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ESTONIAN RESEARCH:A STUDY TRIP TOTALLINN AND TARTU

JUNE 28-29, 2013

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TownHallSquareinTallinnbyJaakNilson


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Dear participant,

Welcome to the science journalists study trip to Estonia! In this brochure

you can nd more information about the presenters and topics covered.The study trip to Estonia is organised by the Estonian Research Council

and the Estonian Association of Science Journalists.The event is funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

Contacts of organizers:

Priit Ennet

Science Journalist

President of the Estonian Associationof Science [email protected] 00372 514 5608

www.teadusajakirjanik.ee

Karin Patune

Marketing Ofcer

Estonian Research [email protected] 00372 5664 0009

www.etag.ee

Aare Baumer

R&D Executive

Energy Discovery [email protected] 00372 715 2650

www.energiakeskus.ee

Estonian Association ofScience Journalists


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Programme

June 28, Tallinn08.00-9.30 Boat from Helsinki to Tallinn

Linda Line, Makasiiniterminaali, Etelsatama, Etelranta 710.00-10.45 Tallinn Old City10.45-11.15 Welcome.Jri Engelbrecht, Estonian Academy of Sciences

Coffee Break11.45-13.45 Tallinn University of Technology (TUT)

Powder semiconductors in exible solar cellsEnn Mellikov, Department of Materials Science, TUTThe mathematics of environmentally safe sea trafcTarmo Soomere, Institute of Cybernetics, TUTRobotic sh.Maarja Kruusmaa, Centre for Biorobotics, TUTTrash to trend: Upcycling in mass productionReet Aus, Estonian Academy of Arts

13.45-14.30 Lunch14.45-16.30 Visit to Skype. Tiit Paananen, General Manager Skype Estonia &RenatVafn,SeniorResearcher

The digital society of e-Estonia.Anna Piperal, ICT Demo Center16.30-19.00 Bus to Tartu20.00-22.00 Dinner at Eduard Vilde inn & cafe

June 29, Tartu

09.00-10.45 University of Tartu (UT), Estonian Genome CenterBiobanks and personalized medicine

Andres Metspalu, Estonian Genome Center, UTPopulation genetics research in Estonia Mari Jrve, Estonian Biocentre

Graphene research in Estonia. Harry Alles, Institute of Physics, UT11.15-12.15 Estonian University of Life Sciences (EMU)

How does plant language change climate?lo Niinemets, Institute of Agricultural and EnvironmentalSciences, EMU


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Producing therapeutic peptides in mouse and cow milk lle Jaakma, Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences,

EMU and Mario Plaas, Institute of Veterinary Medicine and AnimalSciences, EMU and Insitute of Technology, UT

12.30-13.30 Lunch at the University Cafe14.00-15.15 The Old Observatory of the University of Tartu

ESTCube-1: Towards Sailing on Solar Wind Mart Noorma, Institute of Physics, UT

Self-Deployable Habitat for Extreme Environments Priit Kull, Institute of Technology, UT15.30-18.00 Bus to Tallinn19.00-20.30 Boat from Tallinn to Helsinki

Arrival: Linda Line, Makasiiniterminaali, Etelsatama, Etelranta 7

View

ofTallinn


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Jri Engelbrecht

Jri Engelbrecht has received honoursfrom Estonia, Finland, Franceand Poland. He has held visitingappointments in many European

universities (Cambridge, Paris 6, Turin,Aachen, etc.) and is a member of anumber of academies and scienticsocieties, also a member of EditorialBoards of many academic journals.He has published over 200 scientic

papers and several books. He is involved in designing the science policy for Estonia andhas wide experience in implementing and advising on the European science policy. In

all his activities he insists on the excellence and integrity of research as well as the linksbetween science and society.

Vice President, Estonian Academy of SciencesHead, Department of Mechanics and Applied Mathematics,Institute of Cybernetics, Tallinn University of TechnologyHead of the Centre for Nonlinear Studies

Phone: +372 6204160Mobile: +372 [email protected]


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Tallinn University of Technology

Tallinn University of Technology (TUT) is the only technological university in Estonia and

the agship of Estonian engineering and technical education. This is the place wheresynergy between different elds (technological, natural, exact, social and health sciences)is established. TUT is a research university where discoveries are transferred into studiesand the real life through knowledge. The mission of TUT is to develop the economyand industry of Estonia and the Baltic Sea region through top graduates, scienticachievements, knowledge services, innovative applications and cooperation projects.

www.ttu.ee


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Enn Mellikov

They say there is no sun in Estonia, says professorEnn Mellikov. But I always get the sun out whenthe investors arrive. Co-founder of the company

Crystalsol, professor Mellikov has been working onsemiconductor materials development for more than30 years. With his help, Crystalsol is developing anentirely new type of exible photovoltaic lm with asignicant cost and versatility advantage comparedto all currently known photovoltaic technologies.There is no alternative to solar energy, he believes.

Powder semiconductors in exible solar cellsThe TUT Department of Material Science is one of the pioneers in developingmonograin powders and solar cells in a monograin layer design, in cooperation with

the spin-off company Crystalsol. The department conducts fundamental studiesrelated to different photovoltaic materials: CuInSe2, CuInS2, CuGaSe2, Cu2ZnSnSe4,Cu2ZnSnS4, CdTe, ZnO, CdS etc. We develop thin lm solar cells by vacuumevaporation, electrochemical deposition, chemical spray pyrolysis deposition and sol-gel deposition.

Director, Department of Material Science,Tallinn University of TechnologyProfessor of Semiconductor Materials Technology,Tallinn University of TechnologyMember of the Estonian Academy of Sciences



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Tarmo Soomere

In January 2005, a rare hurricaneswept over the North and Baltic Seas,raising sea levels along the westernEstonian coast to heights not seen

in decades, with houses in the resort

town of Prnu getting drenched in thegreatest ood since 1924. While theEstonian Met Ofce, embarrassingly,failed to predict the disaster, amathematician at the Institute of

Cybernetics at TUT, Tarmo Soomere, warned of the danger of a big ood in thePostimees newspaper just one day before it happened. The authorities did not actupon his warning, but during and after the natural disaster, professor Soomere became

a bit of a celebrity. He has since then become a member of the Estonian Academyof Sciences and has helped to raise the prole of science in the public at everyopportunity. And the Met Ofce has learned its lesson, too.

The mathematics of environmentally safe sea trafcThe ever-increasing anthropogenic impact on vulnerable sea areas such as the BalticSea calls for novel methods for mitigating beforehand the impact of such risks onvulnerable areas. The Wave Engineering Lab team has developed a prototype ofthe method for preventive reduction of offshore environmental risks caused by themaritime industry that are transported by surface currents to the coasts. The methodrelies on a systematic analysis of the damaging potential of different sea areas interms of the potential transport to vulnerable regions if faced by an oil spill or otherpollution. This way, by placing maritime activities in the safest offshore areas, theconsequences of potential accidents can be minimised before they occur.

Head of Wave Engineering Laboratory, Institute of Cybernetics,Tallinn University of TechnologyMember of the Estonian Academy of Sciences



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Maarja Kruusmaa

The Centre for Biorobotics looks morelike a hip design studio than a run-of-the-mill research lab. Creativityand self-expression are certainlynot frowned upon here. A realisticlooking robotic cow that functionsas a currency exchange machine was

built as the centres light-heartedgreeting of Estonias entry to theeuro zone in 2011. A robotic sh

(see below) is among the projects with more serious applications. Maarja Kruusmaa,the centres leader, also heads R&D in Fits.me, a virtual tting room equipped with arobotic mannequin that helps customers buy clothes online that, well, t them. She

accomplished her PhD thesis Repeated Path Planning for Mobile Robots in DynamicEnvironments at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2002,and is a professor at Tallinn University of Technology since 2008.

Robotic shAll sh have a unique sense organ the lateral line which directly measureshydrodynamic ow but has no direct analogue on any man-made underwater vehicles.TUT Centre for Biorobotics has equipped a sh robot with such ow sensitive sensorsand has demonstrated robot behaviour similar to that of a sh. The robot detects thedirection of ow, faces upstream, adjusts its swimming speed with the ow speed andhovers in energetically favourable regions in turbulence. In the future, ow sensingwill help underwater robots to understand and exploit the local ow dynamics whichwill in turn lead to longer autonomous missions in more complicated underwater

environments.

Head, Centre for Biorobotics, Tallinn University of TechnologyProfessor of Biorobotics, Tallinn University of TechnologyR&D director, Fits.me

Mobile: +372 [email protected]


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Art Plaza - new building for EAA, project 2011Sea+Effect Architects, Denmark

Estonian Academy of Arts

Estonian Academy of Arts is the only public university in Estonia providing highereducation in ne arts, design, architecture, media, visual studies, art history andculture, and conservation. Many faculties have been operating for close to a centuryand also pioneer change in their eld. The academy collaborates with more than ahundred universities worldwide and belongs to several international higher educationnetworks.Doctoral School of EAA offers doctoral degrees in: Art History; Art and Design;Protection of Cultural Heritage and Conservation.

www.artun.ee


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Reet Aus

Reet Aus is a fashion, lm and theatretextile designer who started her own

brand of upcycling, being the rstindustrial upcycler in the world. Herbrand, Trash To Trend, has already

connected multiple textile designersand artists who all feel obliged to useupcycling as a means of sustaining theenvironment. With her research team,Reet has concluded that upcycling has

the potential to reduce up to 65% of production waste and save 80 to 90 percent onwater, electricity and carbon dioxide emissions. So far, she has designed more than tencollections using her principles of upcycling.

Trash to trend: Upcycling in mass productionTrash To Trend is a brand derived by Reet Aus that aims to popularise upcycling theusage of recycled materials to create new clothes, generating less waste and emissionsand using up less water and electricity.

Senior Researcher, Estonian Academy of ArtsManaging Director, Aus Design Mobile: +372 [email protected]://reetaus.com/


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Tiit Paananen

Renat Van

Skype is often viewed as the agship of theEstonian ICT success story. Skype EstoniasCEO, Tiit Paananen intends to keep it thatway, by constantly growing the company.This also allows him to focus on people,where, he admits, his true passion lies. Wehire attitudes and teach skills, he says.Among his recent ideas is the suggestion

that specialists moving to Estonia should begranted a one-year tax break.

Skype: ten years and going strongSkype, an innovative software application that allows peer-to-peer communicationby voice, video and instant messaging over the Internet, was rst released in August

2003. It was written by Estonian developers Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, and JaanTallinn, who had also originally developed the Kazaa le sharing service. Today, Skypehas over 600 million users. Skype was bought by Microsoft in 2011 for $8.5 billion.

Renat Van joined Skype in 2005 andhas since then worked on a number ofaudio and video processing projects,mainly focusing on coding, robustnessagainst packet loss, and call qualityanalysis. He is a member of Skype Labs,

an applied-research organization withinSkype. He received his PhD in acoustic

Managing Director, Skype Estonia

Senior Researcher at Microsoft/Skype

[email protected]

[email protected]


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signal processing from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden in2004.

A glimpse at Skype LabsSkype Labs is the applied research team at Skype. The team was born ve yearsago, and since then it has been instrumental to Skypes success by contributing corealgorithms and technology in the areas of resource management, call reliability, callquality and robustness. The teams applied research work is performed closely with theproduct teams and in selected collaborations with academic and research institutions.This talk will provide a glimpse at the exciting work at Skype Labs.

Prnu in the autumn by Toomas Olev


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Anna Piperal

Anna Piperal is a marketing andcommunication professional, agraduate in public administration at the

Tallinn University of Technology. At theICT Demo Center she is responsible

for cooperation projects under the

brand of e-Estonia, communicationand customer relations, marketing andsocial media.

The digital society of e-EstoniaThe Estonian ICT Demo Center provides a quick and inspiring overview of thedevelopment of information society, e-solutions and major ICT sector players in

Estonia, including the political, social and economic aspects and explaining themotivations for developing the e-State.

Project Manager, Estonian ICT Demo Center Mobile: +372 [email protected]


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Dance Festival

South of Estonia in winter by Jaak Nilson


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University of Tartu

University of Tartu is the largest university in Estonia that is home to 17,500 students,

including 800 international students. It ranks among the top 3% of the worlds bestuniversities (THE World University Rankings). The university is famous for its research-based education. On average, the university awards 100 PhD degrees and universityresearchers publish about 3,000 scientic articles annually. It is in the top 1% of theworlds most cited universities and scientic institutions in 10 scientic elds (ESI).

www.ut.ee


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Mari Jrve

Mari Jrve turned up at theevolutionary biology lab led byProfessor Richard Villems as a rst yearuniversity student and has stayed thereever since. Studying human populationgenetics and demographic history,

her particular focus has been on thepaternally inherited Y chromosome.She has characterised the mutationrate of certain Y-chromosomal markers,

studied the genetic legacy of European men and examined the genetic backgroundof populations from the ethnically and linguistically diverse region of the Caucasus.In 2012, she defended her PhD, her thesis entitled Different genetic perspectiveson human history in Europe and the Caucasus: the stories told by uniparental and

autosomal markers. Lately, her research involves data from whole human genomesequences, particularly whole Y chromosomes.

Population genetics research in Estonia

The history of human populations their origins, relationships and migrations canbe studied taking a genetic approach in addition to the methods of history andarchaeology. The human genome can be viewed as a historical document inheritedfrom one generation to the next, in which the passage of time is marked by randommutations. For decades, demographic history has been studied using mitochondrialDNA inherited from mother to children and the Y chromosome inherited from fatherto son. Recently, a wealth of information derived from whole genome sequences hasconsiderably broadened the perspectives of human population genetics research inEstonia.

Researcher, Estonian Biocentre Phone: +372 [email protected]


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Harry Alles

Harry Alles belonged to the team ofphysicists at the Low Temperature Lab

in the Helsinki University of Technology(now merged into Aalto University)that achieved the lowest temperature

ever recorded in the universe, ahundred picokelvin or 0.0000000001kelvin, in 1999. Since 2009 he hasbeen one of the pioneers in Estonia

in the study of graphene, a phenomenally versatile material made of just one layer ofcarbon atoms.

Graphene studies in EstoniaIn Estonia graphene studies were initiated in 2008 in the Institute of Physics ofUniversity of Tartu (IPUT) and the very rst task was to develop methods for atomiclayer deposition of dielectrics (Al2O3, HfO2, etc.) on this one-atom-thick wondermaterial. Later on, the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) method was implemented atIPUT in order to prepare large-area (up to several cm2) graphene samples. This kind ofgraphene has been used for preparation of sensitive chemical sensors and anticorrosioncoatings. Currently the scientists of IPUT are participating in two international grapheneprojects: (1) ENTS (Entangled spin pairs in graphene, EuroGRAPHENE project) and(2) RODIN (Suspended graphene nanostructures, FP7).

Senior Researcher, Institute of Physics, University of TartuMember of Scientic Council, Institute of Physics, University of Tartu Phone: +372 7374658Mobile: +372 [email protected]


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Estonian Universityof Life Sciences

EM is the centre of research in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, veterinarymedicine, rural economy, food sciences, biodiversity, environmental protection,renewable resources and environmentally friendly technologies. The university belongsto the top 1% most cited research facilities in the world in the eld of plant andanimal science (Thomson Reuters Essential Science Indicators database).www.emu.ee/en

www.emu.ee


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lo Niinemets

lo Niinemets is a plant physiologyprofessor in the Estonian Universityof Life Sciences. His ambitious studyon plant stress emissions granted him

a place in the European Research

Council. lo Niinemets is the directorof the Centre of Excellence inEnvironmental Adaptation. His studiesfocus on the connections between

plants and climate change. lo Niinemets specialises in studying the connectionsbetween plant stress emissions and climate change and testing the hypothesis that we

have largely underestimated the role of plants in the Earths climate.

How does plant language change climate?Although it is accepted that plant trace gas (VOC) emissions play major roles in theformation of ozone, secondary organic aerosols (SOA) and cloud condensation nuclei(CNN) with potentially profound impacts on air quality and climate, the overall impactof VOC emissions in large-scale Earth processes is poorly understood. Research hasfocused only on constitutive emissions from certain emitting species. However, inaddition to constitutive emissions, all species can release induced VOCs under abioticand biotic stress. As global change is resulting in higher levels of stress in the Earthsecosystems, the relevance of induced emissions is expected to gain attention.

Professor, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences,Estonian University of Life Sciences Phone: +372 7313140Mobile: +372 [email protected]


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lle Jaakma

Mario Plaas

Anything new and groundbreaking in thereproduction biology of animals be it invitro fertilisation, cloning, or sperm research lle Jaakma is interested it. She started asa plant biologist but then got fascinated with

animal embryology. To study fertilisation andthe beginning of the lives of new organisms isvery exciting, she says. They are very smallbut they are alive.

What animal is it? It looks like a mouse buthas human genes and can catch hepatitis.It is a mouse that lives in the TransgenicTechnology Core Laboratory at the

University of Tartu. Here, mice are producedby DNA microinjection or by injectingembryonic stem cells. Mario Plaas headsthat lab. He can manipulate cells and cloneanimals. Tuning and xing genes is his breadand butter.

Professor and Senior Researcher, Institute of Veterinary Medicine andAnimal Sciences, Estonian University of Life SciencesVice Rector for Research, Estonian University of Life Sciences

Researcher, Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences,Estonian University of Life SciencesHead, Laboratory of Transgenic Technology,Institute of Technology, University of Tartu


Phone: +372 7374861Mobile: +372 5023056

[email protected]


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Producing therapeutic peptides in mouse and cow milkThere are thousands of bovine embryos produced in the in vitro fertilisation lab of theEstonian University of Life Sciences for both research and practical purposes. How

to produce human therapeutic peptides in mouse and cow milk this has been oneof the most complicated research topics during the last ve years. The applicationof transgenic cloning technology has made it possible to come very close to that biggoal. Mice carrying the human insulin and growth hormone genes and secreting thesepeptides in their milk are already a reality. Success with mice models has encouragedthe team to go further with large animals, and now some heifers are carrying transgenicfetuses with a human gene. If active in their adult life, the gene allows to produce largequantities of pharmaceutical peptide. This research involves the cooperation of the

Estonian University of Life Science, the University of Tartu and the Competence Centreon Reproductive Medicine and Biology.

Song Festival by Kaarel Mikkin


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Mart Noorma

Mart Noorma is an Estonian physicist androcket scientist best known for running theESTCube student satellite project and beinga judge in the educational television show

Rakett69 (which was voted best educationalprogramme by the European BroadcastingUnion in 2012). In 2005, he graduated fromthe Helsinki University of Technology witha PhD in technical sciences. Mart Noorma

is an active promoter of science and was awarded the kul prize for good partners ofscience journalism by the Estonian Association of Science Journalists earlier this year.

ESTCube-1: Towards Sailing on Solar WindESTCube-1 is the rst Estonian satellite. A cube of just 10x10x11 centimetres, it wasdeveloped as part of the Estonian Student Satellite Program. The nanosatellite waslaunched on 7 May 2013 aboard a Vega carrier rocket from the Kourou spaceport inFrench Guiana. Its mission is to test the electric solar wind sail, an invention that couldsignicantly speed up space travel within the Solar System.

Vice Dean for Academic Affairs,Faculty of Science and Technology, University of TartuAssociate Professor, Institute of Physics, University of TartuExtraordinary Senior Researcher, Tartu Observatory



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Priit Kull

Priit Kull is an Estonian material scientist

specialising in electroactive materials at theIntelligent Materials and Systems Lab at theTartu University. He believes that materialsscience is one of the key elds that canchange the world in unbelievable ways.

Self-Deployable Habitat for Extreme Environments

One of the international projects that the lab is currently involved in is called SHEE,

short for Self-deployable Habitat for Extreme Environments. The aim is to create a hi-tech house that could be sent to Mars inside a capsule. In its destination, it would builditself up automatically. It is envisioned to be a hybrid structure composed of inatable,rigid and robotic components.

Project Manager, Institute of Technology, University of Tartu Mobile: +372 [email protected]


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About Estonia

Estonia is a country in Northern Europe which has been inhabited by theancestors of present-day Estonians for several thousand years.

Estonias population ranks amongst the smallest in the world (just 1.3 million) butgeographically it is larger than Denmark or the Netherlands.

Estonia is often viewed together with its southern neighbours Latvia and Lithuaniaas one of the Baltic States. But there are also many differences between thesecountries in language, culture, religion etc.

The Estonian language is related to Finnish. It has 14 grammatical cases and isrich in vowels.

Tallinns medieval Old Town is one of the most well-preserved in Europe. TheRaeapteek is one of the oldest continuously running pharmacies in Europe, havingalways been in business in the exact same building since the early 15th century.

The Estonian Song Festival, held every ve years in July in Tallinn, is one of thelargest amateur choral events in the world. The rst Song Festival was held in1869 in Tartu, the next one will be in 2014.

Estonia ranks among the most wired and technologically advanced countries inthe world. Freedom House, a U.S. advocacy group, ranked Estonia as the rstcountry in the world in Internet freedom in 2012.

The length of the longest day in summer is over 19 hours, while the shortest daylasts only 6 hours. We have white nights.

Estonia is almost 50% forest and boasts miles of beautiful sandy beaches.

More information: estonia.eu


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