ABS Graduate school - University of Helsinki

Call for applications for travel grants

The ABS Graduate School invites applications for travel grants. It is required that the applicant will actively participate in an international course or will have an own poster or an oral presentation at an international conference in 2012. Priority in allocating grants will be given to international courses to be arranged in 2012. The maximum support / student is 840 euros. The application (fill up either the Finnish or the English application form) should be submitted both as an electronic (as a RTF, WORD or PDF document) and a printed format to the coordinator by February 29th, 2012. The notification will be made by March 9th, 2012 to the e-mail address provided by the applicant. The next application round for travel grants will be in September 2012. The support will be granted only to the student studying in the ABS Graduate School.

Decision made on the 3 PhD student positions funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture

This year the ABS Graduate School got 3 four-year PhD student positions funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture for the period 2012-2015. Altogether 34 applications were sent to the ABS Graduate School of which 32 were evaluated by the members of the Management Board. Many applicants applied for funding for the shorter period than 4 years.

The 3 PhD student positions were divided up among 7 students (Table 1.). The principal supervisor of the student who has got funding will be asked for a commitment on financing the rest part of salary that exceeds the sum allocated by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Table 1. The list of the students who have been selected for the PhD student positions of the ABS Graduate School.

Student and Affiliation	Title of PhD Research and Principal Supervisor	Funding Time
Chamlagain Bhawani University of Helsinki, Dept of Food and Environmental Sciences	Natural enhancement of vitamin contents in foods by in situ microbial synthesis: Vitamin B12 in plant-based foods Principal Supervisor: Prof Prof. Vieno Piironen	2 years
Gürbüz Göker University of Helsinki, Dept of Food and Environmental Sciences	From Food to Biodiesel: Protein-Lipid Interactions during Thermal Treatment Principal Supervisor: Prof. Marina Heinonen	2 years
Martikainen Outi University of Helsinki, Dept of Food and Environmental Sciences/ National Institute for Health and Welfare	Useita virulenssitekijöitä omaavat enterohemorraagiset Escherichia coli -kannat: esiintyvyys, ominaisuudet ja taudinaiheuttamiskyky Principal Supervisor: Prof. Anja Siitonen	2 years
Olkkola Satu University of Helsinki / Dept of Food Hygiene and Environmental Health	Antimicrobial resistance and its mechanisms and consequences in Campylobacter coli with special emphasis on macrolides, fluoroquinolones and aminoglycosides Principal Supervisor: Prof. Marja-Liisa Hänninen	1 year
Shi Qiao University of Helsinki, Dept of Food and Environmental Sciences	Synthesis, enzyme-assisted modification and structural characterization of Weissella confusa dextran Principal Supervisor: Prof. Maija Tenkanen	2 years
Sibakov Juhani Aalto University, School of Chemical Technology, Dept of Biotechnology and Chemical Technology / VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland	Uudet teknologiset ratkaisut ravintokuidun lisäämiseksi elintarvikesovellutuksiin Principal Supervisor: Academy Prof. Kaisa Poutanen	1 year
Virtanen Sonja University of Helsinki, Dept of Food Hygiene and Environmental Health	Patogeenisten yersinioiden epidemiologia ja diagnostiikka Principal Supervisor: Prof. Hannu Korkeala	2 years

Doctors Graduated
from the ABS Graduate School
in Working Life

The ABS Graduate School commissioned the University of Tampere, Work Research Centre to conduct a survey study to 176 doctors who have studied in 1995-2007 in the ABS Graduate School, concerning their career. The opinions of employer representatives about the necessity of doctoral education were studied in another survey, too. All in all, 89 ABS doctors replied to the enquiry. The employers’ questionnaire was filled by 22 respondents.

According to the report most (84 %) of the respondents had had a full-time job after graduation. Of all respondents, 33 % were employed by the universities, 19 % by private enterprises, 16 % by research institutes and 9 % by state administration. Of all respondents, 35 % were in management tasks. The education level, field of education and work requirements of almost all respondents matched. The respondents had a positive view on the effects of their education. Most of them assessed that the doctoral degree had contributed to the increase in salary and job requirements and had been a good investment considering working life. At the moment of the study 2,2 % of the ABS doctors were unemployed.

Almost all employers considered that having doctors as employees produces image value for the enterprise/organization. In some cases doctors worked in the same tasks as people with lower degrees; in some others in special kinds of duties. According to the respondents, a doctoral degree is no guarantee for higher wages in that enterprise/organization they represent. Instead, work requirements are decisive in the setting of wages.

The replies of the employer representatives show that preparedness for recruitment of doctors in the fields of food & nutrition exists in the coming years.

The survey study was sponsored by Faculties of Agriculture and Forestry and Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki; Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Turku; Faculty of Medicine, University of Kuopio; Department of Clinical Nutrition, School of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, University of Kuopio; Faculty of Chemistry and Materials Sciences, Helsinki University of Technology and Finnish Food Research Foundation.