. In 1990 Finland experienced a great depression which lasted until 1993. With the end of the Soviet Union more Western connections became possible for Finland. So it applied for the European Union and entered in 1995 together with Sweden.

International relations and politics of Russia

Political system

The constitution of Russia states it’s a federation and a semi-presidential republic. The president is the head of the state and the government is led by the prime minister. At this time Medvedev is president and Putin has the function of prime minister. The government has the executive power and consists of 18 ministries. They are controlled by the Federal Assembly of Russia which consists of the lower house being the State Duma, and the upper house being the Federation Council of Russia.

The president of Russia is elected for a period of six years and can be re-elected for one extra period. He is responsible for contacts with other countries and is supreme commander of the Russian army. The prime minister is nominated by the president and approved by the State Duma. The lower house consists of 450 representatives who are elected out of several political parties for a term of four years. Every law first had to be approved by the State Duma before it is judged by the Federal Council. Other activities of the Duma consider the hearing of reports of the ministries, appointment of the chairman of the central bank of Russia, the announcement of amnesty and the possibility to bring charges against the president.

The upper house consists of representatives of the several federal subareas of Russia. Every federal subarea has two representatives in this council and the procedure of appointing them is determined in the legislation of the different subjects of the federation. Besides the approval of federal laws, the upper house is among others authorized to take decisions about the use of the armed forces of Russia, the declaration of presidential elections and the appointment of judges to the constitutional and the supreme court.

Russia is not a real federation because the different federal subareas haven’t got the same amount of autonomy. Since the year 2000 all federal subareas are grouped in seven large federal districts. These districts don’t form a new layer of administration but are meant to increase the control of the federal government. Every district is led by a representative of the president.

Picture of president Medvedev (left) and prime minister Putin (right)

Some people believe Medvedev rules under great influence of Putin and in fact Putin is the one who makes the decisions. But officially there is nothing that proves this.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Relationship with Europe The relations between Russia and European countries are influenced by the recent history when the Soviet Union controlled many European countries. After the fall of the Soviet Union this so called satellite states declared independence. But doing so didn’t immediately remove all trouble. For example, most of these countries have a minority of Russians among their population. Russia dealt with this in various ways. This can be illustrated by looking at two different countries, both were part of the Soviet Union and both declared independence during 1990-1991.

The first is Estonia which in its history has been controlled by Denmark and Sweden. In 1710 it was conquered by Peter the Great and it was under Russian control until 1918. A short period of independence followed, but during the first years of the second World War Estonia was attacked by the Soviet Union again and Estonia was successfully conquered. This resulted in Estonia becoming a part of the Soviet Union. In 1987 Estonia started protests against the Soviet rule by singing and forming a human chain. This period is known as the singing revolution. It ended with the declaration of independence of Estonia in 1991. Remarkably, Russia or the Soviet Union didn’t really try to avoid this so Estonia moved on and entered the European Union, the NATO and recently the OECD, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The second country we look at is Chechnya which is situated in the northern Caucasus. Chechnya was fighting against Russian (and other foreign) rule since the Middle Ages. With the collapse of the Soviet Union the independence movement of Chechnya took this opportunity to declare the independence of the state Chechnya. The new government is led by a veteran of the Soviet army and he hopes for a positive reaction of the new Russian president Boris Yeltsin. Unfortunately the reaction is more in the opposite direction and Russia eventually attacks Chechnya in 1994. The war is won by Russia and after elections a pro-Russia leader is installed. Because of the great percentage of votes for the winner (93%) a lot of Chechen believe Russia committed fraud. So their resistance doesn’t stop but they change strategy. Several Russian targets such as hospitals are subject of the taking of hostages and this turns out to be an effective way for the Chechen to get partially what they want. In 1996 a period of relative peace starts but this period doesn’t last for a very long time. When a leader of Chechnya tried to start an Islamic revolution in a neighboring part of the Russian federation, Russian troops again invaded Chechnya. They stayed for a period of ten years and in 2009 the current president, a friend of Putin, asked Russia to withdraw. The country seems stable now but the resistance is still around in Chechnya and surrounding countries. Rebellions execute attacks on Russian targets. For example hostages have been taken in a theater in Moscow in 2002 and a bomb attack in the metro of Moscow in 2010.

Russia is not uniform in its treatment of countries who want to get out of the federation. In the case of Estonia there is no resistance at all and at the same time violent wars are fought to keep Chechnya in the Russian Federation. Perhaps, this can be explained by looking at the relations of these countries with Europe and the rest of the world. Estonia had good contact with Sweden and other Western countries. Chechnya on the other hand is closer to eastern Islamic countries which may be a problem for Russia. Furthermore, Chechnya has a lot of raw materials which could be of importance to Russia too. However, the extreme measurements Russia has taken in Chechnya made it clear to the rest of the world that Russia still wants to have as much power and influence as possible.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

The relationship of Russia with western European countries who never were part of their influence sphere is different and depends more on the many raw materials of Russia. Russia has a lot of possibilities to win oil and gas and European countries depend more or less on their production. 30% of the amount of gas that is used in the EU in one year, comes from Russia. This concerned the EU for many years and several times people tried to become more independent. But not every EU- member is negative about the cooperation with Russia because economically and financial they benefit. Examples of these countries are Germany and the Netherlands who both invested money in new pipelines of the Russian energy company Gazprom. The biggest concern of the EU is the 51% share of the Russian government in Gazprom and they are afraid Russia will use this to suppress European countries. The dependence of the European market and economy on the Russian gas supply is illustrated by a small conflict between Russia and the Ukraine in 2006. The conflict was about the gas prizes and when Ukraine didn’t want to pay the new prices, Russia simply cut of a part of the gas supply. Russia of course denies that these things would happen, but there are also other signs that Russia absolutely wants to be taken serious as a world power.

A few times in the last four years Russian bombers entered the airspace above Europe without making radio contact. They are allowed to fly there but only when they stay in touch with the air navigation services. When they don’t, the planes are guided by offensive aircrafts of the countries who are responsible for several areas of airspace. It is believed that Russia sets up these actions to show the rest of the world and especially the NATO that it still is a powerful military power. Fortunately there are also positive aspects in the relation of Russia with the rest of the world. Russia continued the Soviet union’s membership of the United Nations and holds now a permanent seat in the Security Council. Besides that, Russia is active in a lot of UN organizations and peacekeeping missions. Furthermore in 1994 Russia signed a partnership with the NATO and a partnership with the European Union. Although it is expected that real entry in both organizations won’t happen soon, or maybe never. Main point of the NATO- Russia founding act from 1994 is the promise of both groups to stop thinking of the other as an adversary and to overcome earlier confrontations. The NATO promises to focus on peacekeeping operations and supporting the UN. On the other hand Russia will continue to build a democratic society and reform politics and economics.

Relations with the USA The relations between Russia and America also experience influence from the Cold War. For example, the arms race from that time resulted in a large amount of nuclear weapons on both sides. Both seem willing to give up some of these weapons to make the world safer but only if they know for sure the other does the same thing. Last year president Obama and president Medvedev signed a new START-agreement which states the decrease of nuclear weapons to a third of the current amount. This looks like a big step forwards to a safer world and now only waits for approval by the second half of the Russian Duma.

Another point of arguing between both countries, was the plan of the US to build a missile shield in Europe to protect against attacks from Iran or North Korea. The shield will be used to protect against long-distance missiles and should consist of a base in Poland and one in Czech republic, both former members of the influence sphere of the Soviet Union. Poland and Czech republic are quite positive about the shield because they want to be more connected to the western world than to Russia. And the possibility exist that building of the shield results in economical and technical growth. In 2009 however, president Obama decided to reject the shield. This led to disappointment in Poland but in the opinion of president Medvedev it is a wise decision.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

The relations between the Unites States and Russia are not really warm but improve slowly. However, sometime it seems the Cold War returns. For example in the summer of 2010 when ten people were arrested in the United States on suspicion of espionage. They confessed and the judge decided they had to leave the United States as soon as possible. At the same time in Russian prisons four people were hold captive with the same accusation. They too had confessed, which made the way clear to exchange them. This happened a few weeks later in Vienna and it was the largest exchange of prisoners since the Cold War ended.

So even though both governments work hard to improve the relation between Russia and the United States, they still do not really trust each other.

International relations and politics of Finland

Political system

The republic of Finland is governed by the president and a group of maximal 18 ministers. Among this ministers there is one prime minister who’s main job is to manage the other ministers. However, since the year 2000 all affairs of the European Union are under his control. The prime minister forms together with the other ministers and an extra member, the Chancellor of Justice, the council of state. They form several committees where the policy is determined. However, they always need approval of the parliament.

The president of Finland is elected for a period of six years and deals with the foreign affairs in cooperation with the council of state. Besides this the president is commander of the armed forces and has to approve laws and formally has to appoint the prime minister. Since the year 2000 Finland has a female president, namely Tarja Halonen.

Elections for the parliament take place every four years and 200 people can be chosen. Finland is divided in 12-18 districts which all can fill a certain amount of seats. This amount is determined out of the number of inhabitants of a district. The leader of the biggest party can start negotiating about a coalition to gain more than half of the 200 seats. He is formally appointed to do so by the president and the prime minister can choose the other ministers but the parliament has the power to vote one (or all) of them out.

The chancellor of justice is a member of the council of state with as main goal to supervise the government. This position has its origin in 1713 when it was created in Sweden. The king appointed a representative who had to control the judges and other officials. When Finland became a grand duchy of Russia this function was maintained by the tsar of Russia. After the declaring of independence of Finland, the function developed and now has as main goal to protect the principles of the constitutional state. Nowadays it is a high authority in Finland and appointed by the president. Besides controlling whether the decisions of the government are in agreement with the constitution or not, the chancellor is also the juridical advisor of the government in early stages of decision making. The chancellor also handles with complains about unlawful acts of person with a public duty. Every Finnish citizen is allowed to file a complaint for free, but in practice it does not happen often.

Right”: Picture of the current president of Finland, Tarja Halonen.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

International relations During the Cold war Finland chose to be very neutral to protect their independence of Russia as well as their trade with the Western world. Since Finland became a member of the European Union they stepped away from this position and became more active in several international organizations. Finland has an intensive cooperation with its neighboring countries. Main goal of this relations is to improve economical situations and connections. The strategy for cooperation with neighboring areas is recorded in a document approved in 2004. Since 1955 Finland forms, together with Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland the Nordic Council. Once a year the members of this council send delegations of parliamentarians to meet each other. The presidency of the council rotates between the members. The member that holds the presidency is host for the meeting. Main goal of the Nordic Council is to create uniform policy and close cooperation between the members. For example, this resulted in free passage between the members and the right to settle in other Nordic countries. The council does not have any executive power. Each delegation communicates the ideas and proposals of the council to their own government which will make the actual decisions. Some of the main subjects of discussion were globalization and climate changes.

The relation with Russia is still very important for Finland and after becoming an EU-member several presidents of Finland visited Russia to keep this relationship warm. Since 1990 Finland spent more than 239 million euro’s to joint projects with Russia. The cooperation between the two countries is arranged in an agreement which was signed in 1992 and focuses on the Northern part of Russia which is most relevant to Finland. The relation is nowadays focused on trading and the economy but used to be also militaristic. This may be the reason why Finland wants to be military independent. They believe this is best for a stable northern Europe. So Finland does cooperate with the NATO but did not become a real member although some other former Soviet countries did.

In 1993 Finland experienced an economical crisis which makes it extra remarkable how strong the economy is now. It is stable and one of the better ones in Europe. First the economy was based on agriculture but nowadays it is a knowledge economy. Large contributions to this economy are made by telecommunication, the production of agricultural machines and the wood and paper industry. A lot of these products are part of Finland’s export which for 60% goes to Europe. Overall Finland recovered very well from the domination of the Soviet Union. They created a stable and good working economy and a democratic society. They are active and cooperative in many international organizations and joined some of them but remain military independent. Because of their neutrality in many situations they often act as a mediator, for example when it concerns Russia. Finland has good relations with most other countries and knows little international conflicts.

References 1) http://www.council.gov.ru/eng/about/status/index.html 2) http://finlandsite.nl/finlandsite/finland/inhoud/page.php?18 3) http://formin.finland.fi/Public/default.aspx?nodeid=34823&contentlan=2&culture=en-US 4) http://books.google.nl/books?id=VaxLLcaLLL4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=het+staatsrecht+van+1 5+landen+van+de+europese+unie&source=bl&ots=tuW7Bava9U&sig=HAX0V6ka- crsAHQvXgBVZrlwRkA&hl=nl&ei=zyE_TZOlB4iDOrD6hM8L&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct#v=onepa ge&q&f=false 5) http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_25468.htm 6) http://formin.finland.fi/public/default.aspx?culture=en-US&contentlan=2 7) http://www.norden.org/en 8) http://www.nos.nl 9) http://www.nrc.nl 10) http://vorige.nrc.nl/economie/article1852600.ece/Niet_heel_Europa_is_vies_van_gas_uit_Ruslan d

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

11) http://nos.nl/artikel/63036-het-raketschild-in-vraag-en-antwoord.html 12) http://www.landenweb.net/rusland/geschiedenis/ 13) http://www.voorbeginners.info/rusland/geschiedenis-1.htm 14) http://www.wikipedia.org 15) Een geschiedenis van Rusland, Van Rurik tot Brezjnev, J.W. Bezemer, 1988 16) A history of Finland, Eino Jutikkala and Kauko Pirinen, translated by Paul Sjöblom, 1962

Retrospective view History and international relations of Russia and Finland

In my pre-study I described the history, politics and international relations of both Russia and Finland. Russia has a long history which is filled with wars, suppression and dictators. This only changed when the Berlin wall felt and the Soviet Union collapsed. Since then Russia is more or less a democratic federation. Finland does not have a long national history because it was part of Sweden and Russia until 1918, when Finland got independent. Since then it is a stable democracy with good international relations.

During our stay in St. Petersburg I noticed some influence of the historic events I described in the pre-study. First of all there were signs of communism on buildings and statues. This included symbols of communism and the Soviet Union such as the hammer and sickle and portraits of Lenin. Remarkable was the fact that Lenin was the only communistic leader who was present. This is probably caused by the cruel actions of Stalin’s dictatorship. During his regime he sent many people to the Gulag archipelago to labour camps and even many of his political associates were killed. When Lenin was in power he came with new ideas to change the unequal situation in Russia and to give power to the normal people. His revolution wasn’t peaceful but definitely less cruel and random than Stalin’s regime. So I can imagine that Lenin is a person to remember and even to be a bit proud of while nobody really wants to think of Stalin anymore.

As I walked through St. Petersburg I noticed that the city centre looks good despite all the damage caused during the Russian revolution and Second World War. Many buildings must have been restored recently. Also I tried to look for similarities between this city and other European cities because St. Petersburg was built along the lines of, among others, London and Amsterdam. Because I have never been in London it is difficult to compare, but a certain similarity with Amsterdam is clear: there is a lot of water in St. Petersburg. The city is build around the river Neva and has a lot of canals and bridges. The style of the buildings does not show a lot of similarity because the buildings in the city are mainly built (and rebuilt) in a baroque style. St. Petersburg is built in a relatively short time and according to a plan. Remaining of this plan can be seen in the city plan of the centre which is organized.

On Sunday we visited the Alexander Nevsky monastery which was founded by Peter the Great in 1710. Monks still live there and when we wanted to visit the church belonging to it, there was a Russian orthodox church service in progress. These church services are very different from what I am used to in the Netherlands. The church was very beautiful decorated and there were a lot of icons of saints. There were a lot of people and they were walking around or standing and praying to a certain saint while at the altar the priest was singing and reading. I think it as very special to see the church service of a religion you do not know much about. After the service had ended we thought we could get a closer look at the interior of the church but suddenly there appeared about ten monks and people lined up in order to talk to them, get blessed or to do a confession. We didn’t want to disturb too much so we went away. Later that day we saw a very small, odd building and went in to find out its function.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Inside we saw a priest and a small group of people so we concluded this was a sort of chapel where also a church service was going on. I was very surprised to see how religion and mostly the Russian orthodox church live in Russia, especially because every religion was forbidden during the communistic period. I think it is remarkably that in about 30 years this has been recovered while in other parts of the world people get less religious.

Another thing I noticed is the behaviour of people on the street. Everybody had a neutral look on his or her face and seems to be in a hurry. I rarely saw people laughing or stop to chat. I wonder if this is caused by the strict regime during the Soviet period because I would be surprised if it is still of this great influence. On the other hand I can’t really think of any other reasons for this behaviour.

To me Russia seemed a stable country on the outside but there are very big differences between rich and poor and I think disabled or old people are very dependent on their family. So if you don’t have a family I think you live a hard life in Russia.

After a week in St. Petersburg we went to Helsinki by train. The trip wasn’t very long but still there were a lot of controls of both the Russian and Finnish customs. Helsinki was a small town until Russia defeated Sweden and incorporated Finland. To reduce the influence of Sweden, Helsinki became the capital instead of Turku. Therefore I expected to arrive in a very modern city, especially compared to St. Petersburg. My expectations turned out to be correct because the centre of Helsinki is filled with high and modern buildings and it looks a lot like any other European city without a historical centre. There are some neoclassical buildings around the central square, but even these buildings look modern. But when you move a bit out of the centre there are some nice streets with art nouveau buildings.

During our visit there were national elections and therefore a lot of people were conducting a campaign for their favourite. As in other European countries you could notice the public opinion turned more toward right-wing parties in Finland.

I always thought we would see a lot of Russian influences in Helsinki but there were surprisingly few. We saw a Russian orthodox church and Russian souvenirs in the souvenir shops but that was about it. During the writing of my pre-study I already noticed how important the rest of the world and especially Europe is to Finland and that they really want to be independent. This was again confirmed by the absence of the obvious Russian influences. Because of their clear independent and neutral status, Helsinki is a suitable place for institutes of the European Union and other organisations. For example the European Chemicals Agency is situated in Helsinki.

After all I think I can conclude I have learned a lot of this study tour. Although I had already visited Russia once before, I saw many new and special things. The culture and history of Helsinki was less special but this was compensated by the high level of research at the universities, the institutes and companies we visited.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Tom Nolte Description of chemistry and biochemistry in Russia

Russia is a country which lies partially in Europe and partially in Asia. Politically it lies mostly in Europe, for its most important regions lie officially on the European continent and over 70 percent of its population lives there. Moscow, being the largest city, is its capital and the economic heart of Russia. It’s where the parliament is located. With a total surface area of 17.098.242 km², Russia is by far the biggest country in the world, almost two times larger than the second largest country Canada. The Russian population counts 141.945.966 people, ranking Russia 9th of the world.

From 1817 till 1991 the country was head of the united socialist soviet republic, nowadays every country including Russia is considered independent. Still Russia is a very influential member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). In diplomatic affaires Russia is considered the successor state of the old Soviet-Union. Since the breaking of this union its population decreased as a consequence of emigration and deterred living standards. After the nineties, which were dreadful because of the worsening economic situations, the way upward was found. For the last eight years the Russian population is growing again.

The cause of the main difference between Russian and western culture is thought to be the secularization, which came a tad late in Russia. In western civilisation its profane culture was widely influencing as early as the renaissance in the 14 th century. In the 18 th century Russia finally caught up with the rest of Europe, and booming in the 19 th century led to some of the greatest cultural achievements of all time: Tolstoi (literature), Tchaikovsky (music). The 19 th century is considered the prime of Russian culture.

Economy The sudden change of the economic system, from communism to capitalism, led to capitalism in its roughest form. People with the right connections became rich very fast while the rest of the population fell into poverty. The “newly rich” were often loyal communist party members and even nowadays they are still in control in some parts of the government. At the time former president Vladimir Putin tried to limit the wealth and influence of these people, though he would not just deal with these oil bosses by law. For instance Putin made Roman Abramovitsj governor of the poor region of Tsjoekotka, hoping he would invest in this area. Russia quickly overcame the financial crisis of 1998, from that point on its economy grew with an average of 6.5%. With oil and gas being two of the most important export products, this boost was partially driven by a high price for oil. Not all Russians profited from the economic growth, but a large amount of people now possess more money than they did before. All of this caused global recognition and confidence, so that foreign companies are more willing to invest in the country.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Chemistry Nowadays the main export products of Russia are electricity, crude oil, natural gas, coal, ore and wood. Because of the massive natural recourses the chemical industry of Russia went through a major growth. Another cause: a substantial demand for chemicals in Europe, but also in Russia itself. The main products of the Russian chemical industry are basic chemicals, as well as rubber, fibreglass and paint. The internal market in polymers, polyethylene, PVC and polypropylene, is relatively new but promising. The products will mainly be utilised in own country. In 2003 Russia had an export of chemical products with a value of 6.5 million dollars. The huge reserves have made Russia into one of the biggest producers and exporters of the world. For instance Russia possesses the biggest natural gas reserves in the world. Since October 2001 Russia sells 4 billion cubic meters of natural gas to the Netherlands. And currently Gazprom, owned by the government, is making new pipeline connections to eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East. The oil is destined for the Chinese market. In the near future new oilfields in western Siberia will be utilised and by using new techniques it is possible to drill for oil much deeper.

Environment With all this economic and industrial prosperity the environment was mostly neglected. The oil and gas production lead to pollution. In many cities the concentration of harmful toxics in the air has topped the western standards many times. Though, around 2000 these values were still around those of 1990 for the simple reason that the industry was not at full capacity because of the lack of orders. Also the (drinking) water has been severely polluted. Especially in the Ural and Siberia the landscape is totally destroyed. In the current pipeline net (370.000 km) there are several tears and rips causing the gas to run out freely which causes the rivers and soil to become polluted. According to some calculations 9% of all oil and gas leaks out of the pipelines. However, Russia has claimed to care about the environment; it has signed the

Kyoto-treaty. This tells Russia to reduce its CO 2 emission to the level it was in 1990. Russia is already well on this level because its industry collapsed in the nineties and is far away from the level of 1990.

Thus Russia, being a global industrial and economic powerhouse, caused a deteriorationof the global environment. Therefore it is extremely important that the production, exploitation and transportation of the natural resources and chemicals are executed with utmost care. Chemistry in Russia is not just a topic handled only in the last decades, this branch of science reaches back to the 18 th century.

History of scientific chemistry The Russian history of chemistry begins with the discrepancy of chemistry and alchemy. In ancient times chemistry was mostly involved in practical situations like the melting of metals, the brewing of beer, the making of soap or simple natural antidotes. All of these crafts are to be recognised primitive forms of chemistry. At the time chemistry was more connected to practical use rather than the more theoretical background it has today in industries and laboratories. Though the roots of today’s chemistry lie in ancient Babylon, Egypt and Persia, most of it evolved at the time of Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794), who introduced the law of mass conservation.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Also in the 18th century Lomonosov independently started a chemical tradition in Russia. He refuted the at the time realistic theories for combustion and was well into the kinetic theory for gasses. He saw warmth as a form of energy and movement and concretized the law of conservation of mass.

Chemists in the 19 th century were divided because of the fundamental atom-theory of John Dalton. Though Amedeo Avogadro and Ludwig Boltzmann made huge progress in the description of gasses, the debate was closed in the years just after the turn of the century. This was due to Jean Perkins research in the Brownian motion (drunken mans walk) of particles and its collisions.

In the following years the elements were discovered, some by accident, some by research. A breakthrough in this matter was conceived by Dmitri Mendeleev. He brought order to the long list of elements and created the periodic table of elements. Using this table he could predict the existence of more elements and the properties they were likely to have. For instance he predicted germanium, gallium, and scandium. Gallium was scientifically discovered five years later and appeared to have the predicted properties.

Pioneers After Germany, Russia is (historically) the second contributor to today’s global chemistry. It produced numerous famous chemists who discovered many new chemical reactions. Some pioneers in the field were: Dmitri Mendeleev (1834 - 1907), Vladimir Markovnikov (1838 - 1904), Nikolaj Mensjoetkin (1842 – 1907) en Aleksej Favorski (1860 – 1945)

Vladimir Markovnikov Markovnikov first studied economics and became, after graduation, assistant of Aleksandr Butlerov in Kazan and Saint Petersburg. After graduation in 1860 he went to Germany for two years where he studied under Richard Erlenmeyer and Hermann Kolbe. He returned to Russia, received his PhD in 1869 and succeeded to Butlerov's professorship at Kazan University. After a conflict with that university he was appointed professor at the University of Odessa in 1871 and only two years later at the University of Moscow, where he stayed the rest of his career. Markovnikov is best known for Markovnikov's rule, which he developed in 1869 to describe addition reactions of H-X to alkenes. According to this rule, the nucleophilic X- adds to the carbon atom with fewer hydrogen atoms, while the proton adds to the carbon atom with more hydrogen atoms bonded to it. Thus, hydrogen chloride (HCl) adds to propene, CH 3-CH=CH 2 to produce 2-chloropropane CH 3CHClCH 3 rather than the isomeric 1-chloropropane

CH 3CH 2CH 2Cl. The rule is useful in predicting the molecular structures of products of addition reactions.

Markovnikov also contributed to organic chemistry by finding molecules with a carbon ring consisting of four carbon atoms in 1879, and a ring with seven in 1889. Markovnikov also showed that butyric and isobutyric acids have the same chemical formula (C 4H8O2) but different structures; i.e. they are isomers.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Nikolaj Menshutkin Menshutkin was born in St. Petersburg. At an age of only 16 he finished school and started studying at the University of St. Petersburg. In 1862 he finished university with a degree in chemistry. He went to Germany to join the research group of Adolph Strecker at the University of Tübingen in 1862. In 1864 he went to the University of Paris to work with Adolph Wurtz. After returning home he received a master degree for the work done during his stay in France and Germany, mostly for research on chemistry of phosphorous acid. Later in 1869, after defending his PhD thesis against Aleksandr Butlerov and Dmitri Mendeleev, he became a lecturer at the University of St. Petersburg. In the next few years he was promoted and published several chemistry text books, which were of great influence on the education of chemistry in Russia in the following years. In 1890 he made his greatest achievement; Menshutkin discovered the process of converting a tertiary amine to a quaternary ammonium salt via the reaction with an alkyl halide, now known as the Menshutkin reaction. Menshutkin also studied the effect of different solvents on the reaction rates. The stabilization of the reactants, products and transition states depends strongly on the polarity of the solvent, and therefore different solvents have a large influence on the reaction rate. Because of the formation of ionic products, the effect was especially strong in the Menshutkin reaction making it an ideal tool to study the effect of solvent on the reaction rate. The Menshutkin reaction is still used for this purpose.

Another important Russian chemist who must be mentioned is Favorski. Aleksej Favorski (1878-1882), also from Saint Petersburg, discovered two organic reactions: The Favorski rearrangement (the reaction of α-haloketones with an alkoxide-ion forming esters) and the Favorski reaction (nucleophilic attack on a carbonyl group involving a terminal alkyne with acidic protons). In 1941 Favorski was awarded the state prize of the Soviet Union for his work concerning innovations in the production of synthetic rubber.

Development of spectroscopy Russia’s contribution to the spectroscopic methods of analysis is substantial. Although the Nobel Prize for the discovery of combination light scattering, which forms the basis for the corresponding method, was awarded to V. Raman (India), it is known that this phenomenon was found independently by L.I. Mandel’shtam and G.S. Landsberg. At present, Raman spectroscopy is of great importance for chemical analysis.

The role of B.V. L’vov in the development of electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry is recognized worldwide. The popular atomic absorption method for the characterization of numerous compounds (cold vapor method) was also proposed by Poluektov. All of this led to the development of flame photometry.

Soviet scientists accomplished much in the field of UV and visible spectrophotometry, especially in the study of chemical processes in solution and the determination of metal ions. Many organic reagents were proposed for the latter purpose, and some of them have become widespread (thoron, arsenazo III, etc.).

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

The contribution to mass spectrometry should also be mentioned. Thus, B.A. Mamyrin (Physicotechnical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the USSR) developed the so-called mass reflectron, which has now been added to the arsenal of many companies manufacturing mass spectrometers. L.N. Gall’s group from the Special Design Bureau of Analytical Instrument Making, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, developed an electrospray ionization method. In 1920s–1930s, N.A. Tananaev, apparently at the same time as F. Feigl (Austria), developed a spot test method. An interesting method of molecular nuclei of condensation was developed in a secret institution in the 1960s by Ya.I. Kogan.

Specialists also recognize the achievements of Russian analysts in the field of liquid–liquid extraction.

All of the before mentioned chemists made Russia historically a true Walhalla for chemistry. Also in the previous decades there has been a lot of movement in the science in Russia. A lot of new technical methods are being developed to optimize the production of organic chemicals. This is partially driven by the upcoming industries. The motor behind these industries however still is, and always will be, science. The industry can only move as fast as the level of knowledge. Amongst others this knowledge is gathered by the chemistry-branch of the Russian Academy of Science.

Russian chemistry and its structure

The RAS The academy leading the scientific progress being made is the Russian Academy of Sciences. This organization consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals. Headquartered in Moscow, the Academy is incorporated as a civil, self-governed, non-commercial organization chartered by the Government of Russia. It combines members of RAS and scientists employed by institutions. The RAS consists of three territorial branches, 14 regional scientific centers and nine specialized scientific branches. Among these nine branches is the Institute of Organoelement Compounds which specializes explicitly in chemistry.

The INEOS The Institute of Organoelement Compounds (INEOS) was founded in 1954. At present INEOS is a large research centre with 664 employees, including 564 scientific researchers, among them 77 Professors (Dr.Sc.) and 248 PhD. researchers. INEOS is an internationally recognized research establishment, where the chemistry of organoelement and macromolecular compounds is developed. Its reputation as a scientific centre of chemistry is very high both in Russia and abroad. At the INEOS’s earliest stages it was implied that synthetic work in organoelement and macromolecular chemistry should be combined with the necessity of relevant theoretical and physical investigations, and therefore many laboratories at INEOS are carrying out their research at the junction of several branches in chemistry and physics. This determines the points of growth which lead to progress in modern science and technology.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

From traditional, scientific disciplines (to which the organoelement chemistry itself belongs too), valuable experience accumulated during these years has given rise to a series of new scientific fields which are characterized by a unique combination of organic, organoelement, coordination, physical chemistry, and chemistry of the macromolecular and natural biologically active compounds.

Thus new branches in chemistry have appeared at the junction of organic, organometallic and coordination chemistry, namely the chemistry of the organic derivatives of the transition metals, pi-complexes and clusters, asymmetric catalysis etc. The unique properties of these new compounds made it possible to develop new organometallic catalysts, to study an activation of small molecules (including molecular nitrogen, hydrocarbons, etc). Combination of organic and organoelement chemistry with the experimental and theoretical methods of physical chemistry promoted the development of relevant studies in reactivity, structural chemistry, catalysis and molecular dynamics of organoelement compounds.

The interaction between organophosphorus chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacology, and toxicology made it possible to unlock the secrets of the mechanisms responsible for the action of organophosphorus compounds upon biological structures and living organisms. Significant progress has been achieved in the field of new tumor-selective anticancer preparations and physiologically active organofluorine compounds.

The works at the junction of the organic and inorganic chemistry, studies of the processes of polymer formation as well as structure property relations, brought about the chemistry of polymers with organoelement and inorganic molecular chains and opened the routes to novel classes of linear and network polymers. New materials with valuable thermal, catalytic, absorptionalabsorption and electro-physical properties, engineering plastics, thermostable composites and adhesives, membranes and polymers for electronics and medicine have been made up on the basis of these polymers.

At present, INEOS includes 38 laboratories and 18 research teams. The results of scientific research carried out at the Institute since 2001 have been summarized in more than 1600 scientific papers and 16 monographs. For the past five years, mutually beneficial contracts have been signed with numerous universities, institutes and industrial centres in Russia and abroad. For recent years the scientific activities of the Institute have been supported by 20 international grants, 50-60 grants from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), more than 50 grants from the Presidium of the Russian Academy.

One of the important parts of the INEOS activity aimed at the future is the training of young specialists of high qualification. In 2003, a scientific educational centre INEOS Department was founded within the framework of the programme “support for young scientists”. The goal is to train a new generation of young highly educated specialists of wide profile who know modern research methods, on the basis of the priority scientific line performed at INEOS.

Within the recent years the Institute participated in organization of more than twenty conferences, symposia, and seminars. The list of the most important international meetings is quite impressive, it contains all kinds of topics from condensation polymer synthesis to a conference about Boron chemistry. Outstanding foreign scientists and representatives of science-oriented companies are frequent visitors to INEOS. The Institute participates in several joint projects with foreign institutions and companies directed to research collaboration and commercialization of “know-how” and new synthesized products. Major directions of research

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Basic research in the field of organoelement and organic chemistry include the study of novel structures, reactivity, and kinetics. There is done a lot in elaboration of new methods for synthesis of organoelement compounds with polyhedral substituents (carboranes, fullerenes), polydecker compounds, clusters, anticrowns, etc. Also there are studies of their geometry, electronic structure and chemical behaviour (stereochemistry, tautomerism, molecular dynamics) by physico-chemical techniques and methods of quantum chemistry. At the INEOS researchers also come up with new applications for organometallic compounds in modern synthesis and catalysis.

Fundamental problems of the synthesis are continuously investigated; structure and properties of polymers and composites are studied and altered. Synthesis of aromatic and heterocyclic polymers including polyconjugated, super-rigid, and network polymers are being done, these are polymers which are often discovered in biological systems.

Saint Petersburg, the science centre Also the University of Saint Petersburg is under the direct control of the Russian Academy of Science. Amongst many is a leading man vice-president of the RAS Zhores I. Alferov. Today Zhores Alferov is the Rector of the Academic University. Integration is a major condition of survival of modern science and education.

The RAS thus being the institution, which unites institutes and laboratories of the Academy, Academic departments and the Lyceum "Physical-Technical School" helps Training new students at Saint Petersburg. Also it brings postgraduate students in direct contact with active scientists, who teach them not only at lectures and seminars but also in the laboratories in line with advanced world tendencies of training scientific brainpower; it creates necessary prerequisites for Russia to retain its leading position in scientific and technical progress in the 21st century. The system of scientific staff training is constantly improved, and after the establishing of the Research and Education Centre today the Academic University it became complete.

The Academic University of Saint Petersburg has held about one hundred conferences on the issues related to various branches of science. They include an international seminar on nanobiotechnology, an international conference "Amorphous and microcrystalline semiconductors", All-Russian conference "Gallium, indium and aliminum nitride", All-Russian youth conference on semiconductor physics and many others. The university was also involved in organising more directly society-based symposiums like: "Science and Mankind Progress" in 2003 and "Science and Society" in 2005. It also gave rise to a St Petersburg Scientific Forum "Science and Society. Nanotechnologies: research and education" in 2008 and "Science and Society. Information Technologies" in 2009. It has become traditional for the Academic University to participate in organizing the Nobel Prize Laureates meetings in St. Petersburg.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Bio-organic chemistry, the institute The M.M. Shemyakin - Yu.A. Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences came into existence initially under the name of the Institute for Chemistry of Natural Compounds by a decree of the Russian academy of sciences Presidium issued in February, 1959. Since 1988 the Institute is under the directorship of Professor V.T. Ivanov famous for his investigations of the structure and function of peptides playing key roles in a number of biochemical processes.

Today the institute is the main center of chemical biology in Russia. It’s included in the Department of biological sciences of Russian academy of sciences and performs activities connected with biochemical research of living matter. It researches molecular mechanisms of vital processes and their practical use in medicine and agriculture. Moreover the Institute develops fundamental and applied aspects of biotechnologies. The institute covers a wide range of fields. This produces a lot of new knowledge, knowledge that is documentarized in a magazine called: Russian Journal of Bioorganic Chemistry. There are articles about: bioorganic chemistry, biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology, genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, immunology, molecular virology, evolution and molecular developmental biology in the magazine. Tracts of the Institute on physicochemical properties of proteins and peptides, nucleic acids and lipids, study of mechanisms of biomembrane functions and structure made level of these researches in Russia and abroad. A lot of papers were covered practical aspects which are necessary for medicine, agriculture and some lines of industry. By team of the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry there are developed brand new compounds for agriculture and medicine, including:

- Immunomodulators “Likopid” and “Seramil” heightening resistance to infections (production by JSC “Peptec” in the Institute); - Medicine based on synthetic nonapeptide “Deltaran” natural neuroregulator peptide with wide spectrum of pharmacological activities (stress-protective, antidepressant, anticonvulsant etc. )

Global recognition It is clear that Russia was of great importance in the development of today’s science. This is expressed in the number of Nobel laureates that have been awarded, in total; Russia (or the former Soviet Union) has received 41. Some of the scientists were born in present day Poland, Ukraine or Belarus but all have had deep connections with Russia. They have all studied at Russian universities. From the 41 awards, twelve have been for physics, six for medicine and five for chemistry. One of the awarded chemists is Ilya Viscount Prigogine.

Viscount Prigogine Prigogine (1917-2003), a Russian born naturalized Belgian physical chemist, is best known for his definition of dissipative structures and their role in thermodynamic systems far from equilibrium, a discovery that won him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1977. Prigogine was born in Moscow a few months before the Russian Revolution of 1917. Because the family was critical of the new Soviet system, they left Russia in 1921. They first went to Germany and in 1929, to Belgium, where Prigogine received Belgian citizenship in 1949. Prigogine studied chemistry at the Free University of Brussels, where in 1950, he became professor. In 1959, he was appointed director of the International Solvay Institute in Brussels, Belgium.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

In Austin (USA), in 1967, he co-founded what is now called The Center for Complex Quantum Systems. In that year, he also returned to Belgium, where he became director of the Center for Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics.

He was a member of numerous scientific organizations, and received numerous awards, prizes and 53 honorary degrees. In 1955, Ilya Prigogine was awarded the Francqui Prize for Exact Sciences. For his study in irreversible thermodynamics, he received the Rumford Medal in 1976, and in 1977, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In 1989, he was awarded the title of Viscount by the King of the Belgians. Until his death, he was president of the International Academy of Science.

Dissipative structures theory Dissipative structure theory led to pioneering research in self-organizing systems as well as philosophical inquiries into the formation of complexity on biological entities and the quest for a creative and irreversible role of time in the natural sciences. Prigogine’s work is seen by many as a bridge between natural sciences and social sciences. With Professor Robert Herman, he also developed the basis of the two fluid model, a traffic model in traffic engineering for urban networks, in parallel to the two fluid model in Classical Statistical Mechanics. The Prigogine's formal concept of self-organization was used also as a "complementary bridge" between General Systems Theory and Thermodynamics, conciliating the cloudiness of some important systems theory concepts with the scientific rigor.

The end of certainty In his later years, his work concentrated on the mathematical role of determinism in nonlinear systems on both the classical and quantum level. He proposed the use of a rigged Hilbert space in quantum mechanics as one possible method of achieving irreversibility in quantum systems. He also co-authored several books with Isabelle Stengers, including End of Certainty (1997). In this book, Prigogine contends that determinism is no longer a viable scientific belief. "The more we know about our universe, the more difficult it becomes to believe in determinism." This is a major departure from the approach of Newton, Einstein and Schrödinger, all of whom expressed their theories in terms of deterministic equations. According to Prigogine, determinism loses its explanatory power in the face of irreversibility and instability. In deterministic physics, all processes are time-reversible, meaning that they can proceed backward as well as forward through time. As Prigogine explains, determinism is fundamentally a denial of the arrow of time. With no arrow of time, there is no longer a privileged moment known as the "present," which follows a determined "past" and precedes an undetermined "future." All of time is simply given, with the future as determined or undetermined as the past. With irreversibility, the arrow of time is reintroduced to physics. Prigogine notes numerous examples of irreversibility, including diffusion, radioactive decay, solar radiation, weather and the emergence and evolution of life. Like weather systems, organisms are unstable systems existing far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Instability resists standard deterministic explanation. Instead, due to sensitivity to initial conditions, unstable systems can only be explained statistically, that is, in terms of probability. Prigogine asserts that Newtonian physics has now been "extended" three times, first with the use of the wave function in quantum mechanics, then with the introduction of space-time in general relativity and finally with the recognition of indeterminism in the study of unstable systems.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Andre Geim Andre Konstantinovich Geim, (born 1 October 1958) is a Russian-Dutch chemical physicist. Geim was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Konstantin Novoselov for his work on graphene. He is the Langworthy Professor and director of the Manchester Centre for Mesoscience and Nanotechnology at the University of Manchester.

Though he is a big name now in physical chemistry, Geim also started out as nothing more than a mere student. After earning his PhD, Geim worked as a research scientist at the Institute for Microelectronics Technology at the Russian Academy of Science, and from 1990 as a post- doctoral fellow at the universities of Nottingham (twice), Bath, and Copenhagen.

He obtained his first tenured position in 1994, when he was appointed associate professor at Radboud University Nijmegen, where he did work on mesoscopic superconductivity. He later gained Dutch citizenship. One of his doctoral students at Nijmegen was Konstantin Novoselov, who went on to become his main research partner. In 2010 Radboud University Nijmegen appointed him professor of innovative materials and nanoscience.

Geim's achievements leading to the Nobel Prize include the discovery of a simple method for isolating single atomic layers of graphite, known as graphene, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Manchester and IMT.

Graphene consists of one-atom-thick layers of carbon atoms arranged in two-dimensional hexagons, and is the thinnest material in the world, as well as one of the strongest and hardest. The material has many potential applications and is considered a superior alternative to silicon.

Geim said one of the first applications of graphene could be in the development of flexible touchscreens, and that he has not patented the material because he would need a specific application and an industrial partner.

Geim did not just receive the Nobel Prize for his discovery. He shared the 2008 EuroPhysics Prize with Novoselov also for “discovering and isolating a single free-standing atomic layer of graphene and elucidating its remarkable electronic properties". In 2009 he received the Körber European Science Award and the United States National Academy of Sciences honored him with the 2010 John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science "for his experimental realization and investigation of graphene. He was awarded honorary doctorates from Delft University of Technology, ETH Zürich, and the University of Antwerp. On 24 November 2010 Geim was made Commander of the Order of the Netherlands Lion for his contribution to the Dutch Science. This is one scientist both Russia and the Netherlands should be quite content with.

The future Thus we see that new production and optimization methods are widely being developed. These new methods will make Russia even greater in chemistry. The risks and therefore the responsibility also become larger; luckily we see that in that area (i.e. environment) Russia is willing to accept this responsibility. Not strange to conclude that if you’re a chemist in Russia you can feel the greatness of all your famous predecessors. But this same kind of pressure is exactly what drove the Russian people to great heights in the past. It seems Russia is not willing to give up its leading position in global chemistry.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

References 1) http://www.hssonline.org/teaching/teaching_graham6.html 2) http://www.springerlink.com/content/v581vw82180r588w/ 3) http://www.ineos.ac.ru/eng/home.html 4) http://eng.spbu.ru/ 5) www.wikipedia.com 6) http://old.japanfocus.org/_M_K_Bhadrakumar- Russia__Iran_and_Eurasian_Energy_Politics 7) http://blog.vixra.org/2010/10/05/nobel-prize-in-physics-to-andre-geim-and-kostya- novoselov-for-graphene/ 8) http://www.chem.ac.ru/Chemistry/Lib/Russian/MAIN.en.html

Retrospective view Description of chemistry and biochemistry in Russia

First impressions

The city of Saint Petersburg, where we resided for one week, seemed like a vast ocean of tall gray buildings. Being used to the Netherlands, the sheer size of the city overwhelmed us. It was a good thing we were able to explore the city by subway, the fastest and most convenient transport method. In total the city has 5 million inhabitants (just as much as Finland as a country). Most of the people inhabit the numerous suburbs, the living cities. In the morning all the Russians get up early to drive to work via the Nevsky Street only getting hold up by the local policemen (citroentjes). It was a pity to see that though most Russians have reasonable living standards also many of them are forced to live in shabby houses, just barely above the standards. This still shows where modern day Russia came from, but as a country they have made a lot of progress. If you ask the men at the street or in a local bar, they are quite content with their situation and if not: they just drink some more vodka. So Saint Petersburg is a city of big contrasts. The centre of the city is very beautiful, from the Hermitage (winter palace of the tsars) to the football stadium of Zenit. The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture. One of the largest and oldest museums in the world, Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display, comprise nearly 3 million items including the largest collection of paintings in the world. Among them, works of van Gogh, Rembrandt and Rubens. The collections occupy a large complex of six historic buildings along Palace Embankment, including the Winter Palace, a former residence of Russian emperors. . We saw that some paintings are being restored from decay or damage over time. Works from all over the world, like Amsterdam, are collected here and restored in their previous glory to be returned to their native countries or to be placed in the Hermitage.

Saint Petersburg’s city centre shows signs of great wealth. The enormous difference in wealth, expressed in human living standards but also the city planning is likely to be caused by the fast industrialisation which Russia has gone through for the past decades. You can clearly see the effects of the economic growth of 6.5% since 1998. The boost was partially driven by a high price for oil, oil and gas being two of the most important export products. Not all Russians profit from the economic growth, but a large amount of people possess more money than they did before. All of this caused some global recognition and confidence, so that foreign companies are more willingly to invest in the country.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

The huge reserves have made Russia into one of the biggest producers and exporters of the world. Gazprom, the Russian natural gas producer and exporter is found in the city centre and also outside the city in the industrial part. The company desires to have an influential trademark and gains this by sponsoring for example football clubs like Zenit and Shalke04 (Germany). With all this economic and industrial prosperity the environment was mostly neglected. The oil and gas production leads to pollution. In cities like Saint Petersburg the concentration of harmful toxics in the air has topped the Western standards many times. Also the (drinking) water has been severely polluted. Russia has claimed to do care about the environment; it has signed the Kyoto-treaty. This tells Russia to reduce its CO 2 emission to the level it was in 1990. Russia is already well on this level because its industry collapsed in the nineties and is far away from the level of 1990. Because of this the local government has no desire to invest any further in green solutions for their lead-city. Most Russians got their car a lot cheaper because they are exactly the cars from the eighties in Western Europe. The Netherlands has long ago banned these lead polluting cars but didn’t do a good job selling them to Russia for bottom prices. We just replaced the problem and therefore we are also to blame. It is extremely important that the production, exploitation and transportation of the natural resources and chemicals which made Russia this powerhouse are going to be handled with more care. Chemistry in this land is besides interesting, also very important.

Mendeleev

The most famous Russian chemist of the past, and possibly the greatest chemist of all time was of course Dmitri Mendeleev. Logically there was a lot to learn about him in the city where he practised science. In the university museum of the St. Petersburg chemical faculty we saw the office of Mendeleev. The room was still full of shelves packed with books. Some glasswork lay on his desk; in those days people didn’t use fume hoods. The rooms were untouched for over a hundred years. We learned that besides a great chemist Mendeleev was also active in many other fields of science. For example he was part of advisory organs for the government, and he made plans for the construction of submarines.

Apart from Mendeleev we couldn’t find many other famous Russian chemists from the past in the university museum. We did find some data about Russian Nobel prize winners.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Research, the RAS and INEOS The academy supervising scientific progress is the Russian Academy of Sciences. This organization consists of the National Academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals. Though headquartered in Moscow the Academy also is very influential in St. Petersburg. It is a self-governed, non-commercial organization chartered by the Government of Russia. It combines members of RAS and scientists employed by institutions. The RAS funds and controls scientific chemistry in St. Petersburg. Together with the INEOS, the RAS is dominant in the way scientific chemistry is performed in Russia. The large amount of money is spent in a way which the government wants it to be, making the branch of science very powerful in certain areas.

Basic research in the field of organoelement and organic chemistry include the study of novel structures, reactivity, and kinetics. In studies together with foreign universities like Marseille and Dresden, there a lot of elaboration has been done for new methods for synthesis of organoelement compounds with polyhedral substituents (carboranes, fullerenes). Fundamental problems of the synthesis are continuously investigated; structure and properties of polymers and composites are studied and altered. Synthesis of aromatic and heterocyclic polymers including polyconjugated, super-rigid, and network polymers are being done. Polymers which are often discovered in biological systems. Apart from polymer chemistry, there has been done a lot in the field of spectroscopy and analysis, for example a brand new project from St. Petersburg called “The human tongue”. In this project scientists try to mimic and enhance the human sensibility to the tastes salt, sweet, bitter etc.

Recognition It is clear that Russia has meant a lot in the development of today’s level of science. This is expressed in the number of Nobel laureates that have been awarded, in total; Russia (or the former Soviet Union) has received 41. Some of the scientists were born in present day Poland, Ukraine or Belarus but all have had deep connections with Russia. Just as we suspected, Russia is great in chemistry. The risks and therefore the responsibility are large; luckily we see that in that area (i.e. environment) Russia is willing to accept this responsibility although many improvements in particular the environment are still needed. Not strange to conclude that if you’re a chemist in Russia you can feel the greatness of all your famous predecessors, these feelings emerge spontaneously when you take a city stroll (in a city with 5 million inhabitants) and gape at the many huge historic buildings and statues.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Floris van Ojen Student in Russia and Finland Difference between the student life in Russia, Finland and the Netherlands

Introduction Student life in Russia, Finland and the Netherlands wouldn’t be possible without the existence of the universities. Three different universities will be highlighted in this introduction, Saint- Petersburg State University, the University of Helsinki and the Radboud University Nijmegen. Further on in this study the way of life of students in Russia and Finland will be described and ended with a comparison to the way of life in The Netherlands.

The amount of different universities is huge in Russia due to the fact that every study is a different university. Most famous universities in Russia are the State University in Moscow and the State University in St. Petersburg (SPBU). The SPBU is the oldest university in Russia, founded in 1724 by Peter the Great. Nowadays this university consists Faculty of Chemistry, St Petersburg of twenty faculties, eleven scientific institutes and a staff of State University 14,000 people of which 6,000 teachers. It accommodates more than 32,000 students from all over the world 1. The amount of universities in Finland is smaller, with the University of Helsinki as the country’s most famous university and by far the oldest. This university was founded in 1640 and is now providing education for more than 35,000 students. The university staff consists of over 4,000 researchers and teachers. In Helsinki the university has got four campuses: the City Centre for Human Sciences, Kumpala Science Campus, Viiki Campus for Life Science, Helsinki Meilathi Campus for Medicine and the Viiki Campus for Life Sciences 2.

If the situation in Russia and Finland is compared with the Netherlands the Dutch situation is comparable to the Finnish situation. When the SPBU and the University of Helsinki are compared with the Radboud University Nijmegen (RU) it is clearly visible that the RU is a smaller university hosting 18,624 students in 2009. The university is divided into seven faculties 3.

Faculty of Science, RU Nijmegen 52

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

These universities are listed on several global university ranking lists, the most prestige lists are the QS University Ranking 4 and the World University Rankings 5. The ranking method is different between the two lists. In Table 1 the ranking of the three universities can be seen. Table 1: Ranking of the universities in the world University QS University World University World University Ranking 6 Ranking (World) 7 Ranking (Europe) 8 SPBU 210 - - Helsinki 75 102 30 RU 149 - -

It is clearly visible that the University of Helsinki is a high ranked university in the world, and that the Radboud University scores better than the Saint-Petersburg State University in the QS University Ranking. However the RU and SPBU are not in the top 200 of the world in the World University Ranking or the top 82 of Europe. All of these universities have their own topics and top research accommodations. Later in this study the way of life of the students in Russia and Finland will be examined, with focus on the financial side of student life and the possibility to go to a university.

Financial Situation If you want to go to a university in Finland or Russia one of the things that has to be taken care of is the financing of the study, this depends of parental financing but also tuition fee plays a big role and state measures such as student loan can play a big role to make it possible to attend classes at the university.

The tuition fees are very different between universities and between countries. The tuition fee in the Netherland is about € 1,700 each year. In the Netherlands students are offered a loan from the government which is turned into a gift if the student graduates within ten years, if the student fails to graduate in this period the loan must be paid back. The duration of this study loan is determined by the duration of your study. You can loan for the same amount of years as the length of the study. After that, financing by the government is finished. The height of this loan is Overview of St Petersburg State University determined by the income of the parents of the students, with a minimum between € 95.61 for students which live at home and € 266.23 for students who move in to their own place 9. In the Netherlands money should not be an obstacle to follow classes at the university, in much other countries money is a big issue because incomes are low and the tuition fee of the university is, compared to the income of a family, very high. However in these countries scholarships are common which pay the study or a part of the study for those which have shown to be talented in a certain way.

Finland Finland was advised in April 2010 by the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development) to introduce a tuition fee, so in the current situation the Finnish student don’t have to pay anything to go to college. Also a system needs to be introduced in which students can loan money against favorable rates most likely in a similar way as in the Netherlands. This means that money is not an issue to go to the university in Finland. However Finland has a low rate of students which complete their study in the given time 10 .

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Proponents of the introduction of a tuition fee in Finland believe that students will finish their study in the given time because of the financial pressure attached to it if the study is not finished in the given amount of years. Rumors are going that the Finnish government is going to charge tuition fees for foreign students but at the moment it is not sure this will really happen. Finnish students also receive government money, in form of a student loan, for the time being a student. However each student has to negotiate with a bank over the repayment schedule 11 . Also if a Finnish student makes over € 750 with a job per month the height of the student subsidy will drop.

Russia In Russia the tuition fee of attending to a university is between the $1,200 (€ 900) and $2,000 (€ 1,500). However for prestigious courses and institutions there is a tuition fee ranging from € 14,000 up to € 20,000 12 . This fee is very high compared to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita which is $10,521.79. So going to college is for a select group in Russia which can afford to pay the tuition fee 13 . However scholarships are common to give people the opportunity to go to the university. In 2008 the ratio between students that paid for their study by themselves and students that were granted with a scholarship was almost 1:1 (54%:46%) 14 . The scholarships differ between money for a whole study or a part of the study. Russian law says that the government needs to fund the education of 170 students per 10,000 populations. In reality they even pay for 190 students per 10,000 people. The ability for a student to get a student loan is very poor, in 2001 there was only one bank in Russia which approved student loaning 15 . In 2006 there were plans to improve the situation around student loans, so in five years the financial situation did not improve very much. The financial situation differs between the countries, but it can be concluded that Russia has the worst financial environment for a student. As European countries both the Netherlands and Finland have a system in which it is possible for most people to go to the university, if they meet to the requirements to enter the university.

Entering the university A student needs to fulfill demands to enter a university. These differ per country and per university but most of the time the government has set demands that have to be fulfilled. In the Netherlands you have to possess a diploma of the highest grade of secondary school. Different studies demand also specific classes to be completed, an entry exam is in most cases not needed. Some studies have a ‘numerus fixus’ in which high results can give you a free card for entering the study. When the entry at a university is completed the student follows a certain track which is divided in to parts. In the Netherlands the studies consist of a bachelor phase which is three years and after that a master program can be followed of one year or two years. When the master degree is obtained a graduation track of four years can be followed to obtain the doctor degree.

Finland In Finland the university selects its students and most of the time an entry exam is part of the entry. Also the possession of a diploma from secondary school is necessary comparable to the Dutch system. Further selection in a personal conversation about interests and hobbies can be decisive for the entry of the university 16 .

Russia If a student wants to enter a university in Russia also the same demands as in Finland have to be fulfilled which are the diploma of the secondary school and succession of the entry exam 17 . The demands to enter the university are similar to the demands in the Netherlands however an entry exam is very common in Finland and Russia this is very rare in the Netherlands.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

University System

Finland In Finland a comparable system is used, consisting of a kandidaatti phase of three years which is an equal of the bachelor program. After completion of the kandidaatti a maisteri phase of two years follows. Also hereafter the degree of doctor (lisensiaattii) can be obtained 16 .

Russia The Russian bachelor phase (Bakalavr) takes four years and the master phase (Magistr) takes two years. The Bakalavr has two phases of each two years. Remarkable is that in the Bakalavr mandatory classes such as sociology, literature and physics are mandatory. After finishing the Bakalavr only two percent of the Russian students go to work, the rest follows the Magistr phase. For entry to the Magistr phase a new entry exam has to be completed. As in Finland and the Netherlands after completing the master phase a graduation phase can be followed. This phase takes over three years and after completion of this phase the title, Kandidat Nauk is obtained. There is one more grade to obtain after Kandidat Nauk and that is specialist of Magistir (doctor in science), this is a very competitive program and is not followed by many students 17 . The systems look a lot like each other in the three countries all with the same bachelor and master structure, but the duration varies between the countries. The possibility to graduate is present in all the countries however this is specific for each country.

Student housing In the Netherlands the student housing is divided, a part of the students stay at home during their study while another part will move out of their house into different kinds of housing. The most common type of student housing are a house full of students in which everyone has their own room and share the bathroom and kitchen. All the cities which have universities have student complexes that can be compared to dormitories. Another option is to move in with people and rent a room.

Finland Finnish students live in dormitories, or share an apartment with two or three other persons. Also student flats are available for students which are similar to an apartment 18 . The rent of a chamber in a dormitory or student residence hall is according to the University of Helsinki around € 300 to € 500 a month 19 . The Finnish student can also consider moving in with a family and rent a room.

Russia Most of the Russian students live in a Student flat in Helsinki dormitory provided by the universities, the quality of these dormitories varies great between universities. The housing in Moscow and St. Petersburg are quite good while the risk of having no hot water in the smaller cities is substantial. This is due to the money that universities spend in housing the students. The price for a small room in a dormitory is around the $100 (€ 75) per month 20 . In these dormitories also international students will house, Dormitory in St. Petersburg however living with a Russian family is recommended to increase the knowledge of the Russian language 21 .

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Student housing seems to be very similar in the three countries, different are the prices which needed to be paid. Russia seems somewhat cheaper but the quality of the room and facilities might be lower. But in all countries the way student lives seems to be equal.

References 1: http://eng.spbu.ru/university/today/ 2: http://www.helsinki.fi/inbrief/index.html 3: http://www.ru.nl/over_de_universiteit/feiten_cijfers/ 4: http://www.topuniversities.com/ 5: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/ 6: http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2010 7: http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2010 8: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/europe.html 9: http://www.ib-groep.nl/particulieren/studiefinanciering/sfho/bedragen.asp 10: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/48/9/44897180.pdf 11: http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Study+shows+Finnish+university+students+have+lowest+living+standar ds+in+Nordic+region/1076152975781 12: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=201268§ioncode=26 13: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2010/02/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=2010&ey= 2010&scsm=1&ssd= 1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&pr1.x=25&pr1.y=11&c=922&s=NGDPD, NGDPDPC,PPPGDP,PPPPC,PPPSH& grp=0&a= 14: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/11059/1/MPRA_paper_11059.pdf 15: www.russiajournal.com/node/11345+student+loan+russia 16: http://www.nuffic.nl/nederlandse-studenten/landen/landen-a-k/finland/studie/ onderwijssysteem 17: http://www.nuffic.nl/nederlandse-studenten/landen/landen-l-z/rusland/studie/ onderwijssysteem-1 18: http://www.opiskelija-asunnot.fi/en/studenthousing/ 19: http://www.helsinki.fi/exchange/permits/index.html 20: http://www.waytorussia.net/Practicalities/Student/Accommodation-Russia.html 21: http://www.expatica.ru/education/higher_education/Student-housing-in- Moscow_15736.html?ppager=1

Retrospective view Student in Russia and Finland

After all the impressions of the two weeks in Russia and Finland, the situation described in my pre-study about the student life in these countries can be reflected. In this after-study the differences and agreements of my pre-study and the real-life we saw is discussed.

Russia

The financial situation of students in Russia was the same as expected. Although we only saw some huge flats in which students lived, we did not see a student room from the inside. From the outside the buildings looked gray, dull and all the same. Also the few Russian students we spoke were not that enthusiastic about the student housing in Russia.

The tuition fee in Russia is not discussed during the study tour so the information provided earlier cannot be adjusted. However the University we visited looked as they could use a repair to the buildings. The accommodations are old but overall not repaired in time, with all the cold and snowy winters the buildings looked as if they stood there for at least fifty years. This was not what I expected, the buildings were all gray and very huge, we did not saw that many students in and around the buildings.

Overall the situation for students in Russia is not as good as in other parts in the world. The universities are old and in desperate need of repair, however the inside and research facilities are not that bad. Student housing are near the universities located far from the city center.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Finland

The financial situation of the student in Finland is a big difference to the situation in Russia and is similar to the Dutch way of student financing. The main difference is the absence of the tuition fee for students.

The different faculties of the Helsinki University we visited were very modern and were equipped with state of the art apparatus. Also different companies and starter companies were located at the campus site. The beta faculty had enough research facilities and different student and staff canteens and is similar, but bigger than the Huygens building we have in Nijmegen.

The student housing is ordered in a similar way as in the Netherlands, and some student complexes are equipped with a famous Finnish sauna. The problem of students who do not finish their study in time (sometimes twice the time as foreseen) is a major problem in Finland. Another problem is that many students go abroad once they have obtained their master degree; the Finnish government is trying hard with nice (financial) benefits to make the Finnish student stay in Finland.

Overall the differences with the pre-study were not big. Finland has modern universities and a good way of financing the students, which have the luck of the absence of the tuition fee. The student housing is ordered in a good way and student flats are in the center of the city and around the different university campuses. Overall the University of Helsinki is a big university with many different faculties which is of a high standard.

Hannah Sprong Dmitri Mendeleev Father of the periodic table and much more

Introduction Dmitri Mendeleev's name will always be connected to the periodic table of elements, though he didn't think this was the most important thing he did. During his lifetime Mendeleev helped Russia change into a modern empire, taught a new generation of scientists and did research on numerous topics. His interests varied widely, from science to politics, and from art to technology. Mendeleev believed that science should have a practical use. So he used his knowledge to make his beloved Russia a better place.

This is the story of a man and his most important creation, though he didn't think so during his life.

The periodic table Although Mendeleev is the father of the periodic table, he couldn't have created it without the findings of other scientists. It took scientists until halfway the 20 th century to complete and understand the table as we know it now. This is a short history of the periodic table.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Since the ancient past gold, silver, copper, lead, tin and mercury were known, though not as individual elements. The first big discovery was made by Henning Brand in 1649 when he discovered phosphorous. During the next 200 years chemists discovered more elements and gained more knowledge about them. In 1817 Johann Dobereiner discovered that the weight of strontium fell midway between the weights of two other elements with the same chemical properties, calcium and barium. In 1829 he discovered the same pattern with the halogens chloride, bromide and iodine and the alkali metals lithium, sodium and potassium. To explain this he proposed the law of triads, which stated in nature triads of elements occurred, where the middle element had the average properties of the other two when ordered by weight. The law of triads became a popular subject for study. It was discovered that the law had to be extended as fluoride was added to the halogen group, also new groups were formed as more knowledge of the elements was gained. The only problem was the availability of accurate atomic weights.

When the periodic table is seen as an organisation of the elements showing the recurrence of chemical and physical properties, the French geologist A.E. Beguyer de Chancourtois created the first periodic table in 1862. The form of this table was cylindrical with 16 elements per turn and ordered in terms of increasing atomic weight. This construction would line up vertically the elements which are closely related. Unfortunately there were also a few ions and compounds in this table. Another unfortunate thing was that in his report about it a picture of his table was missing and he used a lot of jargon so it was incomprehensible for most people who read it. In 1864 the English chemist John Newlands published a new periodic table where he put 56 of the 63 known elements into 11 groups. The groups were based on physical properties. Newlands found that many pairs of similar elements differed a multiple of 8 atomic weight units from each other. With this he proposed the law of octaves.

Who the actual father of the periodic table is has been disputed. Dmitri Mendeleev and the German Lothar Meyer found very similar results while working apart from each other. For both the writing of a book was the start of their discoveries. Though they later had a dispute about whose discovery the periodic table was, the fact that they both discovered it considerably helped the acceptance in the scientific world. Meyer had the advantage of recognising valence as the link among members of the same group, but Mendeleev's work got published a year before Meyers and was more extensive. It was not only a classification system but a tool to predict new elements and it showed relationships. This is why Mendeleev is known as the father of the periodic table. There are two versions of how Mendeleev got the idea for the table, either he saw it in a dream or made cards of every element and ordered them like his favourite solitaire card game. Figure 1 shows the periodic table Mendeleev made.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

The elements in Mendeleev's table are ordered such that elements with the same properties are in the same column and atomic weight increases from left to right. Because at that time it was thought that the weight of an atom determined its properties, Mendeleev concluded that some atomic weights were incorrect because they belonged to groups that were inconsistent with their mass. For his discovery, years after his death, element 101 was named after him.

In 1894 a whole new group of atoms was discovered by William Ramsay: the noble gasses. Mendeleev was shocked by this discovery and at first opposed it because he thought it violated his periodic law. Later it became clear that these atoms also followed Mendeleev's periodicity and a new zero-group was added to the periodic table.

In 1911 Ernest Rutherford found a way to determine nuclear charge and showed that it was proportional to the atomic weight of an element. In that same year it was proposed that since this nuclear charge was approximately the same as the mass of an element, it could be used to number the elements in the periodic table. Therefore nuclear charge was renamed atomic number.

Two years later isotopes of elements were discovered by Henry Moseley. He showed that the atomic number, and not the atomic weight of elements (as Mendeleev, Meyer and others before them thought) was what caused the periodic law. The question of why this law exists was answered when more was understood about the distribution of electrons over shells. Glenn Seaborg made the last major changes to the periodic table. He discovered 8 new elements and placed the actinide series below the lanthanide series. For his work he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1951 and element 106 was named after him.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Biography The beginning Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev was born on the 8 th of February 1834 in Tobolsk (Siberia). His father was Ivan Pavlovich Mendeleev, who after graduation from St. Petersburg Pedagogical institute became a teacher at several schools and later became the director of the Tobolsk gymnasium. In 1809 he married Maria Dmitrievna Kornilyeva, whose grandfather was owner of the first Siberian glass factory. Together they had 17 children of which 3 died in childbirth and 5 others during their childhood, Dmitri was their last child. In the year of Dmitri's birth his father got blind and despite successful eye surgery he had to retire. Because the pension that Ivan got was insufficient to support the family, Maria tried to make some money by managing her brother’s glass factory in Aremzyanskoye, a small town nearly 30 kilometres from Tobolsk. The first memories Dmitri had were of the always burning stoves in that glass factory. From friendly workers there he learned many things about glass-blowing.

The student In 1840 when the youngest children were old enough to attend school, Maria and the family moved back to Tobolsk. Since many of the participants of the Decembrist revolt were living there, Tobolsk had become a progressive society. Together with his two years older brother Pavel, Dmitri prepared for the first grade of the Tobolsk gymnasium. At the age of seven, Dmitri was admitted there, but because he was a year younger than allowed, he had to study two years in the first grade. The education at the gymnasium was mostly a training in dead languages. These were supposed to give insight into the classical ideas on which the Russian civilisation was based. Dmitri was not considered a good student because of his low marks in Latin. He did however have an exceptionally good memory and showed a talent in mathematics, physics and geography, which were considered unimportant. In 1847 Ivan died and a year later the glass factory burned down. All of Dmitri's siblings left Tobolsk about that time, except for his sister Elizaveta (Lisa). Despite his difficulties with the classical languages, Dmitri graduated from the gymnasium at the age of fifteen, which again was a year too early. To avoid difficulties with the administration he was noted as sixteen on his certificate.

After his graduation from the gymnasium in 1849, there was nothing to keep the family in Tobolsk. His mother wanted Dmitri to study in Moscow because she had a wealthy brother there, and she wanted her promising son to have a good education. So Dmitri travelled there with his mother and Lisa. But the Moscow University rejected him because of the strict rule that school graduates should study at the geographically nearest university. The next year the family moved to St. Petersburg (which was then the Russian capital), but Dmitri was also rejected at the St. Petersburg University because of the same rule. Luckily the Main Pedagogical Institute in St. Petersburg supported his application because Dmitri's father had graduated there. Dmitri took the admission test and passed it well enough for a full scholarship and residence in the dormitory. Because the Main Pedagogical Institute taught its students to teach at gymnasiums, scholarship students had to sign an obligation to teach at a gymnasium doubly the time of their education at the Main Pedagogical Institute. Shortly after becoming a student in St. Petersburg in 1850 Dmitri's mother died, followed by his uncle and sister. Also Dmitri got seriously ill and the doctors suspected tuberculosis because he was coughing blood. In 1853 he spent a few months in the hospital because of this, and though the doctors had given him up he recovered. Shortly after his release from the hospital he passed his exams.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Figure1: A map of 1820 Russia. Marked are the more important places Mendeleev has lived.

During this time, his grades were not good and, like in the gymnasium, he had to repeat his first year. But despite his poor health he worked hard, and the year after his hospital release belonged to the top ten students. His student reports covered broadly varied themes. His fist published student report (about the analysis of a mineral) was under supervision of, among others, Professor Alexander Voskresensky, who is also known as “The grandfather of Russian chemistry”. About his time at the Institute he clearly remembers the intellectual collision of opinions among natural scientists, historians and economists which contributed to everyone’s development. Also he and his friends decided, since they all would become teachers, not to prepare for exams but work hard during the term. So during exams they played cards all night long. In 1855 Mendeleev graduated from the Main Pedagogical Institute with the gold medal for excellence. The committee was impressed with Dmitri's profound knowledge, and the administrators of the Institute wanted to keep him so he could study for a Master of Science degree.

The scientist and teacher The doctors advised Mendeleev to move south because the climate there was better for his health. So instead of getting a Master of Science degree, he became a teacher at a gymnasium in Odessa. Besides a better climate, this city also had an excellent library which Mendeleev liked to see. However, by a mistake in his documents, Mendeleev was sent to a small town called Simferopol. At that time the Crimean war was raging near there, so it was too dangerous a place to stay. The town resembled a military camp and was overcrowded with hospitals. Here Mendeleev met the famous surgeon Pirogov, who examined Mendeleev and declared that he didn't suffer from tuberculosis. In October 1855 (two months after he went to Simferopol), Dmitri moved to Odessa where for six months he combined teaching mathematics and natural sciences with preparing for his Master of Science thesis about isomorphism. And since Mendeleev didn't suffer from tuberculosis, he also wrote letters to his former mentors to help him return to St. Petersburg.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

When he got an assurance Mendeleev returned to St. Petersburg in May 1856. Because there were problems at the Main Pedagogical Institute, he applied for his Master of Science degree at the St. Petersburg Imperial University, with his thesis about isomorphism. In the beginning of September he got his Master of Physics and Chemistry degree, and soon thereafter he completed his second Master of Science thesis, which was on the structure of silica components. This second thesis was necessary to become a docent, which is an academic rank below professor. He also got engaged with Sofya Kash, but later that year she broke off the engagement for unknown reasons. The next two years Mendeleev became a private docent at the university. He gave lectures about the theory and history of chemistry and later on about organic chemistry, and supervised the laboratory studies of undergraduate students. Because his salary was insufficient (his salary came only from students that attended his lectures), he gave private lessons and wrote popular reports on natural science for the Journal of the Ministry of Education. These reports were inspired by the idea that without the development of science there could be no industrial development.

At the end of 1858 Mendeleev was considered a successor to leading Russian chemists and it was time for him to prepare for a profession chair. Because the Russian laboratories were unsuited for profound research, it was decided by the University Administration to send Mendeleev abroad for 22 months to improve his scientific studies. At first he travelled through Europe, visiting universities and meeting well known scientists, before deciding to stay at the Heidelberg University, where he worked with the professors Bunsen, Erlenmeyer and Kirchhoff. One of the attractions of this town was that there was a large Russian community. In the early 1860's 10% of the students was Russian. Here he made new friends, the most famous are: Borodin (composer and chemist), Sechenof (a physiologist) and Zenin (a chemist). Mendeleev didn't only meet scientists during his time in Heidelberg, he and actress Agnes Feuchtman got a daughter called Rosa.

Mendeleev soon became dissatisfied with Bunsen’s laboratory. The equipment was too inaccurate for his research, and the vapour of the sulphuric products used there made him sick. To solve this problem he built a private laboratory in his apartment, which was a somewhat unusual solution. He added a gas pipeline to his apartment and bought the necessary precise equipment. Mendeleev designed in that period an instrument to measure the density of liquids, nowadays called Mendeleev's pycnometer. One of the things he found was that when temperature changes, the density of a liquid also changes. Another discovery was that when a liquid is heated in a sealed off capillary, at a certain temperature a vaporised liquid remained in the gas state despite increasing pressures. Mendeleev called this temperature the “absolute boiling point”, which is nowadays known as the critical temperature.

In 1860 Mendeleev went to the First Chemistry Congress at Karlsruhe, to which came 140 famous European chemists. The main goal was to create a scientific consensus about chemical definitions. The results are the now used definitions of atom, molecule, valency and atomic weight. This congress made such a big impression on Mendeleev that, with the help of Voskresensky, he published an article about it in de Russian daily newspapers.

Despite his attempts to prolong his stay abroad, to further his studies, the Russian Ministry rejected it. So in the beginning of 1861 (at the age of 27) Mendeleev returned to St. Petersburg, which was at the point of reformation. There was some political unrest because Emperor Alexander II signed a Manifest to free the unfree peasants. Until then Russia had been a feudal system, like Western Europe in the middle ages.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Because of this unrest the university was temporarily closed. This meant that Mendeleev lost his teaching position and was deprived from his source of income. It was a hard time, because not only did Mendeleev have no money for himself, he also had a big debt for the support of Rosa (which he continued to support until she got married), who he left in Heidelberg. To get an income Mendeleev accepted any teaching and paid writing jobs he found. He taught chemistry, physics, geology and more at educational institutes in several places. One of his writing jobs was to edit a translation of the German book “Technology” by J.R. Wagner. While doing this he became so enthusiastic that he added several chapters and became a co-author. This is probably where his interest in technology and industry comes from. While still writing and editing the book, Mendeleev also helped to optimize the technology of two plants. He found it very interesting to do this, because here science meets economics. Another possibility to get money was to receive a prize for scientific writing. So only a week after his return to Russia, Mendeleev started writing a handbook about organic chemistry called “Organic Chemistry”. He wrote it in an extremely short time (4 months) to reach the deadline for the prestigious Demidov prize for excellent writing. It was a compilation of earlier materials with a few fresh ideas. Also it was the first Russian organic chemistry handbook. Its first edition sold out very quickly, and the next year a second edition was printed. The organic chemists Zenin and Voskresensky were both supportive of Mendeleev’s application for the Demidov prize, which he won in 1862. With the prize money most of the debts were paid. Receiving this prize also influenced his personal life. In the spring he married Feozva Nikichna Leschova, though both had their doubts about it. The marriage mainly happened because one of Mendeleev's older sisters insisted that he needed a good wife.

Because of his editorial work on the translation of “Technology”, Mendeleev gained a reputation as a qualified technologist. The university offered him a docent position as its Technology Chair, but more extraordinary was that he was accepted as a professor at the St. Petersburg Practical Technological Institute without a doctors degree. Here Mendeleev gave lectures, supervised chemical laboratory work and chaired in the Graduation Board. About this time the Russian Finance Ministry decided to change its tax-duty on alcohol. It became necessary to device new methods and devises to measure the ethanol concentration in solutions. The technical committee, appointed by the ministry, invited Mendeleev for a consult because of his invention of the pycnometer and his chapters on alcoholometry in “Technology”. Mendeleev proposed a study which the technical committee approved of, and began his research. By measuring the volume and density of a solution against the temperature and water: ethanol ratio, he received a complex but exact formula that could be used in the industry. With the results from this research and his former research in Heidelberg, Mendeleev realised that he could indicate the formation of molecular compounds and know the molar ratio between them. He wrote his doctoral thesis about these results called “On the compounds of alcohol and water” and received his Ph.D. for it from the University in 1865. Soon after this Mendeleev became an extraordinary professor and got the Professor of Technical Chemistry position at the University. After a year he quit his professorship at the Technological Institute, although he kept giving lectures there.

Because of the disappearance of the feudal system in Russia, farm land got very cheap. It was thought that estate management couldn't be profitable. In the summer of 1865 Mendeleev bought a house and land in Boblovo (a small village near Klin) so the family could spend the summer in the countryside. Here Mendeleev became interested in gardening and farming. He was very curious about new agrochemical ideas, like mineral fertilisers, and decided to test them experimentally. To do this he ran a farm with fields and in two years managed to improve the soil quality and yield of his crops.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

This proved the general opinion wrong, and Mendeleev got a profit from his estate even with hired labourers. Meanwhile he became very active in the Free Economic Society, of which he became a member and gave lectures about agricultural topics. Also professors from the Petrovskii Agricultural Academy took students to see Mendeleev's estate and learn from him.

In 1867 Voskresensky transferred to Kharkov and resigned from all his university positions, Mendeleev (33 years old then) was appointed as his successor as Inorganic Chemistry professor. One of his new responsibilities was to teach students about inorganic chemistry, a topic relatively new to him. Shocked at the lack of text books suited for students, Mendeleev decided to write one himself. “Principles of Chemistry” became his most famous book and was translated to German, English and French. Undoubtedly, the birth of the periodic table came out of the formation of this book and its improvements. In his book he wanted to discuss all the 63 known elements and their properties, but he needed a logical order to put them in. He found that some atomic properties repeated themselves with regular weight intervals. Mendeleev called the principle on which he ordered the elements the periodic law, and the periodic table was the result. With this Mendeleev came to see himself as a new Newton (one of his heroes) in physical sciences. During this time Mendeleev also became one of the founders of the Russian Chemical Society (later renamed the Mendeleev Chemical Society). This union was established and officially recognised by the government in October 1868. Before this the chemists of Russia came together in private apartments and communicated occasionally but regularly about their work. The Society got a journal in 1869 and the Russian Chemical Society was the first audience to hear about the idea of periodicity. After the completion of “Principles of Chemistry”, Mendeleev continued to popularize his discovery of the Periodic System, though his interest shifted in 1872 towards the physics of gasses. At that time scientist were convinced of the existence of Ether, an element with an extremely small atomic weight responsible for transmission of chemical forces and gravitation. Because at the centre of Mendeleev’s Periodic law were the concepts of chemical affinity and mass, Ether and periodicity were linked in his mind. Also he became more interested in humanitarian topics like education and fine art. He expressed this by giving lectures to women and writing about how the gymnasiums should be redesigned. He joined a photographers club, gave lectures to painters about the chemistry of pigments and colours and hosted every Wednesday a meeting between artists and scientists. While trying to find Ether, Mendeleev applied to the Russian Technical Society with a project to study the elasticity of gasses at high pressure. The project was approved and Mendeleev received a large funding with which he bought the best possible pumps. However, sometimes the pumps were attached the wrong way, so instead of the highest possible pressure Mendeleev at times got the lowest possible pressure. Also the instruments available weren't exact enough for his ultra-fine measures, so he had to invent new ones (like the Mendeleev differential barometer). In the theoretical part of his studies he re-examined the ideal gas laws en contributed to the well known pV=nRT. In 1876 he gave up the project because even after years of hard work and research Ether couldn't be found. Mendeleev now suspected that Ether might exist in natural vacuum, e.g. in the high atmosphere. He used this as an explanation for his new interest in meteorology and flying; he dreamt of making a balloon flight but didn't have enough money.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

From the aerodynamics and -mechanics he naturally shifted to hydrodynamics and -mechanics and even to shipbuilding. In his mind it was one thing he called media resistance and about this he wrote a monograph. Another possibility to find Ether was through unexplained psychological occurrences. In the 1870's the world was full of spirits and mediums that violated physical laws and common sense. At that time scientist seriously considered those phenomena as explanations for things not understood. Mendeleev asked the Scientific Commission for permission to examine these phenomena, which were, he concluded in a report in 1875, mostly tricks. Next to all this research Mendeleev kept teaching chemistry. His audience consisted of students of all subjects. He taught with an enthusiasm that enchanted the minds of his pupils. What also made his lectures interesting was that he personally knew many of the leading scientists of that time and participated in the latest scientific research.

Because of his accurate prediction on the existence of Gallium, Mendeleev became an influential scientist in Europe as well as Russia. This resulted in his election as corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Science. He also frequently gave advice to the government and private businesses about many topics, one of the most important was the oil industry. In 1875 there was a national oil crisis in Russia, which led to the devastation of the oil industry. After a trip to Pennsylvania and a thorough study of the taxation system, Mendeleev gave the government advice which revived the oil industry in the next decade. The taxation system made it cheaper to import oil from America, while Russian oil had a better quality and didn't have to be imported. Mendeleev also helped to build a perfect refinery near Yaroslavl. During this time Mendeleev created a hypothesis about the mineral origin of oil, but didn't write about it.

At the age of 43 Mendeleev met the art student Anna Ivanova Popova, a friend of one of his cousins. He fell in love with her, which caused his divorce with Feozva over the next years. In 1880 Mendeleev became depressed because of several negative events happening shortly after one another. In the beginning of that year the element Scandium was discovered (which was another of Mendeleev's predicted elements), but Lothar Meyer started an argument about his priority on the discovery of the periodic table. In that same year his former teacher Voskresensky died and Mendeleev was refused as a full member to the national Academy of Sciences. Also he couldn't get married to Anna, because the Russian church stated that though people could get divorced, they couldn't marry again. The only good thing that year was the birth of his first child with Anna, a daughter called Lyubov. Gradually things started to go better. In 1882 a priest was found who would (for a small fortune) marry Mendeleev and Anna. And though the newspapers and scientific community protested the Academy decided that Mendeleev could keep his job at the university, and many institutes and societies elected him as a full honorary member. Also he and Meyer got awarded by the Royal Society the Davey medal for their discovery of the periodic table.

In the beginning of the 1880's Russia was facing a deep economical crisis. To find new methods for saving the situation a Congress on Industry and Trade was organised in Moscow. Mendeleev was one of the most active speakers, he held seven talks about the national industry's key topics. About that time Mendeleev's chemical interest became the theory of solutions. He extended his ideas from his magister and doctor thesis. For 233 compounds he thoroughly studied the density as a function of concentration and at different temperatures. What he found where extreme points (now known as singular points) in otherwise continuous curvatures. In 1887 Mendeleev wrote his findings in a monograph called “The study of densities in aqueous solutions”, which he dedicated to the memory of his mother.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

His viewpoint was heavily criticized by the developers of the physical theory of solutions. Decades later it was accepted that the two theories were complimentary. Also this year Mendeleev's dream of flying in a balloon came true. He got a telegram from the Imperial Russian Technical Society if he would make a flight to study the corona of a full solar eclipse. Because the balloon wouldn't lift both the scientist and an experienced airman, Mendeleev decided to make a solo flight. Though a risky venture, the flight was carried out safely. During and after his research on solutions, Mendeleev made trips to inspect oil refineries and examine coal mines. He made suggestions for new ways of making money from heavy oil and key economic decisions. His reports and writings were acknowledged and partially approved of by the government. Thanks to Mendeleev's advice the oil and coal industry became competitive again. In 1889 Mendeleev became a member of the Council of Trade and Manufacturing. In the beginning he gave advice about local tax on import and export products, but soon realised that this was a great overall problem. To find a solution he arranged all the possibilities in a system and published his findings in a book: Constructed Tariff or Investigation on the Development of Russian Industry in Relation to its Custom Tariff of 1891. What followed was a policy of Russian protectionism which stimulated domestic industrialisation and started a tariff war in Europe between 1893 and 1894.

The developer of Russia In 1890 Mendeleev tried to bring a students' petition to the minister of Education. When this petition was rejected, Mendeleev quit his job at the university. He already wanted to leave for some time because of some problems at the university that affected his health, but this was the final straw. His unemployment was short, because in 1891 the Navy Ministry offered him a consultant’s job. Mendeleev's first task was to develop a new, smokeless gunpowder. To help him study the topic, he made an official trip to the UK and France. After the trip he built a laboratory in St. Petersburg and in the next two years found the formula for the gunpowder and the technology to develop it. Also he was offered a job as scientific keeper of the Bureau of Weights and Measures by the Minister of Finance, Sergey Witte. Mendeleev liked this job very much, during his time there he made big changes in the science of measurements. First the traditional units for mass and length were renewed by new ones which were calibrated in Paris. Mendeleev then built a laboratory and an observatory to study the standards of other physical units and exploration of how to measure them accurately. He assisted in opening verification offices in most big cities and suggested a stepwise plan for Russia to join the International metric system and calendar. Until then de Julian calendar was used in Russia while the rest of the world was using the Gregorian, the difference between the two is a recalculation of the length of a year. The practical result of this was that the Russian calendar was 12 days behind that of the rest of the world. By making all these changes Mendeleev transformed the small Bureau to a Main Chamber, which soon became the third centre of metrology studies in Europe. Witte and Mendeleev had the same ideas on key aspects for the modernisation of Russia. With the authority of the scientist, the minister was able to convince the Tsar that certain economical reforms where necessary. As a contribution Mendeleev was publicly active by giving talks and writing reports and recommendations, which often gave disputes with the mass media and private business owners. Mendeleev was very fond of his job at the Bureau of Weights and Measures, there he could help the development of Russia and make it a modern country. He also liked the fact that science and practice were tightly bound together. Another reason for Mendeleev to put all his energy in the development of Russia was the fact that his famous periodic table became doubted. At first there was the discovery of the noble gasses (which later could be fitted into the

Preliminary studies and retrospective views system) and later due to radioactive elements. So Mendeleev tried to make a name as developer of the Russian Empire, which he thought would continue to exist. During the rest of his life Mendeleev wrote a book with a detailed plan for the industrialisation of the Urals. He also made a program to reform the educational system with the suggestion to cancel examinations. He worked together with the Navy to build the first ship-testing basin. Another of his ideas was a ship to explore the North Pole, but the ministry refused it. He also wrote various popular topics for an encyclopedia, and he wrote a book about the evolution of his thoughts on Ether. This was all combined with significant extensions on Mendeleev's “Principles of Chemistry”. He also turned to the topics of demography, politics and problems of society, about which he wrote in his last two books “Cherished Thoughts” and “Towards Learning Russia”. In the former he wrote about his vision for Russia as a mediator between the conflicting cultures of Asia and Europe.

The end Though he was nominated three times, Mendeleev never received a Nobel Prize. After 1904 the periodic table became popular again, because of the discovery of noble gasses. In 1905 and 1906 Mendeleev was nominated but both times ended as second choice. In 1907 he was nominated again, but couldn't compete for the prize because he had died.

At the end of his life, Mendeleev wrote a letter to Witte. This letter was meant for Witte to sympathise with him and buy his estate so Mendeleev wouldn't leave his debts to his wife and children. In this letter Mendeleev considered his life as three services: research, teaching and service to the national industry. Later he wrote in his diary that his fame only came from four things: the periodic law, the study of elasticity of gasses, understanding of solutions as associates and “Principles of Chemistry”. He specifically didn't mention the periodic table because since the discovery of radioactivity he thought it was not “stable”. He also had to conclude his failure in finding Ether. On 2 February 1907 Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev died from influenza. The day he got buried the streets were crowded and the funeral procession was led by students who carried big periodic tables.

References 1. http://www.mendcomm.org/Mendeleev.aspx, biography and CV of Mendeleev, 18-01-2011 2. http://www.wou.edu/las/physci/ch412/perhist.htm, history of the periodic table, 18-01-2011 3. D.I. Mendeleev: Reflecting on His Death in 1907 , M.D. Gordin, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2007, 46, p. 2758-2765 4. An appraisal of Mendeleev's contribution to the development of the periodic table , M. Niaz, M.A. Rodrígues, A. Brito, Elsevier, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 2004, 25, p. 271-282 5. D.I. Mendeleev Chronology with His Own Comments Extracted from His Works and Documents , I.S. Dmitriev, Russian Journal of General Chemistry, 2009, Vol. 79, No.2, pp 167-183, ISSN 1070-3632 6. Mendelejevs droom , Paul Strathern (translated by Fieke lakmaker), 2000, pp. 282-322,ISBN 90 254 9713 6 7. Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev , O.N. Pisarzhevsky, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow 1954 8. A toast to Mendeleev, who merits more than periodic honour, R.I. Zhdanov, Nature 462, 985 (24 december 2009), ISSN 0028-0836 9. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mendeleev%27s_1869_periodic_table.png, picture periodic table 1869, 24-01-2011 10. http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/russian_empire_1820.jpg, map of 1820 Russia, 03-01- 2011 11. http://svr225.stepx.com:3388/dmitri-mendeleev, drawing of Mendeleev, 24-01-2011 12. http://www.chemistry.co.nz/mendeleev.htm, picture of old Mendeleev, 24-01-2011

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Retrospective view Dmitri Mendeleev

Last April I went on a study tour for two weeks. Our first destination was St. Petersburg, the great city built by Tsar Peter the Great. On arrival we found that there was still snow on the streets in an amount seldom reached in the Netherlands. On the airport a bus with a Dutch speaking guide awaited us. While we drove to our hotel our guide told us a little about Russia and the striking differences with the Western World.

St. Petersburg is the most European looking city in Russia. It was built on a swamp, modeled to cities as Amsterdam. There even is a story about Peter the Great travelling undercover through Europe and walking along a street in Holland. Here he met a lady scrubbing the pavement and she told him he couldn't pass until she was finished. He told her he was the Russian Tsar, and she answered that even if he was the Belgian King he had to wait. Striking in the architecture are the well known onion shaped domes. Also in the churches there are no benches to sit on and watch the ceremony. Instead people walk around, light small candles and pray to icons of saints. At the main entrance there is a shopping area where little pictures of saints, religious books, candles and rosaries can be bought. This type of commerce isn't usually seen in the Netherlands. Also, most churches don't seem to have a bell tower, and if there is one it is not attached to the church.

Other remarkable decorations are the carvings of persons carrying the building as if they were pillars. On the outside of one building I've seen sculptures of paintings, complete with frame. The buildings and houses have a lot of different colors. Mostly blue, yellow, green and some pink-brown color, which makes the city look as if it is located around the Mediterranean Sea. This impression is strengthened by the look of decay on most houses and buildings. The only well maintained buildings are the ones that attract tourists, which isn't very surprising, but still the difference is striking. This is the difference that made the biggest impression, the richness and splendor of tourism against the bleakness of everyday life.

I haven't seen as many fur hats and coats as was part of my expectation of Russia. What I did see on the streets when I watched for it (because the guide pointed it out), where girls with very short skirts and high heels. To me that seems enormously cold and impractical in the snow. Also there were very few foreigners on the streets. Maybe this is why in St. Petersburg there is only one mosque and one synagogue, whereas in the Netherlands I think there are more mosques than churches, if you don't count all the monumental and empty churches.

When walking on the bigger streets, there are statues everywhere. From heroic horsemen to grim- and learned looking figures. Of course there were also a lot of optimistic communistic statues of hard-working people and Lenin was visible in a lot of different places. One of the first things we visited was a small statue of Mendeleev, next to an old version of his Periodic Table on a wall. Too bad we couldn't get close because of a “No Trespassing” sign. I'm not sure if Russians are always strict with following signs, or only if it happens to agree with their plans. In the metro I've seen people taking pictures or standing on the wrong side of the escalator and nothing happened. The guide told us that in Russia there is a lot of corruption, which gives the expectation that even in a minor offence a lot of roubles are involved to solve the problem. I hadn't expected that, though it is kind of logical considering the country is ex-communistic and overall poor.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

The difference between rich and poor is also visible in the scientific world. When we visited the St. Petersburg Technical University, we were in an old and decaying building, which clearly needed a lot of restoration or rebuilding, but for example the NMR machine was quite new. At another university a small company told us about the electronic tongue they designed and showed that they worked in a laboratory without safe and decent equipment, because there was no money. Most people who have scientific successes say they don't want to stay in Russia because there’s not much money for research.

On our first day in St. Petersburg one of the things we visited was the Mendeleev museum. The fact that there is a statue and a small museum of him shows how important he was for Russia. Here we got a tour through the old rooms Mendeleev occupied when he worked at the university and where he invented the Periodic Table. His study room was completely unchanged and it was closed from entrance, however it was possible to take a look into it from a distance. Other rooms were filled with paintings and pictures of himself, his family and friends, models of his inventions, a map marking all the cities he had visited and an old blue and red uniform. The guide that took us through the museum couldn't speak English herself, but there was a interpreter to translate what she said. A lot of the things she told I already knew because my pre study was about Mendeleev, but I didn't know that he made models of all his inventions or his big interest in photography. Also it was new to me that at one of his trips for oil business, he encountered a primitive religion revolving around a burning oil well. People just sat around it until they died. Too bad that not a much was told Mendeleev as a person, because that is what I would have found interesting. That he was a multi talented man with great insights and many interests that wanted to improve Russia and invented a lot of things I already knew. Maybe this shows how hard it is to have a museum about a well known historic figure that strikes a balance between his work and his personality.

The museum mainly showed the successes of Mendeleev, which might be a sort of propaganda saying how good this Russian scientist was. Also I'm not sure if there is a real significance in having the museum in his actual chambers instead of reconstructed in a separate museum. What I did like about this set-up was that Mendeleev had taken photos of himself and you could see where he sat at that time he studied.

Too bad that Mendeleev’s hope for the future of Russia hasn't become reality. He had hoped that Russia could become the bridge between Asia and Europe, because it borders to both. When I think of this wish, great Russian scientists (among which Mendeleev), famous Russian composers (like Tchaikovsky) and the splendour that remains visible in the Hermitage and the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, I feel a loss of history and knowledge because of the past communistic regime. Sadly during this week I was not feeling very well, so I missed some of the interesting cultural and scientific visits made that week.

After having spent a week in St. Petersburg, we took a train to Helsinki. To me, until that day, Finland was just a far away country I didn't know much about. I don't pretend to know all about it now, but more than before this tour. Finland doesn't play much of an important role in the history of the world, since it is less than a century old. Before that it was part of either Sweden or Russia, and it was the scene for several wars between these countries. Most of the time it was an independent Duchy of these countries.

When we left St. Petersburg the snow had melted almost everywhere, but in Helsinki we found snow again. Only this time it was more or less white instead of black. Finland is very thinly populated, in the whole country live about as many people as in St. Petersburg. It has a social system with a lot of taxes and social security. Because it didn't really play a big part in the world wars, it is a land that promotes the EU and promotes talking instead of fighting.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

The architecture seen in Helsinki is pretty uniform, except for some very modern shopping malls. I've read somewhere that the style is called Jugendstill or Art Nouveau. It’s a pity that nearly all buildings have this style and there are very few pretty ornaments, so you get used to it sooner than I think it deserves. It seemed to me that in Helsinki not only the tourist spots looked well maintained and there was less overall decay. Like in St. Petersburg there were a lot of statues spread around the city, though they didn't look as grim as the Russian ones. The churches I've seen in Helsinki looked more like the ones in the Netherlands. Most of them were built of red bricks and had pointy roofs of green copper. Two exceptions of this were the Lutheran Domchurch, which looked like a white Russian church (though without the onion domes), and the Rock Church. Sadly in the latter renovations were made so I couldn't enter it. The first looked a bit like an ordinary church, only whiter and emptier. Also the windows had no coloured glass. The inside has a lot of mosaic and is mainly empty, a lot of chairs stood against the walls for when there is a ceremony.

The visit to chemistry department of the university in Helsinki was very interesting. I liked the fact that a lot of the research was related to the health of people. Also the idea of a solar cell made with wood fibres seemed interesting, though not my area of expertise.

On the day off in Helsinki I've visited the National Museum of Finland. The history of this land attracted me because I didn't know any of it before I got there. The museum looked almost like a small castle, but it was not very clear where to start so I started with a doll house exposition and in the middle of Finnish History.

I can't say I had really defined expectations of both countries, so my experiences can't be measured against those. I think that during this tour I've learned a lot about both countries, although I would like to have learnt more about pre-communistic Russia.

Luuk Versteegden Nokia

An introduction to Nokia If you ask someone what Nokia is, almost everybody will give ‘mobile phone’ as answer. Nokia is almost a generalized trademark for a mobile cell phone. The reason for this is rather simple: Nokia is the world’s number one manufacturer of mobile phones and every day Nokia connects 1.2 billion people to each other. This is not surprising regarding the fact that Nokia cell phones are sold in 160 countries. Due to this worldwide selling Nokia is ranked as the 85 th largest company in the world by Fortune 500. In the sector of network and telecommunication Nokia is even the global number one and according to Interbrand/BusinessWeek Best Global Brands list of 2010 is the eight most valuable global brand, valued at 29.5 billion USD. In the last ten years Nokia doubled its number of employers and last year they reached more than 130,000 employees all over the world (see figure 1).

Reaching its prominent position in telecommunications was not a matter of a few years, but it took Nokia more than a century. In the first part of this report this interesting pathway is pointed out step by step and it will become clear that the life of a company is not always as predictable as you think.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

After studying the history of Nokia we will focus on the company structure of Nokia and how it is managed to remain a profitable company. For example in 2009 Nokia reported an operating profit of more than one billion euro’s. In the economic section we take a look at the trend in sales and profit over de last decade and the value of Nokia shares.

The reason for this study about Nokia is the study trip for molecular science students to Finland. Nokia is founded in Finland and the headquarters of the company is still settled there (see figure 2). The telecom giant is one of the largest employers in Finland and with a share of 3.5% in the gross domestic product it seems very important for the Finnish economy. In the final section the influence of Nokia on Finland as a whole is discussed. In literature you can find a lot of number and facts but the best way to verify the influence is to simply go to Finland and see with your own eyes how Nokia is integrated in the Finnish society. And this is exactly what we are going to do during our study trip to Finland. Later on in the after-study we’ll see if our preconceived opinions are true. But first of all back to the nineteenth century where it all started for Nokia and the Finns.

Figure 1. Total employees at Nokia over Figure 2. Headquarters of Nokia Corporation. de last seven years. In a few years time Just outside the city center of Helsinki the

Nokia doubled its personnel, but is seems it headquarter is settled in a typical Finnish setting

will shrink in the coming years. with a lot of water, a lot of islands and a lot of forest.

The history of Nokia The Nokia story all started halfway the nineteenth century in Finland. Fredrik Idestam, born in 1838 in Tyrväntö, was planning a career in mining at Board of Mines of the Grand Duchy of Finland following his father career ideas. In 1863 Frederik went to Freiburg in Germany to study at the School of Mines. At the end of his study his career plans took a big turn when he met Heinrich Voelter. This man was the inventor of a groundwood mill which could produce wood pulp, the raw material for paper from wood in bulk quantities. The mill factory was already in such a far stadium that it was commercially interesting. Idestam saw the opportunities of this groundwood paper mill because the need for paper was increasing very hard due to the industrialization in Europe. Secondly, Finland is one big forest where the wood supply is almost indefinitely. Idestam returned to Finland and bought machines at Voelter to build a groundwood paper. On 12 Figure 3. Frederik Idestam, may 1865 the Finnish government gave Idestam permission to founder of Nokia Ab start his paper mill company, called Nokia Ab.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Today this date is seen as the day on which Nokia is officially founded. The name Nokia comes from an eponymous river nearby the factory mill. In 1966 Idestam first mill became productive and from that moment the Nokia story started.

At the time Idestam started with his mill, paper made from wood pulp was thought to be inferior compared with paper made from rag pulp. The smart guy dealt with this problem by making paper with a mixture of wood en rag pulp. The newspaper Tampereen Sanomat saw the advantages of this cheaper variant of paper and was in 1866 the first newspaper printed on paper containing wood. Ever since that time the usage of wood pulp for paper production started to increase rapidly and therefore the mill factory was able to expand.

In 1871 Idestam made another smart move by transforming his company to a shared firm, Nokia Ltd. Leo Mechelin, one of most influential people in Finland at that time, obtained half of the shares. With the investment capital and funding Mechelin acquired Idestam was able to make Nokia to a successful and important company for the Finnish economy. Between 1870 and the first world war the total export value of Finland increased a ten-fold, mainly caused by the wood pulp industry initiated by Nokia.

Now we make a little jump in history to 1967. In the sixties conglomerates arose in the business world. Conglomerates are companies which consist of different divisions that operate in entirely different businesses. This strategy was thought to make a company more stable and resistant to an economic crisis. In 1967 also Nokia Ab passes into the conglomerate strategy and merged officially with Finnish Rubber Works and Finnish Cable Works. The last mentioned company established the first electronic department in 1960 and thereby contributed tremendously to Nokia as a company today. The three different companies were already lead together by one executive committee since 1922, but in the sixties the merging became official. At this point the Nokia Corporation was born and the first step was taken from the path that leads to gigantic company Nokia is now.

After the merging of the three companies Nokia became active in five different fields, respectively rubber, cable, forestry, electronics and power generation. But step by step Nokia specialized in direction of telecommunication and therefore Nokia became one of the pioneers of telecommunication resulting in a revolution in the cell phone branch. Under pressure from telecommunication companies, especially Nokia, the governments of the Scandinavian countries invested in a mobile network. In 1981 the first network for mobile phones, Nordic Mobile Telephone, went on air. The launch of this network enormously boosted the mobile cell business including Nokia.

The first mobile phone was not portable as we know it today. In figure 4 this huge and heavy device, mainly used as car phone, is depicted. But as time passed by and electronic technology rapidly evolved Nokia was able to shrink down the size of the device resulting in the first portable phone depicted in figure 5. The Mobira Cityman was launched in 1987 and became the first hand-held phone. This unique event got Nokia a lot of publicity all around world especially when Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Figure 4(left). Nokia’s Soviet Union, was pictured when he was calling from Helsinki to first mobile phone. Moscow with a Mobira Cityman. This beneficial PR contributed a lot to the success of Nokia’s first hand-held phone. Figure 5(right) Nokia’s first hand-held mobile phone, Mobira Cityman.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

However for average Joe the Cityman was unreachable because you needed a lot of money (read 4,500 EUR) to purchase it and to pay the network costs. Besides, you had to have strong arm muscles because the phone weighted almost two pounds. In 1991 Nokia introduced the successor node of the NMT-network, called The Global System for Mobile communications (GSM). In contrast with the analogues NMT, GSM was digital. This made it possible to also send data over the network. The introduction caused a real mobile revolution. Due to GSM’s high voice quality calls, worldwide accessibility and the possibility to send data (like text-messaging) the mobile phone business got an enormous boost. One year after the introduction of GSM Nokia saw the booming business of mobile phones as a good reason for making the most important decision in its history. The sold all other business and they totally focused on mobile telecommunication. This was a good choice because in 1998 Nokia became world leader in this business. After specialization Nokia introduced a lot of new applications in its mobile phones like the Nokia Tune or the very popular snake-game. The introduction of the digital camera integrated in a cell phone is worth to be mentioned. Currently Nokia is largest digital camera producer, as the sales of mobile phones with camera have exceeded the sales of other traditional camera producers, like for example Kodak. Table 1 shows when some of these applications were introduced, but also some other important events in the last twenty years.

Table 1. An overview of important events 1992 Nokia’s first GSM handset was launched. 1994 The Nokia-tune was introduced. 1997 Snake, one of most popular games ever, was introduced on a Nokia 6110. 1998 Nokia became world leader in its business. 1999 Internet goes mobile on a Nokia 7110 with WAP. 2001 Nokia introduced the Nokia 7650, the world’s first phone with integrated camera for GSM networks. 2002 Mobile internet is booming and Nokia introduces the first 3G phone, the Nokia 6650. 2005 Nokia’s billionth cell phone is sold in Nigeria

Nokia was and still is an inventive company and this inventiveness brought them were they are now, the largest telecommunications company and world leader in mobile phones.

Organization structure of Nokia In figure 6 the most recent company structure of Nokia is depicted. According to the president of Nokia, Stephen Elop (figure 7), the company’s structure is designed for a future in which mobile devices, computers and internet fuse together. Mobile Solutions is developing and managing the collection of Smartphones and mobile computer devices. Mobile Solutions is also responsible for Nokia’s online application OVI, a service where customers can share pictures, download music or games and more. Mobile phones division manages Figure 6. Organization chart of Nokia. the development of the more down to earth Nokia’s structure is divided in five major divisions; Mobile Solutions, Mobile affordable mobile phones and accessory services. Phones, Markets, Nokia Siemens Markets take care of the supply chains, sales Network and NAVTEQ channels and brand activities. But their main job is to bring customer and product together.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

Nokia also has two more separate divisions; Nokia Siemens Networks and NAVTEQ. The first one is a corporation between Nokia and Siemens which supplies wireless network, infrastructure, communications and network service platforms. NAVTEQ is responsible for services for automotive navigation systems, mobile navigation devices and mapping applications.

The management of the company and all its divisions is divided among the shareholder, the Board of Directors and the Group Executive Board led by the president or Chief Executive Officer.

The daily executive governance of the company is led by the Group Executive Board (GEB), formed by the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and a few other members. They are in charge and make the decisions. The Board of Directors, also representing the shareholders, is responsible for the strategy of the company and management policies. But their main job is to control the activities executed by the GEB. They also are authorized to discharge the GEB. Fig ure 7. Stephen Elop, president and CEO of The shareholders have influence during the shareholders’ Nokia Corporation. The meeting. If the company has to take important decisions for new man in charge at example like fusions or acquisitions the shareholders have to Nokia since September approve such plans by voting. 2010

The economics of Nokia In this part the economic data of Nokia over the last years is described. On the basis of the annual reports some important factors are depicted in graphs to give an overall impression about the magnitude of Nokia.

As mentioned before Nokia was market leader in telecommunications in 1998. In figure 8 the market share of the important mobile device companies of 2008 is depicted. It is clear that Nokia is still market leader far ahead. However last years they lost market value to other companies. They lost for example 61 billion market value to Apple. To regain this loss Nokia took away Stephen Elop from Microsoft. The idea of this move was to create a good co-operation with Microsoft, especially to develop a good operating system for smartphones to compete with Google’s Android and Apple’s operating systems. Because that’s the field where Nokia lost most of its market value. Figure 8. Market Share Mobile device Looking at the net sales depicted in figure 9 and company. Nokia is still by far the largest the net profit depicted in figure 10 a decrease is mobile device company. But others are noticed in 2008, mainly caused by the economic gaining Nokia’s share last years. crisis, but also because it seemed Nokia lost the Smartphone battle.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

In 2009 the profit decreased a five-fold which is not strange regarding the facts that Nokia spent almost six times as much on research and development (R&D) as Apple and failed to successfully market a device which is just as popular as the iPhone. Therefore is it not strange that shareholders and investors lost their faith in Nokia resulting in a massive loss of share value (see figure 11). At the end of 2007 shares had a value of more than 25 EUR, but at the worst point the value dropped to less than five EUR in mid 2010. When it was announced that Elop was becoming CEO the share value slightly increased. The future will show if this is enough to regain the thrust of investors and shareholder.

Figure 9. Net Sales of Nokia. A decline is Figure 10. Profit of Nokia. A decline is noticed, noticed after 2008 caused by loss of market mainly caused by economic crisis which started in share. 2007.

Figure 11. Price of Nokia shares over the last eight years . It’s not a good time for Nokia shareholders right now .

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

The role of Nokia in Finland As already made clear in the previous parts of this report Nokia is a huge company, but how important is such a company in a relative small country as Finland? Nokia’s sales are almost as high as the budget of the Finnish government. In practice this ratio is useless, but is gives a good indication of the size of Nokia comparing with the size of Finland.

A parameter which does indicate the influence of Nokia in Finland is the contribution of Nokia to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In 2000 Nokia’s share was around 3.3% mainly caused by the rapidly growing export rate (35% a year in the late nineties). But more important is input of Nokia to the GDP growth which was 1,9% in 2000.

In 2000 Nokia had an estimated amount of 24,500 employees in Finland. This is only 1.1% percent of total employment in Finland. The graph in figure 12 shows the ration between domestic employees and foreign employees. In the early eighties the ratio of foreign versus domestic was 1:8, but at end of the eighties at the time that Nokia was focusing on telecommunication the ratio was 1:1 and stayed the same till 1996. At that Figure 12. Employees at Nokia from 1980 moment Nokia was growing extremely fast till 2000. Ration between domestic and this resulted a more factories abroad. employment and foreign employment. Now Nokia has R&D units in sixteen countries and production units in thirteen countries.

Therefore Nokia is a multinational company, but Finland still is the country where the largest part is settled.

Only 1.1% percent of total employment in Finland seems as a small influence, but Nokia is the center of a big web of companies which are co-operating. At a start of the recent century it was estimated that Nokia employed more than 20,000 people in partner companies. Together this employment counts for about 2% of total employment and this percentage is not accounting for the indirect form of employment Nokia provides. Logistic companies, constructing companies and many others all take advantage of Nokia and this fact is also providing plenty of employment. Therefore it is difficult to account the total influence of Nokia on employment in Finland and its economy. But in general it is estimated that Nokia is an important factor.

All the numbers and facts mentioned above suggest that Nokia’s influence on the Finnish economy is noticeable. But there’s only one way to really see how Nokia important Nokia is for the Finns and that is simply asking them. Are they proud at Nokia? Do they all have Nokia cell phones? Do they all want to work at Nokia? And what do they think about the globalization of Nokia and the withdrawal of business units out of Finland. During the study trip I hope to find the answers on these questions and hopefully we’ll visit the Nokia Headquarters Espoo. In the post-study I’ll come back on all the questions and I hope I’ll have a good indication about the influence of Nokia in the Finnish Society.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

References 1. Biografiakeskus, Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, viewed 25 January, (http://www.kansallisbiografia.fi/english/?id=4296). 2. Nokia Official Site, viewed 27 December, (http://www.nokia.com ). 3. Akseli Nokia, viewed 25 January, (http://www.akseli.tampere.fi/nokia/tehdas/idestam.htm). 4. 10 interesting facts about Nokia, viewed on 25 January, (http://www.fundistraction.com/2007/06/10-interesting-facts-about-nokia.html). 5. Nokia Headquarters, viewed 17 January, (http://adsoto.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/img_0135.jpg). 6. Evolution of Nokia from Nokia Mobira Senator to Nokia N8, viewed 4 January, (http://hypedtalk.blogspot.com/2010/12/evolution-of-nokia-from-nokia-mobira.html) 7. Murtazin, E., ‘Nokia Learned to Play Violin, but is Losing its Worth’, viewed 15 January, (http://www.mobile-review.com/print.php?filename=/articles/2010/birulki-67-en.shtml). 8. Fortune Global 500: 2009, viewed January 20, (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2009/snapshots/6652.html) 9. Finland GDP Data & Country Report, viewed January 22, (http://www.gfmag.com/gdp-data- country-reports/273-finland-gdp-country-report.html#axzz1BezzRHP2). 10. Nokia asks 1,000 workers to resign, viewed on January 22, (http://smart-data- centers.tmcnet.com/topics/trends/articles/51110-nokia-asks-1000-workers-resign.htm ) 11. Nokia taps Microsoft executive to regain lost market share, viewed 22 January, (http://topnews.co.uk/212686-nokia-taps-microsoft-executive-regain-lost-market-share). 12. This is Finland, viewed 25 January, (http://www.finland.fi/Public/default.aspx?contentid=209953&%3Bnodeid=41805&%3Bc ulture=en-US). 13. Nokia Share Price Chart, viewed 24 January, (http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=NOA3.DE#symbol=noa3.de;range=my;compare=;indicat or=volume;charttype=area;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=;) 14. Jyrki Ali-Yrkkö, ‘ The role of Nokia in the Finnish Economy’, viewed 27 January, (http://www.etla.fi/files/940_FES_01_1_nokia.pdf ). 15. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, (http://en.wikipedia.org/).

Retrospective view Nokia

The influence of Nokia on the Finnish society On April the 4 th our study tour started at Düsseldorf International Airport. We departed to St. Petersburg where we would spend the first week of our two week study tour. The second week we would travel to Helsinki in Finland. I did my preliminary study about the Finnish company Nokia, therefore I thought that I would not see Nokia at all in the first week. Nevertheless, the first thing I saw when I left the bus in front of our hotel in St. Petersburg was a big Nokia billboard. I did not expect such a western brand in a former Soviet city. But during the week in St. Petersburg it became clear to me that the western capital market is yet also dominating the former Soviet Union.

After one week in Russia we traveled to Helsinki by train at the 11 th of April. Arrived in Helsinki my assignment to investigate the influence of Nokia on the Finnish society could start. The first day we went to the University of Helsinki by bus. After five minutes in that bus I heard the well-known Nokia tune sounding through the bus and when we arrived at the university after twenty minutes I had heard the Nokia tune several times. This was my first Nokia experience in Finland and therefore my expectations about the Nokia’s influence in Finland were high.

Preliminary studies and retrospective views

The next day we had a sauna party at a Finnish student complex where we met some students. I asked them what was true about our prejudice that all the Finns have a Nokia cell phone. They told me that ten years ago this was true, but that the last years Nokia lost customers to mainly iPhone and Blackberry. The main reason for this change is that more people use mobile internet and in that particular field Nokia is staying behind on their competitors. Especially young people switch to other mobile phone brands. The thirty plus people stay at Nokia, because they grew up with Nokia.

I found it very interesting to see the difference in notion between the youth and the older Finns. The young people are not really interested in Nokia and if iPhone or Blackberry launches fancier phones than Nokia, they simply let down Nokia. The older generation is still proud of Nokia and it hurts them that Nokia is doing bad last years. Due to globalization Nokia migrates it’s activities to cheaper countries and thereby Nokia yet loses much more goodwill in Finland. But to come back on the prejudice that every Finn has a Nokia, for the older people this is still true, although Nokia is also losing these customers. On the other hand it seems that the younger generation has already said goodbye to Nokia.

On April the 14 th we went to Turku, 200 kilometers to the west of Helsinki. On the road to this city we passed through the city of Espoo, where Nokia’s headquarter is situated. The previous evening I looked at Google Maps in the hotel lobby and with my limited geographical knowledge I gave it a good chance that it was possible to spot the epicentre of Nokia from the highway. My presumption was right and 20 kilometers outside of the city center of Helsinki we passed the Headquarters. I tried to take pictures but they all failed since I was sitting in a driving bus. It is an impressive building situated in a typical Finnish landscape.

In my preliminary study I thought that the influence of Nokia on the Finnish society was rather big, but after a week in Finland I have to change my opinion. On the streets you see just as much iPhone’s, Blackberry’s, Samsungs as you see Nokia’s. The current policy of Nokia also doesn’t contribute to the goodwill of Nokia. Nokia is moving their activities to cheaper countries. Recently, on 16 May, the news came out that Nokia is intending to sell their cell phone business to Microsoft. If this acquisition really takes place is will definitely further decrease the reputation of Nokia in Finland and because Microsoft is a more global company the influence of Nokia on the Finnish society will be reduced to a minimum.

Program

The study tour consisted of two full weeks of organized visits, cultural excursions and free time. Our final schedule is given below. On the following pages a detailed account of every day (a ‘daily report’) can be found.

Date Time Activity 04/04/2011 6.45 Departure from Nijmegen to Düsseldorf 11.00 – 15.45 Flight to Saint Petersburg 05/04/2011 10.00 – 13.00 City walk 13.00 – 17.00 Visit SPBSU – Lab of Chemical Sensors 06/04/2011 10.00 – 15.00 Visit SPBSTU – Department of Biophysics 07/04/2011 10.00 – 17.00 Visit Hermitage museum and research department 08/04/2011 All day Day trip to Petrodvorets 16.00 Visit SPBSU – Department of General and Inorganic Chemistry 09/04/2011 All day Day off 10/04/2011 All day Day off 11/04/2011 15.25 – 18.00 Train trip Saint Petersburg – Helsinki 12/04/2011 10.00 – 12.00 Visit University of Helsinki – Department of Biochemistry 13.00 – 15.00 Visit University of Helsinki – Centre for Drug Research Evening Get-together with student organization Helix 13/04/2011 10.00 – 12.00 Visit University of Helsinki – Department of Chemistry 13.00 – 15.00 Visit University of Helsinki – VERIFIN 14/04/2011 8.00 Day trip to Turku Visit to PerkinElmer 15/04/2011 10.00 – 13.00 Visit IT Centre for Science 15.00 – 16.00 Visit European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) 16/04/2011 All day Day off 17/04/2011 All day Visit to Suomenlinna 18/04/2011 12.00 Departure for airport 16.25 – 17.45 Flight to Düsseldorf

Daily reports

Monday, April 4 th The journey begins… Sander Habets

After going to sleep early on Sunday the 3rd of April, the sound of my alarm clock at 5:30 in the morning was still an unwelcome sound. While dragging myself to my shower, I already received my first text message of the day. It was Koen, using a children’s rhyme to convince us that it was a great day to get up so early. Not being a morning person myself, I couldn’t really appreciate it. Then I got a call from professor Buydens around 6:00, telling me that she was already at the university. After assuring her that I would be there in a couple of minutes, I checked my pockets one final time (passport, wallet, tickets, gifts for speakers) and once I determined that I really did have everything, I left for the university. Interesting fact; upon returning in my room after the study tour, I found out that I had forgotten to turn off the lights in all my excitement. Should be an interesting electrical bill…

I arrived at the university around 6:10 and found that I was one of the first. Once another committee member arrived, I left quickly to print out some thank-you notes for the speakers, which I had forgotten to do the day before. Once that was done, I returned to the cafeteria and saw that everyone was there already. So far so good.

The bus ride to Düsseldorf was not very exciting, but everyone seemed to be very awake even though it was very early. All the formalities at the airport were cleared without any problems and there was no excessive amount of waiting time before boarding, so we quickly found ourselves on board of the airplane. For me, it was the first time to fly in such a large airplane, so I was quite excited. Taking off reminded me of a rollercoaster, where you get launched at a huge speed and are pressed into your seat. The flight itself was just fine. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a window seat, so there was not a lot to see for me. After about 2.5 hours, we landed in Saint Petersburg. They told me the landing was a little rough, but since I didn’t have any reference material I just took their word for it.

While getting off the airplane, some of the Russian stereotypes were immediately confirmed: there were uniformed people everywhere, all of them looking sternly at us. In contrast to this, all the customs officers who had to check our visa were cute girls. I’m not quite sure about the theory behind this, but it probably has something to do with making us feel at ease in Russia.

Once everyone recovered their luggage, we left the terminal. We were greeted by a Dutch speaking Russian woman from the travel agency, who would accompany us during the bus transfer to the hotel. Though unexpected, it was greatly appreciated. During the ride, she told us some interesting facts about Saint Petersburg and Russia in general, which gave us a good impression of the country we were now in. Her statements included: Unleaded fuel is too expensive for Russians; smoking kills, but not in Russia; and second hand western cars are a status symbol. Next to that, she also told us that no one ever washes their car and that Russian girls all wear very high heels and very short skirts. We were able to confirm both these facts during our stay.

After arriving at the hotel, there was a small problem regarding the amount of available beds, but thanks to our Russian guide, this was quickly solved. Once everyone settled in, I tagged along with a small group and we took our first short walk on Russian soil. After taking some pictures of a large church (just like real tourists) we decided to get something to eat. We found a small Armenian place that provided good food for low prices.

Daily reports

A main course, dessert and something to drink only cost 600 rouble, which is about €15,-. This proved to be normal in Russia, so our first week was rather cheap. Interesting to mention here is that in every restaurant, there’s a person sitting at the wardrobe, guarding your coat as it were. In Russia, it is tradition to give this person a tip. We knew this, so we decided that the last person in our group, Kess, was to give the guy a tip (100 rouble / €2.50) from all of us. When we went to get our coats, he just handed them to us with a stern look, but not with Kess. No, he helped her put her coat on and was smiling all the time. At that point, he realized that the money was from all of us, so he smiled and waved at us when we left.

Since it was rather late already and we had to get up early on the next day, we decided to call it a night. Before going back to the hotel though, Luuk and I went to check out the subway system. We would be using the subway the next day, so figured it would be a good idea to go there the night before so that I knew how it all worked. After buying tokens ( жетони ) for €0.25 a piece, we entered the subway system. For just €0.25 you are allowed to travel as far as you want, so that is a very efficient method of transportation.

After getting on and off the different subway lines a few times, we decided we’d had enough fun and headed back to the hotel. There, we found that the solution for the lack of beds was putting an old-school camp-bed in every room. A bit unfortunate, but we decided to take turns so that no one would have to suffer too much.

With that, our first day was concluded and I went to sleep, looking forward to the next day, which would bring us a lot of activities and our first visit to a university.

Daily reports

Tuesday, April 5 th City walk and a first glance at Russian science Alinda Alfring and Rianne Hommersom

Our first night at Hotel Azimut was very satisfactory; the hotel beds have received our approval. After a nice breakfast, we left the hotel at 9:15 AM for a sightseeing walk. Temperature: 5 °C. First, we had to walk to the nearest subway station, which is Tekhnologicheskiy Institut. From there we travelled to Nevsky Prospekt, where our city walk started.

Our first stop was The Cathedral of the Resurrection. This church is a real piece of architecture, decorated from top to bottom with colored tiles, marble and mosaics. The church was built in memory of Emperor Alexander II, who was assassinated on March 1st, 1881, by the terrorist Ignaty Grinevitsky. Therefore The Cathedral of the Resurrection is also known as The Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood.

From here we walked further to the river Neva. It was still largely frozen, so we had a chance to take some stunning pictures. On the other side of the river the Peter and Paul Fortress is situated. This military fortress was established by Peter the Great on May 16th, 1703, to protect the city from a Swedish attack. The main entrance to the fortress, the Petrovskiy Gate, was built to celebrate the Russian Victory over Sweden in the Northern War. The Russian national symbol, the double headed eagle, was placed above the arch in 1720. The fortress never had to be used for military purposes, but parts of it have, for many years, served as a prison. Nowadays, the fortress is open for tourists, coming to see the Cathedral of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, various museums, galleries and spectacular views of the riverside.

A little further on our walk, we passed by the former main trade port of Saint Petersburg, the Exchange, which is situated on the spit of Vasilyevsky Island. On the sides there are two Rostral columns, with sculptures personifying the rivers Volga, Neva, Volkhov and Dnieper. From the spit you have a fantastic panoramic view of the Neva and also of the Hermitage museum or Winter Palace.

The Hermitage museum was the next and last stop of our city walk and we had some spare time to go for lunch. Walking from the Palace Square, we soon found a typical non-Russian fast food restaurant M акэкспресс (a.k.a. McDonald’s).

Daily reports

Since Big Mac is known all around the world, our Russian speaking skills weren't needed this time. After lunch we headed back to the Palace Square for our afternoon program, which consisted of a visit to the Mendeleev museum and a spinoff company called Electronic Tongue.

The Mendeleev museum is situated at the Saint Petersburg State University. This part of the university building used to be Mendeleev’s apartment. He was a very good teacher and he taught at different Russian universities. He became Professor of Chemistry in 1863 and in 1866 he succeeded to the Chair of the SPbSU. He was not only a chemist, but he was also involved in forensic studies and in the oil industry and agriculture. In 1890 he resigned his professorship at the SPbSU. His working room at that time now makes up a great deal of the Mendeleev museum. Because his wife locked the door after he had died, the chamber is still perfectly preserved.

In the museum, one can for example have a look at Mendeleev’s desk and old bookcases. Also the first periodic table, written on a piece of scrap paper, is hanging on the wall, with a few holes left open for the elements that had not been discovered yet. Mendeleev never received the Nobel Prize for his work, but he was once recommended by the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

After visiting the Mendeleev museum our guide of the day, dr. Dmitry Kirsanov, took us to a lecture room, to tell us a few things about his spin-off company, the Electronic Tongue. The Electronic Tongue is a sensor device for recognition (identification, classification and discrimination), quantitative multi-component analysis and artificial assessment of taste and flavor of various liquids. The sensor gives a translation of an environmental property to an electrical current or optical signal. It responds to a particular analyte in a selective way, through a chemical reaction. This results in a quantitative or qualitative determination of the analyte. He also showed us his laboratory. It wasn’t as good as we are used to. They used plastic bottles to store solutions and there was only one fume hood, full with bottles and other stuff, so it couldn’t be used.

After this visit we went for a walk, looking for a shopping center, but we didn’t find it. So, we still had some time left, which we used to visit the Cathedral of the Resurrection. The interior of the cathedral is very impressive. It contains over 7500 square meters of mosaics. We became hungry after all those visits, so we went looking for a good place to have diner. We ended up in the Coca-bar, where we had some very big, good tasting pizzas. After the pizzas we stayed there for some vodka, cocktails and a water pipe.

Back in the hotel we went to the 18th floor to enjoy the view of Saint Petersburg by night. At 11.30 PM, a guard came and sent us away, so we had to find another room to continue our games and chatting. Finally, we went to bed at 1:45 AM.

Wednesday, April 6th Saint Petersburg Polytechnic State University Luuk Versteegden and Floris van Ojen

On the third day of our study tour the day began at 8:00 AM in hotel Azimut. After breakfast we assembled in the lobby at 8:45 and walked to the subway station, Tekhnologicheskiy Institut. From there we took line 1 to Politeknicheskaya to the Saint Petersburg Polytechnic State University. It was very crowded at the station and also in the subway, resulting in separation of the group in different subways. The trip to the University took about twenty minutes and there we waited until we were picked up and walked to the university.

When we left the subway station a big, stately white building stood in front of us, and our suspicions of a gray, old and expired building were weakened. We walked toward this building and to our surprise we walked past it. We walked for several minutes dodging piles of snow and wondering where we would end up. The building where we arrived was a typical Soviet building, which was not our expectation of a university building.

Daily reports

The entrance and the stairs with a prehistoric elevator in the middle made us drop any further hopeful expectations. However, the room were the presentation were held was very modern, with nice chairs, desks and a beamer.

First an introduction of the Radboud University was presented by Prof. Lutgarde Buydens, with some delay because some trouble was encountered with PowerPoint. After this short presentation a Russian student presented her project about the Influenza virus, she studied the NSI protein which can give an indication of the virulence. Hereafter Sanne Bakker presented here bachelor internship about polymersomes followed by another Russian presentation about calcium signaling in association with Alzheimer disease.

After these presentations it was time for a break, the option to go to the university canteen was directly closed because they were not prepared for such a large group. Instead we went to the world-famous McDonalds. It was a fifteen minute walk to a shopping mall, but the walk was dominated by the skyline, an endless view of Soviet style apartments.

After the break we continued with the presentations. First, one of the Russian students, who is going to do an internship at the Dutch cancer institute KWF Kankerbestrijding next year, gave a presentation about optical tweezers. This is a device that uses a highly focused laser beam to provide a very small force to hold and move microscopic objects. With this technique it is possible to study a lot of biological processes like the interaction of proteins with DNA.

Next, the Russian version of Dr Hans Heus , told us something about reaction kinetics and how these kinetics can be used to adjust a medicine regimen to a specific patient. We all had a déjà vu to the FMM3 lectures in our first year.

Finally, the fourth Russian student told us that he was working with different kinds of microscopy. With a physical approach he was trying to improve resolution of the microscope. This talk was maybe a little bit out of our research field, but the application of this technique can certainly be interesting for molecular life scientists.

After the presentation the Russian students showed us their laboratories. First they showed us the optical tweezer. The walk from the lecture room to the optical tweezer located at the basement of the building was stunning. Sometimes we hear people complaining about the basement of the Huygensbuilding, but when we walked around in the basement in Saint Petersburg we promised never to complain anymore about our basement. It was so outdated that in the Netherlands the building would have demolished thirty years ago. Because of the bad maintenance of the building we did not have high expectations of their lab equipment. Surprisingly, when we entered the lab it turned out that they possessed one of most modern optical tweezers in the world. Also their NMR laboratory surprised us in a positive way, because we saw a 700 MHz Varian NMR apparatus and a very modern HPLC.

After all, the visit to the Saint Petersburg State Polytechnic University (SPSPU) was very impressive. Despite of the outdated state of the building they possess very modern equipment and the level of research is rather high. But at the end we think we have to be very glad that we have such a nice and modern accommodation as the Huygens building, because it appeared to us that this is not very common elsewhere in the world.

After the visit of the SPSPU the mandatory program for the day was over, so everyone made their own plans for the evening. We decided to go to Nevsky Prospect by subway to find a nice restaurant to eat. This is not as easy as in the Netherlands. Most restaurants are not visible from the street, but with a tourist guide we found ‘The Taverna’, a restaurant where they served Greek food.

Daily reports

The food was really good and the portions were surprisingly large for Russian standard. We ended the evening in the lobby of hotel Azimut with a few Russian beers.

Thursday, April 7th Visit to the Hermitage museum and laboratories Anne Bakker and Sanne Bakker

We gathered around 9:00 in the morning in the lobby and after a few delays we departed for the subway station. Around 10:00 we arrived at the main entrance of the museum where half of the group got in line to enter. The other part went looking for the service entrance to meet our guide for the visit of the laboratories.

While we were waiting for her to arrive, a very familiar face walked up the stairs. After a short discussion (in Dutch) we concluded that we were looking at Thom de Graaf, the major of Nijmegen. Unfortunately we were too surprised to have a chat with him; others were less shy and made pictures with him which were posted on his Twitter account.

Then our guide arrived and she took us to her lab where organic compounds were analyzed. They studied paper, textile, canvas, polish, varnish and all other kinds of materials used to produce paint and paintings. They analyzed these materials by using mass spectrometry, gas chromatography, electron microscopy and several other chemical techniques. Aim of this research is to determine the chemical and physical conditions of the materials in order to give advice to the departments for conservation and recovery of artworks. Our guide also showed us a presentation about a small painting she had been investigating, called Madonna della Grazie which was painted by Lorenzo Lotto in 1542. She told us that the painting was badly recovered during the 18th century. Originally there were three angels above Madonna’s head but after the recovery, only Madonna and a dark sky were left. By investigating the paint and the polish they found out that materials of different age were on the painting. Therefore they concluded that there had to be another layer of paint beneath the visible layer.

Overview picture of one of the laboratories. Madonna della Grazie

Then we went upstairs to another lab where people were investigating modern types of art like photographs, especially by infra red spectroscopy and X-ray. We met a woman who was over seventy years old and she has studied wood samples by an optical microscope for more than forty years.

Because our group was very enthusiastic, our guide decided to arrange more visits of departments. So we went to the head of the conservation department who was showing us some X-ray and IR techniques. First he told us something about a method to determine the age of gold and then he showed us a special technique to look at paintings with IR and UV light. They scanned the painting in order to determine of which materials the paint was made. They did this by measuring the reflection of the materials. Different materials produce reflections of different wavelengths. This method gives information about the conservation and upper layers of a painting.

Daily reports

X-ray spectroscopy (radiography) was used to show underlying parts of paintings and other objects. For example, a mummy was investigated and this showed tattoos all over his body which weren’t visible on the outside. They could also check the authenticity of a painting by looking for the first sketch of the painter. When he was showing us some X-ray results we recognized the painting of Madonna della Grazie which we saw earlier that day! On this picture the angels were clearly visible.

The last department we visited in the Hermitage was the workplace where all ‘small’ oil paintings were recovered. During the tour around this workplace, we discovered a small painting wrapped in paper. It looked like the Madonna della Grazie and it turned out to be the restored painting. It looked surprisingly well!

When we told the guide we first wanted to eat something before visiting the real museum. She instantly offered us to eat with her in the staff cafeteria. We had a nice meal of potatoes, hamburger and a sort of sauerkraut. After finishing our meal it was finally time to visit the museum. The Hermitage is partially located in the Winter Palace, the old residence of the Tsars. So we had to look at art and beautiful rooms with decorations at the same time. Because of the size of the museum and all the impressive art we weren’t able to see everything and we decided to go back later that week. After leaving the museum it was time to look for a place to have dinner. To stay in the same category we decided to go to a restaurant called 1913 which was described in our travel guide. The restaurant was named after the last year the Tsar was in power and also decorated in this style. We ate traditional Russian beef stroganoff and it was delicious. After dinner we decided to look for a famous Russian cafe. Eventually we found the Tinkoff brewpub were you could see live how the beer was brewed. After we tasted this local drink we went to the hotel.

Friday, April 8th Peterhof Palace and the Faculty of Chemistry Sybrin Schröder and Maurits Boeije

Today we went by train to Peterhof Palace, which was the summer residence of the tsars. The train looked very old and was nothing compared to our NS. The good thing was that it was very cheap. On the way we got a good look at the swamp on which the city was originally built. The trip lasted one hour and we accidently got out a station too far. We then took a bus back to Peterhof Palace.

Because it was still winter, the building was under maintenance and we had free access to the grounds. The building looked impressive because of its size and the amount of gold. On the other side of the complex, there was the frozen Baltic Sea. Then we took the train to the Saint Petersburg State University.

The Faculty of Chemistry is situated in the middle of the woods. The buildings looked like the old Faculty of Science in Nijmegen, but are in fact only as old as the Huygens building. We were greeted by the dean of the general chemistry department. We expected a scientific talk but got to see a lot of nice experiments. They were conducted by a grumpy old lady. The experiments were done without any of the safety regulations we are used to. It was all carried out on the lecture table in front of us without a fume hood.

Daily reports

In the evening the whole group gathered and we went to a Russian restaurant. They were not used to handling such big groups so it took a very long time for us to get the food. Every Friday night, restaurants like this are transformed into karaoke bars. The music was way too loud, even after we asked them to put the volume down. After dinner some people went to the back with the owner of the restaurant to drink vodka.

Saturday, April 9th Spare time in Saint Petersburg Tom Nolte

Saturday: our schedule for today said we had the day off. This did not stop us from seeing some more of beautiful Saint Petersburg. But since it was our day off, the group split up in several smaller groups; some wanted to visit the museum of Communist Russia, others took part in an organized city trip and others decided to wander around in the city for themselves.

After an hour of extra waiting for our sightseeing bus we could depart together with our driver Alexey. The trip brought us via the Irish pub, The Shamrock, where we had watched some football matches the pervious days, to the Saint Petersburg opera and the Jewish synagogue. Our first stop was the blue Saint Nicolas Cathedral. In this Russian Orthodox church we saw an authentic burial ceremony. In the church, where the women were obliged to wear hat or scarf to cover their heads, we gazed at the many pieces of beautiful art before we continued our trip.

Immediately after departure we knew our driver Alexey was a really good tour guide, he could tell a lot about everything we saw during the trip. There where hardly moments when he did not speak. Some of the buildings we already visited ourselves but we did not know anything about the story or history, therefore the city trip was really nice.

Furthermore we came across the Aurora, the ship that initiated the October Revolution, and the museum of fine arts. After buying some souvenirs, like a Siberian army hat and some key chains, the trip was over and we returned to the hotel. For dinner, we again split up in smaller groups and sought the dinner we liked best. Some ate in the hotel, others downtown. We concluded the day with a beer and some vodka’s on the 18th floor of the hotel.

Sunday, April 10th The second day off Luuk van Summeren

Sunday was our second day off in St. Petersburg. As we had already seen most of the Nevsky Prospect area we decided to explore the outer part of the city centre.

The first thing we wanted to see was the Alexander Nevski monastery, according to our travelers guide, the cathedral which is part of the monastery is one of the most impressive Russian Orthodox churches in Saint Petersburg that is still being used as a church and not as a museum. The monastery is situated at the south end of the city centre, and off course we went there by subway as it is the most common way of public transport.

Daily reports

As soon as we left the subway system the monastery was not very hard to find because of the large groups of local people walking in the direction of the monastery. Once we reached the entrance of the convent there was standing one of the many Perspex cubicles in St. Petersburg. In front of it a very friendly monk (who surprisingly spoke fluently English) stating that we should pay 200 rubles each to get in, tough the locals could just pass.

Inside the walls of the convent there was some sort of a garden and a cemetery surrounded by the convent buildings. Most of them were closed to the public but the cathedral was accessible though within the rules of the Russian Orthodox Church, so the women should cover and the men uncover their heads. As we came in, a service was going on and we were quite surprised by the way this was happening. The church has no benches and the people are just standing in the middle of the church. In front of them is the shrine which is situated behind two doors which looks a bit like a theatre. The whole service was sung by the priests and the monks, and was quite impressive. But the strange thing was that everyone was just doing their own things, some people were praying at an icon, some were lighting candles etcetera.

After we left the monastery we walked by one of the most famous cemeteries of Russia, a lot of important people in Russian History, like Dostoyevsky and Tchaikovsky, are buried here. As there was also an entrance fee of 200 rubles we didn’t go in.

Our next point of interest was the cruiser Aurora which signaled the start of the assault on the Winter Palace on the 25th of October 1917, which was to be the last episode of the October Revolution. The Aurora is located on the north side of the city centre, so again we used the subway to get at our destination. From the subway station we had to walk a bit along the side of the Neva River and we passed the small hove of Peter the Great in which he supervised the build of Saint Petersburg.

The cruiser Aurora has a great part in Russian history but nowadays her part in the October revolution is seen as most important. After the Second World War, in which the ship was sunk to the bottom of the Neva River to prevent the Germans getting their hands on it, the cruiser Aurora was setup to be a museum about the communistic Russian history. After visiting the cruiser we went back to the hotel.

As it was the last night in St. Petersburg we thought it was a good idea to eat some traditional Russian food for the last time. In out traveler’s guide a restaurant was mentioned where they should serve traditional soviet food, a place where the personnel would walk around in soviet uniforms and soviet propaganda was all over the place. Unfortunately this particular restaurant was nowhere to be found. As we were already half way to Nevsky Prospect we decided to walk that way and search for another traditional restaurant. At the end we found a place where we ate traditional Russian Beef Stroganoff.

We took the subway back to the hotel and spent the rest of the night in one of the hotel rooms drinking vodka and playing card games.

Monday, April 11th Travelling to Helsinki Kess Marks

Today was a day of travel: we were transferred from Saint Petersburg to Helsinki by train.

For me this Monday started with quietly reading my book while waiting for my roommates to wake up. After that; have a shower, get dressed and enjoy a good breakfast. After we had packed our bags and checked out of the hotel we waited in the hotel lobby for the bus that was going to take us to the train station. To kill the time we played more than several games of cards.

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The bus drive to the train station was as one would expect after witnessing the traffic in Saint Petersburg, slow, hot*, and smoggy. But the ride did not take very long and was therefore quite bearable. At the train station again a long waiting period was used to increase our card skills beneath the watchful eye of the ever present Russian security.

The train itself was one of those quite fancy high speed trains, so good chairs, tables, a restaurant carriage etcetera. The ride itself was very quiet. To my disappointment no thorough bag searches were held, not one of us was harassed by the border security, no excitement whatsoever. Our passports were checked three times but every time the customs guards (both Finnish and Russian) realized we were one large group they looked desperately at our bags at the idea of searching each and every one of them and turned away.

Between Saint Petersburg and Helsinki the train stopped at five stations: Vyborg, which lies still in Russia, Vainikkala, which lies almost on the Finnish/Russian border, and Kouvola, Lahti and Vantaa which are the 10th, 4th and 8th largest cities of Finland respectively. The train traversed mainly forested areas so the view was monotonous: trees and snow. However we were glad that for the first time during this trip we saw snow that was actually white. The dirt and pollution in Saint Petersburg has a large effect on the snow colorations.

Without any trouble we arrived at the Helsinki train station. For some reason, although it was agreed on with the travel agency, there was no transfer from the train station to the hotel. Luckily the hotel was only a five minute walk away. The hotel Sokos Presidentii was very pleasant indeed: swimming pool and sauna, nice rooms with actual beds and good bathrooms (and as I would notice the next morning, a fabulous breakfast). After settling down in our new room, we went looking for the restaurant that we picked from the travel guide. To our amazement the restaurant was not only actually where we expected it to be, but also exactly as the description in travel guide; order at the bar and a varied menu with pastas, burritos, pizzas and salads. It was a fine example of what we would call a student friendly restaurant. When we got our meals we were even happier, not only did it taste very, very good, the amount of food on our plates was twice as much of what we would have gotten in Saint Petersburg. This was very welcome after the long train ride.

After dinner we retreated to our hotel room and discovered the TV channel of the hotel: non stop broadcast of the Disney film “The Princess and the Frog” in Finnish.

We could not have finished this day in a better way.

*Indeed, one would expect Saint Petersburg not to be hot, and this is true outside, however every inside location is broodingly warm!

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Tuesday, April 12th University of Helsinki: Viikki Campus for Life Sciences Sander Groenen and Rob van der Kant

As usual we gathered in the lobby of hotel Sokos Presidentii at 8:45 AM. We went to the main station together and waited for the bus to the University of Helsinki. When the bus arrived near the university, we walked for about five minutes to the Viikki Campus for Life Sciences where a professor was waiting for us. We were guided to a lecture hall and he held a talk about the University of Helsinki in general. He explained to us that the University of Helsinki has the widest range of disciplines in Finland. It was established in Turku in 1640, but was transferred to Helsinki in 1828. The number of faculties is eleven. There are 35.000 degree students and 8.100 people staff. The number of degrees granted each year is an average 5.000, of which about 500 are doctorates.

The University concentrates on high-level scientific research and education. Scientific research is also the main focus of the teaching provided by the university. It’s operations support the development of society, as well as business and industry. University representatives offer their skills for the benefit of society through a number of positions of trust and expertise.

The results produced by the research and teaching carried out at the university have been widely acclaimed. The university participates in more than half of the national Centers of Excellence in Research, elected by international scientific panels. The University of Helsinki has been invited to be a member of the League of European Research Universities, a cooperation body for the leading European research universities. According to international expert panels, the teaching provided by the University of Helsinki is of also a high European level.

The university has strong international connections. It has some 80 co-operation agreements with universities on different continents. The university researchers are in great demand as experts in international scientific communities, meetings and publications. The University is bilingual, but in addition to Finnish and Swedish teaching is also provided in English. Besides Helsinki, the university has operations at twenty localities throughout Finland.

After the general information about the University of Helsinki the professor spoke about the campus for Life Sciences named Viikki. The multidisciplinary Viikki Campus is one of the four campuses of the University of Helsinki. It is important in the field of biosciences, even by European standards. Indeed, it is often called the ‘bioscience campus’ or the ‘green campus’.

In addition to biosciences, the campus is home to a wide range of other life science researchers and students in such fields as environmental science, veterinary medicine and food research and economics. Numerous international research groups also work on the Viikki Campus. The Viikki Campus is the location of four faculties, two independent institutes and the Viikki Science Library. It also attracts an increasing number of businesses to the Helsinki Business and Science Park. The Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute and the Finnish Food Safety Authority, Evira, have also moved to Viikki and negotiations are on the way to relocate MTT Agrifood Research Finland to Viikki to complement the Department of Economics and Management.

The Viikki Campus unites a multidisciplinary science community of more than 6.500 students and 1.600 teachers, a residential area emphasizing ecological values and the natural surroundings, including recreational areas and nature reserves, and forms a unique whole. The Campus also has a unique tropical garden, Gardenia, co-owned by the City of Helsinki and the University of Helsinki, and the Viikkinlahti conservation area, which is particularly popular among bird watchers. The Research Cooperation Programme aims to increase multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research cooperation, as well as research support activities, on the Viikki campus.

After explaining what the Viikki campus is all about the professor gave us a tour around the department of biosciences. He explained that the founder of the department was Artturi Ilmari Virtanen, who was a biochemist and a Nobel Prize winner. His biggest achievement was finding a way to preserve food for a long period of time.

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He did this by adding a diluted hydrochloric acid or sulphuric acid to food for livestock; as a result the food didn’t spoil as fast as it did before. The faculty was moved from the city to its present location in 1995. The research performed at the department of biosciences is mainly focused on cell signaling and cell membranes in eukaryotic cells. The research groups are studying biosynthesis of membrane proteins, their intracellular transport, protein structure, cell adhesion, intracellular signaling in normal and malignant cells and membrane associated metalloproteases. The department is divided up into several research groups; these groups each have their own field of interest and expertise. There are ten research groups at the moment.

When the tour was finished, our guide led us to a sort of villa in the middle of the campus. We learned that this villa was very old and the inside was redecorated to serve as a restaurant for the staff of the campus and was too expensive for students. We were invited in and we were allowed to get our lunch at the buffet, which was really good. It was more or less traditional Finnish food, which was not bad and looked a lot like Russian food in our opinion.

After having lunch, we returned to the campus and we met our guide for the afternoon. We were going to learn more about the Centre for Drug Research and we were told that the head of the centre, Arto Urtti, would be our guide, but he had to be in Paris all of a sudden and we got a different guide, a typical Russian man. He wasn’t very good at speaking English, laughed between every sentence and had an overall uncomfortable vibe about him, but nonetheless he was a nice guy and gave us a good presentation about the centre and a good tour. We learned that a lot of the bachelor students in Finland are going to work as assistants in pharmacies. A lot of them don’t want to get a masters degree (Ba/Ma/PhD 670/210/78). This shows that this is very different in comparison with Dutch students, where most bachelor students will try to obtain a masters degree. The Centre for Drug Research is independent from the university but collaborates with nearly all departments on the faculty. The most important groups are focused on drug delivery and nanotechnology. Of their funding, 30% comes from the university and the rest comes from the Industry, Academy of Finland, the European Union and other sources.

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After that we got a tour around the facility, which was quite interesting for the chemistry students among us, but not so much for the molecular life science students. A nice thing about our tour was that a Dutch PhD joined us and explained us a lot about life as a researcher in Finland. He did his promotion research in Finland, met his wife there and stayed there the rest of his life. He said the PhD path was about the same in Finland as it was in the Netherlands, you do research for four years and it is expected of you to publish around four articles in that period. The difference was that every PhD student had to give courses to bachelor and master students during his promotion research and we believe this isn’t mandatory in Holland. He told us that in Finland people pay a lot of taxes but get a lot in return. You get a lot of time off when you become a parent and health care is especially good. He also said that in Finland you still have space and in the Netherlands there are almost no locations that are absolutely quiet, it gives you the opportunity to really think about your research without getting distracted by society.

In the evening we had planned to go to the sauna with the Finnish student organization Helix, we met up with them near the hotel and they walked with us to the sauna. It was in a building placed between a group of student housing complexes. We went in and we were told there were three rounds of sauna, the first for men, the second for women and the last one would be mixed. Men went into the sauna first. It was not that big so it got kind of crowded, but it was an experience nonetheless. After ten minutes the inexperienced sauna visitors (the Dutch) went outside to cool off, which was really relaxing. We went in and out a couple of times and drank some beers, some weird cider stuff, nothing like real Dutch beer but drinkable. Everyone had a good time in the sauna and talking to the Finnish chemistry students; we even did a drinking game and found out that Finnish people can’t drink and count to seven at the same time, very entertaining. After that most us went back to the hotel and a few went to the Finnish version of the Sigma canteen, listened to some Dub Step, drank a few ciders and went back to the hotel.

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Wednesday, April 13th University of Helsinki and Verifin Bart Roose and Maarten Jaspers

After a late evening with a drunk Finnish student and a short night, we went to the university of Helsinki to visit the department of chemistry. First there was a short introduction by the study counselor of the chemistry department, who told us that they have about 100 to 120 students a year of which 50% drops out. Most of them switch to a medical study after studying chemistry for a year. Then we went to the physical chemistry lab. There they showed us a device that is used to analyze human breath. With lasers of 1500 nm, this device can measure the presence of small molecules in human breath, like HCN, ammonia and acetylene. Very low concentrations of 1 to 5 parts per billion could be measured. This was done by reflecting the light of the lasers between two mirrors. Because of these mirrors the light can travel over a distance of 50 kilometers inside the cell, increasing the chance of encountering a target molecule. The device could be used for the diagnosis of certain diseases, just by analyzing the breath of a patient. It can also be used to detect poisonous gasses, in case of fire for example. After this we went to a second physical chemistry lab where they had a mass spectrometer. This device used photo-ionization to form the required radicals, instead of electron bombarding. This is a softer technique that doesn’t lead to too much fragmentation. This spectrometer was used to measure the kinetics of chemical reactions on a millisecond time range. The time behavior of the radicals could be followed by mass spectrometry. Examples of reactions they measured are reactions of iodine and bromine compounds in the atmosphere. These reactions can be harmful to the atmosphere or initiate the formation of clouds. After the department of physical chemistry, we went to the department of bio-organic chemistry. There we had a small tour where some professors showed us some of their posters. The first poster was about drug design. They modified the structure of nucleic acids which can be used for enzyme recognition. The second poster was about ionic liquids. They used ionic liquids to dissolve cellulose and even wood. The dissolved cellulose could be used for charge separation in solar cells for example. The last poster was about chemical compounds in food. The biological activity of chemicals present in our food was studied. They also did a lot of modeling of these biomolecules. In this way they tried to make a molecular library of chemicals present in different sorts of food which might be used for drug discovery.

After this long morning it was time for lunch, sadly this time we had to pay ourselves. The student restaurant had a special offer; three slices of bread, salad and a hot dish for about five euro’s. My hot dish was rice with some sort of goulash sauce, which was quite good. Water was free, so many of use drank lots of this to replenish the fluids lost last night. After this we had some time to chill and digest. Then the people from Verifin came to pick us up for a tour around their facilities. Verifin is the Finnish Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention. Their job is to make sure that the countries that signed the Chemical Weapons Convention live up to their promises; no production of chemical weapons and the destruction of existing stockpiles. To do this Verifin develops techniques to detect chemical weapons with for example NMR and MS. They also train people from developing countries to perform inspections in their own country. An important role of Verifin is discouraging countries from making chemical weapons by showing that they have a technique to detect all chemical weapons you can think of. Sometimes they have to make chemical weapons themselves to perform studies on them. Our guide told us that when the carbon filters had to be replaced, none of the maintenance workers was in for this job, so she and her lab workers had to do it themselves. This shows that lots of people fear chemical weapons and see the importance in banning them. However our guide told us she had recently talked to politicians who were very flattering about her and her work, but were very reluctant in cooperating with Verifin, to protect their economical or political interests.

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After this interesting tour we had the opportunity to talk with some Finnish students, it was a pity though that the one person who wanted this the most arranged a tour around the inorganic lab for himself. After this we finally returned to the hotel, where we watched some television before having dinner at Koti Pizza, American style pizzas with unlimited Coke for less than ten euro’s.

In the evening we went to a bar close to the hotel to watch the Champion’s League match Schalke04 - Inter Milan (2-1), and drink some Finnish beers, which were not that expensive in this bar. Around midnight we went back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep.

Thursday, April 14th Trip to PerkinElmer and Turku Stéphanie Bruekers and Imke Mandemaker

After a quick breakfast, a bus, arranged by PerkinElmer, picked us up and brought us to Turku. At the PerkinElmer Turku site we were warmly welcomed by Riikka Oivanen who brought us to the training centre. The trip was divided into three parts: a company introduction, a tour at the production site and a lecture about neonatal screening.

PerkinElmer has 6200 employees of whom 540 work at the Turku site in Finland. The focus of the company is equally divided into human health and environmental health. They mainly work on improving their existing products instead of designing new ones. One of the projects PerkinElmer is working on is the analysis of radioactivity. One application is the analysis of the amount of biofuels in gasoline. Biofuel contains C-14 which decays to N-14 trough β-decay. In fossil fuels all the C-14 is already decayed and no radioactivity can be measured here. So the amount of radioactivity correlates to the amount of biofuel in the sample. Another application of radioactivity is the analysis of water and food. When for instance a nuclear disaster happens, the environment can be contaminated with hazardous radiation. Before consuming, measurements have to point out whether the food is safe. Normally β-radiation only travels a few millimeters, so it is difficult to measure. PerkinElmer invented a mixture that becomes fluorescent when β-radiation is present.

The tour of the production site started at the little Turku site museum, where some old key products were exhibited. The tour continued to the start of the production lines. All the starting materials were stored in a big hall where employees manually assembled the machines. Walking along the corridor, we saw the product coming together from the basic materials to the packaged machines. Before the products can be sold and shipped off, they have to pass quality

control.

PerkinElmer is leader in pre- and neonatal screening devices. The company produces tests for 98% of the diseases meeting the Wilson- Junger criteria. In screening it is very important not to have false negative results. When a baby isn't immediately treated for its disease, there can be huge consequences. False positive results in screening are not as bad. During diagnostics these babies will be tested more thoroughly and will be found to be healthy. An example of this is screening for Severe Combined Immuno Deficiency (SCID). During T cell receptor rearrangement, DNA extrachromosomal excision products are generated. These products, known as T cell receptor excision circles (TRECs), are not properly formed in patients suffering from SCID. A drop of blood from the baby is put on some filter paper and the babies DNA is isolated. End point real-time PCR is used to measure the amount of TRECs in the sample.

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This technique uses a fluorescent probe which specifically binds to the TREC DNA. The light emitted is measured by the PCR machine and the results can then be analysed.

After the exciting trip to the PerkinElmer Turku site, the bus drove us to the city centre. Here we had some time to do some sightseeing. There was a nice river trough the centre and a little church stood on the quay. After a long walk, we had dinner at a certain fast-food chain and soon it was already time to return to Helsinki. We spent the evening relaxing in the hotel, with some left over vodka from Russia.

Friday, April 15th CSC and ECHA Simon Gückel

On Friday the 15th of April the group had two appointments scheduled. First we went to the CSC – IT Center for Science – in Espoo, a city which lies in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. In the afternoon we went to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). To get there we had to take the bus back to Helsinki.

The CSC in general is the Finnish national supercomputing center. Here we visited its department for bioinformatics. In bioinformatics researchers mainly deal with computer based protein modeling. During our stay we learned that Finland is one of the leading countries when it comes to bioinformatics, with more than 30 years of experience. This department provides researchers and companies with software, databases, training and user support. In bioinformatics most software is freely available (open source) but recently they started to program their own software, open source of course.

The CSC have several supercomputers at their disposal, e.g. the HP CP4000 BL Proliant Supercluster.

The second half of our stay at this facility we got a small lesson on one of their programs, called Chipster. According to the lecturer, Chipster enables biologists to “access up to date analysis tools, combine them to automatic workflows and visualize results efficiently”. The actual calculations using Chipster are done at CSC in Finland. The task for the group was to compare the genome of a healthy and a sick person. This was done under supervision of one of the lecturers. Right after our stay at the CSC we returned to Helsinki where most of us used the

time to have some lunch.

In the afternoon the group visited the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). The ECHA is one of the 29 agencies of the European Union and was founded in 2007 to manage the REACH system (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals).

The main aim of REACH is to ensure a high level of protection of human health and the environment. Every company that wants to use a certain chemical compound has to register this chemical by handing in a dossier with a full chemical and biological analysis of the compound. Five percent of those dossiers are then verified by the ECHA. The agency also limits the exposure of dangerous chemicals by setting up critical limits of chemicals. There is also a black list of chemicals which are not allowed to be used in the European Union.

Interestingly, the homepage of the ECHA, a European agency, is also widely used outside Europe. The most non-EU users come from the USA, China and Japan; which are also among the biggest producers of chemicals outside the EU. In this way the work of the ECHA has an effect on all chemical producers worldwide since most of them all export products to Europe.

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Saturday, April 16th Sight Seeing and Sea-Life Brigitte Geurts, Bas van Meerten and Koen Tijssen

This was the first and only entirely free day in Helsinki and most people used this time to go sightseeing, look for some last souvenirs or go shopping. Together with Alinda, Rianne, Simon and Luuk; I took a walk through the city. This could easily be done by foot, because the hotel lies in the direct centre of the city. After a week of almost fearing for your life when crossing the street in Saint Petersburg, it was nice to have cars stop for you at a pedestrian crossing once again. The biggest difference however, was the size of the city. It took some time to get adjusted to the scale of the map; all places of interest were closer together than we originally thought and seeing the highlights of the city all in one day suddenly became a realistic goal.

In a fifteen minute walk we reached the most distinct landmark in the scenery of Helsinki: the Helsinki Cathedral, which is actually modeled after Saint Isaac's Cathedral in Saint Petersburg. In front of the cathedral is a statue of Emperor Alexander II of Russia, to emphasize the fact that Finland was a Grand Duchy in the Russian Empire for over a century. With a little detour via the market square, we walked to the next remainder of the Russian era: the Uspenski Cathedral. It was clearly the same style as most of the churches we saw in Saint Petersburg, but the colors were a lot more modest than for instance those of the Church of the Saviour on the Blood, which we called the 'Candy Church'. At the cathedral we ran into our supervisors, who showed us their souvenirs: bear sausage. The thought of souvenirs made us decide to walk the Pohjoisesplanadi to a three floors souvenir shop. After this, we continued sightseeing by walking by the national museum of Finland on our way to the Temppeliaukio Kirkko, the Rock Church. This church is built in a rocky outcrop rising about twelve meters above street level, where the walls were blasted out from the inside. The outside was impressive, with a large round window as roof of the church. Unfortunately, the church was closed for renovation. The next thing on our list was the Sibelius Park in the Töölö district, more in the north-west of Helsinki. We chose to follow the shoreline up north, which gave us the chance to stand on a frozen sea. That is something you don’t do every day! Within the Sibelius Park stands the Sibelius monument, created to honor the Finish composer Jean Sibelius. This monument is called Passio Musicae, and consists of more than six hundred hollow steel pipes welded together in a wave-like pattern. The wind can create a beautiful sound, blowing through these pipes. Tired of the walking after all, we went back to the city centre walking by a big and beautiful lake, the Gulf of Töölö or Töölönlahti. Now it was time to rest our feet a little, before we began our search for Memphis, a good but crowded burger place.

Brigitte Geurts

Together with Barbara, we started our Saturday with a walk through the peaceful city of Helsinki. One of the first stops was the Wanha Kauppahalli, the Old Market Hall. Since 1889 this market hall, made from red and yellow bricks, is located close to the market square. As lovely as it looks from the outside, it’s the inside that creates the authentic atmosphere. Colorful flowers, vegetables, fish, meat, bread, candy, etc. are all on display in large wooden market stalls. Besides the standard grocery and bakery, also more special shops can be found, like the Nordic Sushi Bar, the Soup Kitchen (with excellent smoked reindeer soup) and a shop where you can buy reindeer kebab or bear sausages. Of course we had to try the reindeer kebab and we can conclude that it can be added to the things-we-like-about-Finland-list.

In the afternoon we decided to see the Sea-Life aquarium in the Alppila district. To get there we took the tram, because this was a type of transportation in Helsinki that we hadn't used before.

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It was not very fast, but it did give us a nice view of the different areas of Helsinki. After a while we arrived in the Alppila district. Straight ahead was the Sea-Life building together with a small theme-park, which was closed due to the cold. Because we carried our student cards, we got a discount on the entry fee. Inside there were a number of aquariums with fish from all over the world, from the Amazon to the Antarctic. There were piranhas, seahorses and jelly-fish but also larger fish like sharks and sting-rays. They also had models of extinct species from the prehistoric, which looked almost extraterrestrial.

Afterwards we went back to our hotel using the tram. There we decided to go see the academic bookstore. This was a three story building located at the beginning of the Esplanade. The interior was quite impressive. They had books in Finnish, Swedish and English. The first floor contained the entertainment section. The second and third floor contained books for educational purposes. All books were sorted according to subject. They also had a section for chemistry. There they had a number of books that we used for our bachelor chemistry, like Atkins - Physical Chemistry and Harris - Quantitative Chemical Analysis. In the basement they had office supplies and painting supplies. At 6:00 PM the bookstore closed and we went back to our hotel.

At the hotel we met with Barbara to have dinner. After walking around for a while we decided to try the Nepalese cuisine in restaurant Mount Everest. Apparently the Nepalese cuisine is quite popular in Finland, because there are eight Nepalese restaurants only in Helsinki. The wall of the restaurant was of course decorated with a large painting of some mountains. We got our food on a khope thal, a round steel plate shaped in such a way that it has four compartments, one large and three small ones. The large compartment was filled with rice and the three smaller ones were filled with vegetables, meat and special sauces, each depending on which dishes you order. We had both a sweet white yoghurt-like sauce, that tasted great, and a bright green sauce that looked like spinach, but had an awfully strong taste. Overall the Nepalese food was great.

Koen Tijssen and Bas van Meerten

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Sunday, April 17th Suomenlinna and Iguana Brigitte Geurts, Bas van Meerten and Koen Tijssen

It was the last day of our trip and the plan was to do something cultural together as a group. That is why we decided to go to Suomenlinna, a sea fortress that is built on eight islands that are part of Helsinki. After fifteen minutes on a ferry we arrived at one of the islands and we now had some time to explore the fortress. The main route on the islands ran from north to south and has all main sights situated along this route, so many of us decided to follow this route. We all met again at the information centre about an hour later, and different plans were made. Some people thought they saw all there was to see already, and decided to go back to the mainland. Other people were interested to find out more about the fortress, and decided to follow a guided tour. The tour took us around historical sites on two of the islands: the Susisaari and Kustaanmiekka islands. Here we saw one of the world’s oldest dry docks still in use. Our guide also told us about the person who founded the fortress in 1748, Augustin Ehrensvärd, whose tomb was in the main square of the fortress. We learned a lot about the history of the fortress and of Finland itself. When Finland was a part of Sweden, the fortress was named Sveaborg and served as a base in the war of Sweden against Russia. In 1809 Finland became a part of Russia, and the fortress was housing a Russian garrison for over a hundred years. The fortress was heavily damaged during the Crimean war. As our guide told us, this was not a war about the possession of land, but a war to destroy. The city of Helsinki would have been destroyed as well, if the Finnish people wouldn’t have mislead the Russian army by dimming all lights in the city and putting on lights in the forest several kilometers away from the city; making the Russians bombard the wrong piece of land. In 1917 Finland declared independence. One year later, the fortress was renamed Suomenlinna, which means Fortress of Finland. In the Second World War, the fortress served as a military base again and the garrison did not leave before 1973, when the fortress was transferred to civil administration. Nowadays, the fortress is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as a unique example of the European military architecture of its time.

Just like in St. Petersburg, our program in Helsinki ended with having dinner together. The committee made a reservation in one of the three Iguana restaurants. Iguana is one of those restaurants where you get large portions of tasty food for a relatively low price. Another noteworthy aspect of eating at Iguana is that after choosing you’re meal from the menu, you have to walk to the bar, where they take your order and you can pay upfront. After everyone had ordered their pizza, pasta or burrito our supervisors brought a toast to celebrate the ending of a successful study tour and we enjoyed our last meal together.

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Monday, April 18th Heading back to the Netherlands Barbara Ridder

The last day of the study tour arrived. In the morning there was some free time to buy the last souvenirs including magnets, periodic tables and bear or reindeer salami. The other option was to just sleep in, as we’ve had two tiring weeks behind us. Most of us decided to get up late and recover from the last week (or maybe simply from the last night). Therefore we were the last guests in the hotel’s breakfast room. Around us staff was already preparing for lunch, they were clearly not too happy about our choice.

After breakfast the last things were packed and we could check out. Because the bus that was supposed to bring us to the airport was not coming for two more hours, we had to wait in the hotel lobby. Playing cards, chatting or getting some lunch seemed to be the most favored activities during the long waiting time.

At 12:30 PM the bus finally arrived to bring us to Helsinki Airport. During our bus tour we got one last glance at Helsinki and realized that this is it: the study tour has come to an end. Tomorrow we would already be back to following classes or working on our internships. As we were saying goodbye to Helsinki, winter seemed to be doing the same thing: the snow that covered big areas when we arrived was melting and the lakes were not completely covered with ice anymore.

After a short bus trip of about 30 minutes we arrived at Helsinki Airport, where we had to check in. As we were with a rather large group we made a pretty long queue at the check in desk. After everybody checked in we headed for the security check and waited for another hour for our flight to depart.

After a short bus ride across the airport we all entered the plane back home. The sunny day with only a few clouds allowed us a last glance at the Finnish landscape. From my window seat I could see big frozen lakes and forests covered in snow. It seemed that everything was still in a winter sleep, just about to awake for spring.

After a two hour flight we landed at Düsseldorf Airport. Here we discovered the first and only loss we have had so far: a souvenir bottle of vodka did not survive the rather harsh handling of luggage at the airport and broke into pieces.

At the airport most of us were picked up by parents or friends to give us a ride back home to Nijmegen. I wondered how green it is already and if I could get rid of my winter coat that kept me warm during the two winter weeks in Helsinki and Saint Petersburg. Back at Nijmegen the winter coat found its place in the closet until next autumn and I put on a T-shirt with shorts to enjoy the warm spring weather.

Committee members

Chairwoman

About a year and half ago seven people started off to organize the study tour trip 2011. Our first challenge was to find a destination for our trip. We quickly found out that this was a difficult task, due to the economic crisis and cut down off subsidies. It became clear to us that we had to choose a country near or in Europe, after having found out that Iceland did not have enough chemistry we decided to go to Finland and Russia.

After finding the destination to go to the next challenge was to find funding for the trip. Besides sponsorship there was also the option of case studies. So therefore Bas, Koen and I went on to talk to professors it see if they were willing to pay participants of the tour to do a small project for them. The money paid for this tasks would go towards our tour.

Besides this we also had to think about organizing a symposium in advance of the tour. We thought that it would be a nice idea to have some Finnish and Russian citizen to tell us firsthand about their country and what to expect from it and its people. For Finland this proved to be easy. A couple of emails to the embassy and the Finnish cultural institute for the Benelux and we had a speaker, Anna. Thanks very much for the interesting talk about Finland. Finding a speaker for Russia proved to be a lot more difficult. Even to get an answer on our emails from the Russian embassy was difficult, in fact we never heard back from them. So after having tried different things we were running out of time. Only one week in advance of the symposium we still did not have a speaker that could tell us something about Russia. Here I would like to thank Alexandra and Timothy Douglas for preparing a talk at short notice. We learned a lot about Russia from the enthusiastic and informative presentation.

After the symposium only a couple of weeks were left to put the icing on the cake before we left from Düsseldorf airport for the study tour. Luckily we managed to get everything finished in time and I think that I can say that we all had an amazing study tour.

After having finished this final report our task as study tour committee is finished. So all that is left for Koen, Bas and me is to pass on the baton to a new committee that is willing to organize the study tour 2013.

Barbara Ridder

Secretary

On January 14th 2010 Roel Manning, Anne Kerkenaar and Koos Wilke (members of the study tour committee 2009) fulfilled their last study tour obligation: finding some fresh new students to organize the study tour of 2011. Being one of these students, I accepted becoming the secretary of this lovely new committee. As a secretary it was my job to take minutes (‘notulen’ in Dutch) of our committee meetings, send emails to the participants and supervisors and check if the mailman brought us some exciting letters (usually only bank statements). So my tasks can be summarized in two words: communication and documentation.

One of the first big announcements I had to make was the destination of our 31st study tour. At first this was Iceland, but later we changed it to Russia and Finland because it was uncertain if Iceland had enough research and industry in the field of chemistry and molecular life sciences to be of any interest to us. Many other announcements would follow and fifteen months, 41 committee meetings and over two thousand emails later, we were ready to explore St. Petersburg and Helsinki. Since 2009/2010 the number of committee members is restricted to seven (this used to be nine). Our committee only consisted of six members though, meaning that there were a lot of extra tasks next to the secretary work.

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Committee members

Like Tetris blocks these tasks and problems kept popping up, but as in the game of Tetris (the famous Russian game, programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in 1984) we took control of these problems and eliminated them. One of these extra tasks I did was the search for case studies. The case studies are not only a way to make the study tour credit (EC) worthy, but also a large financial boost. In the end the case studies were a larger source of income than the sponsorships! Organizing the case studies was a fun thing to do, we got to talk with many professors and they often came up with great stories about Russia or former study tours and the students that worked on the case studies did great jobs. Now after all these months of hard work there remains just one more task to complete, one more Tetris block to drop, together with Barbara and Bas I have to find new students who want to play this wacky game of Tetris, some brave students that will organize the study tour of 2013.

Koen Tijssen

Treasurer

More than a year ago the committee of the study tour 2009 was rounding up their work and they were looking for people to form a new committee for 2011. I was eager to be part of the committee to organize the study tour 2011, so I applied for the position of treasurer. Then the new committee was formed and we could all go to work. My job was to find out how we could get the funding and how much money we could spend on the study- tour. This was not always an easy task, because after the crisis most companies were not very interested in sponsoring a study tour. Luckily we found some that were still able to support us. Also the case-studies helped us a lot in obtaining the required amount of money to make the study-tour possible.

During the study tour everything went quite smoothly. The public transportation in St. Petersburg turned out to be very cheap. The cashier looked at us quite weird when we asked her for 20 coins for the metro, but it all worked out in the end. In Helsinki the bus-drivers had to print 26 separate billets every time we had to take the bus. But these things make the study tour a great experience.

Now the study tour is over, only the last things have to be done. The final balance has to be made up and the last payments have to be made. Then we need to find a new committee for the study tour 2013. After that the study tour 2011 will be officially over.

Bas van Meerten

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Committee members

Travel Coordinator

As an attempt was made to gather enough people to start the study tour committee for 2011, I was hesitant to sign up. After being a member of several committees in previous years, I wasn’t quite sure that I wanted even more organizational responsibilities. In the end however, there were two thoughts that convinced me: being a travel coordinator was something I hadn’t done before and I knew that the committee would profit from my experiences from other committees.

After all was said and done, I ended up in the committee as one of two travel coordinators, Nina de Gouw being the other one. Eventually, a destination was chosen and our work could finally start. As we slowly started to look around for a suitable travel agency during June of 2009 however, Nina announced that she was going to do her Master at the NCMLS. This meant that she was no longer able to apply for a grant from the FNWI faculty, meaning that she would have to pay an extra € 100,- herself. This eventually led to Nina leaving the committee, effectively making me in charge of coordinating the tour. At the time, I had no desire to take on a new committee member since we had already started the preparations. Next to that, I was convinced that I would be able to manage by myself. In the end I did, but it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows.

It all started with finding a suitable travel agency. Following up on the contacts I had made together with Nina, we ended up with Thomas Cook. During the past year, they were luckily very helpful and were always willing to explain any aspect involved with organizing such a big event for such a large group. Using their contacts, we were also able to stay in a four star hotel during our stay in Finland.

After that, the program had to be filled. Looking at the program the Boston-New York tour had set up, I was determined to do better. I would strive to fill most days with scientific visits, leaving very little free days. Instead, participants would get every evening off. A decent trade, if you ask me.

As I started to look around for suitable visits, I quickly found out that the people in Russia have a very different way of organizing things. Next to that, they don’t use email as intensively as we do. Of the first few people I wrote, none responded. Slightly discouraged, I mentioned this to professor Buydens, one of the supervisors. Luckily, she had some contacts in Russia and she would see if there was anything possible. After not hearing anything for a while, her contact responded with a list of six names. These people would be willing to receive us, I just had to contact them myself.

After having done so, communications went difficultly and the fact that most of their emails ended up in a spam box (certain servers don’t take kindly to @mail.ru extensions in email addresses…) didn’t help either. Replies often took weeks and I was getting more and more anxious, especially since arranging visits with people in Finland was much easier. I was told by several people not to worry, this is simply how Russians do things, but somehow that didn’t quite reassure me.

Then, it was only one more month until the study tour and suddenly, I started getting emails from the people in Russia. Apparently, they just don’t plan further ahead then one or two months, but now they were determined to put together a decent visit. At this point, I was convinced that everything would be okay. After some final difficulties, I decided that the program was done. I had done the best I could and it would simply have to be sufficient.

The study tour itself went as expected. Having taken care of all the arrangements (hotel, transfers, visits and everything in between) I knew that I would have to serve as a makeshift travel guide. Due to the hours that went into the planning, organization and preparation, no significant problems were encountered during our stay.

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Committee members

Looking back on it all now, one could say that I was responsible for everything that happened between leaving Nijmegen on the 4th and arriving back in Germany on the 18th, but let’s not forget all the work that went into the other aspects of the study tour; without case studies, there wouldn’t have been a study tour to begin with. The symposium and preliminary studies are as much a part of the study tour as is the actual trip itself. Therefore I would like to thank Bas, Barbara, Brigitte, Koen and Stéphanie for their work. It’s been a hell of a ride, but we managed to create something decent.

In the end, however, none of it matters. I just hope that every participant had a great time during this study tour and will remember it for years to come.

Sander Habets

Sponsor coordinator

Our goal was to obtain external funding to support the financial situation of the Study Tour 2011. We started this task with lots of enthusiasm in order to collect as much money as possible. Of course the goal is ‘as much as possible’, but there was also a certain amount that was absolutely necessary to make our trip possible. With this in our minds, we contacted a lot of companies related to chemistry or life sciences. Luckily for us, some people there got enthusiastic about our trip too. Thanks to these people and the companies they work for, our journey became possible.

The sponsorship deals did not come as easily as expected, or actually, hoped. We wrote letters and called the companies of our interest several times, often only to find that no money was available for sponsoring. We also struggled with one of the drawbacks of internationalization: many companies in The Netherlands have their headquarters abroad, and a relatively small Dutch study tour is not of much interest for these companies. Fortunately, that was not always the case. We found it rewarding to contact spin off companies of the university. Here we found people that remembered what it is like to be a student and to participate in a study tour. Due to the economic crisis, however, many of these companies could not contribute to our tour, even though they were willing to. There were also a few bigger companies that were well disposed towards the university and to the molecular sciences, and these companies recovered from the economic crisis just in time to help us preventing one.

No matter how big or small the companies or the contribution to our tour; we owe our sponsors a great deal for making our trip not only possible but a success.

Stéphanie Bruekers Brigitte Geurts

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Financial report

Income Per student (24) Per supervisor Total

Students 511,64 12279,36 Supervisors 659,75 1319,50 Insurance 97,00 Visum costs 59,00 59,00 1534,00

Grant FNWI 100,00 2400,00 Grant SNUF 100,00 2400,00 Kerf 200,00 Case studies 6000,00 Sponsorships 1280,00

Total 27509,86

Expenses Per student (24) Per supervisor Total

Students 919,00 22056,00 Supervisors 1286,50 2573,00

Local transportation and entrance fees 36.31 36,31 944.06 Booklets + printbudget 380,00 Bus 350,00 Symposium 70,31 Bankcosts: account + exchange rate 607,29 Sweaters 529,20

Total 27509,86

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People

Committee Barbara Ridder, president Koen Tijssen, secretary Bas van Meerten, treasurer Stéphanie Bruekers, sponsor coordinator Brigitte Geurts, sponsor coordinator Sander Habets, travel coordinator

Supervisors Prof. dr. Lutgarde Buydens Dr. Wilbert Boelens

Participants Alinda Alfring Anne Bakker Sanne Bakker Maurits Boeije Gitte Bunthof Sander Groenen Simon Gückel Rianne Hommersom Maarten Jaspers Rob van der Kant Imke Mandemakers Kess Marks Tom Nolte Floris van Ojen Bart Roose Sybrin Schröder Hannah Sprong Luuk van Summeren Luuk Versteegden

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Acknowledgements

The committee would like to acknowledge and thank the following people, without whom this study tour wouldn’t have been possible

Board of Recommendation - Prof. dr. F.P.J.T. Rutjes o Director of the educational institute of Molecular Sciences at the Radboud University Nijmegen - Em. prof. dr. R.J.M. Nolte o Former director of the research Institute for Molecules and Materials (IMM) at the Radboud University Nijmegen, academy professor of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) - Prof. dr. G. Vriend o Director of Centre for Molecular and Biomolecular Informatics (CMBI) Nijmegen - Prof. dr. E. Vlieg o Director of the Institute for Molecules and Materials (IMM) at the Radboud University Nijmegen - Prof. dr. J.M.E. Kuijpers o Former dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Mathmatics and Informatics at the Radboud University Nijmegen - Prof. mr. S.C.J.J. Kortmann o Rector magnificus of the Radboud University Nijmegen - Prof. dr. R.H. Dijkgraaf o President of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) - Dhr. J Zuidam o Chairman of the Dutch Chemical Industry Association (VNCI) - Mr. Th. C. de Graaf o Mayor of Nijmegen - Dhr. M.F.M. Post o Chairman of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society (KNCV)

Supervisors - Prof. dr. Lutgarde Buydens - Dr. Wilbert Boelens

Other - Dr. Alexey Pomerantsev (Institute of Chemical Physics RAS, Moscow) for his help in arranging the visits in Russia - Dick van Aalst (FNWI photographer) for the committee photos - Anna Välimaa and Timothy and Alexandra Douglas for their contributions to the symposium - Our grant providers: SNUF, Kerf and the FNWI of the Radboud University Nijmegen - All participants for their contributions to the study tour, either through case studies or preliminary studies, and for their enthusiasm during the tour itself - Martin and Christa Ridder for their help in printing this booklet

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Acknowledgements