Happy Wappu!

I can't believe that 1st of May is already approaching! We of course had the traditional mead and donuts in our coffee room, but of course I forgot to take any photos. Well, I decided to continue the celebration back home! 😎 What has kept us really busy is the graduating students, of course, but also planning the next semester's teaching, grant application, and some evaluations have taken some time. But spring has approached, earlier than even, and despite the blackberry winter last week, it starts to get greenish around us. I'm not sure whether it is the age or the farmer genes that I have, but I have noticed that I have slightly engaged myself with crops and stuff... Last year, it was a small greenhouse; this year, seeds ordered in the middle of winter from Sweden; next year, who knows... 😍 Anyway, happy Wappu (1st of May) for everyone! Well-deserved holiday, for the hard work we have put in! I hope it will reward us with a couple of critical papers soon, but also a couple of Ph.D. graduations within the next 12 months! 

Farewell to Santosh

Sometimes, decisions are made quickly, and they will affect immediately. I remember when Santosh decided to visit our group and started to apply for funding. Well, it took a while before we got there, but he was really determined to come here. Unfortunately, it is now time, when he has decided to move on in his career path. Crossroads are always difficult - you need to make a decision, and you may not know whether it is for good or not. But I must say that it is good to have the courage to make the change, regardless of the consequences. Quite rarely, you regret it after all... 

 

So we wanted to have a farewell dinner party for Santosh, and despite the wistful feeling, we had a great and very international evening (also in terms of cuisine)! Thanks to everyone for putting this together, and a very big thank you to Santosh for all the years of hard work!

Slap change

I probably haven't remembered to say that Judith from Pretoria finished her project on vitamin analysis and has already left us, but to keep the wheels turning, a new student is already in the house! Dinaly from the University of Poitiers (France) has already started to work with Mikko in the synthesis of ADAM-17 (or TACE) inhibitors and perhaps also their prodrugs. I look forward to how many new compounds we are able to get, as this project has been stuck after Mikko's Master's Thesis, and the aim was to publish the series one day. Fingers crossed! I was also a little bit jealous about the lab coat that she had with her... 😂

And since there is going to be a big change in the group composition in the near future, it was a nice surprise from Adela to remember to celebrate also personal days and achievements! At the end of the day, that's all that matters, to be happy together for better and worse!

Happy Easter!

Past weeks, I have been preparing a new version for the Research Council of Finland's Proof-of-Concept Call, which is a specific call that one can apply for max years after the finalized project. I tried that last year, got good reviews, grading 5/6, but not funded. So I improved the points that were raised and thought that now it's much better and perhaps I may have a chance. However, I decided to ask for a second opinion, from my good friend, an artificial intelligence, and together with the evaluation criteria, (s)he thought that it was everything else than good.

Well, then I thought since (s)he seems to know it much better than I do, let's use the advice. I spent 3 days refining my proposal and I must admit, I learned more than any consultant (paid ones) has ever taught me. I'm not saying that this solves all the problems, and I will now get the funding, but perhaps, I want to encourage responsible use of AI. There is nothing wrong with using it, but it cannot do the whole job for you. You have to make the starting point on your own. I have recently seen a Master's Thesis, fully written by AI, and yes, as a supervisor, it is frustrating that the student doesn't even remove the most obvious signs of AI-written text. So I don't advise on that, but at the end of the day, (s)he can be your friend and help you out on things that you don't master that well!

Have a Happy Easter!