News

On 8 February, the government of Estonia decided to grant the Ferdinand Johann Wiedemann Language Prize to the dedicated teacher and scholar, University of Tartu associate professor emerita Reet Kasik for her research on word formation, development of text analysis, and educating and encouraging young linguists.

Student Startup Camp was held in Tartu last week for a 5th successful time. Garage48, the University of Tartu Institute of Computer Science and IdeaLab provided an excellent working atmosphere for the 100 students taking part in the camp, who had a busy week of building ideas into prototypes.

The Marketing Office of the University of Tartu conducted a survey among international degree students in summer 2017. The purpose of the survey was to help understand how current international students made their decision to come to study in Estonia. Total number of respondents was 176, 84% of whom were master’s and 16% bachelor’s students. Most of the respondents came from Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Finland, USA, Nigeria, Germany, Latvia or Azerbaijan.

Kaur Alasoo, a young scientist who has defended his doctoral thesis at the University of Cambridge and is now working as a bioinformatics researcher at the University of Tartu, focused on the reasons for complicated genetic diseases and ways to avoid them in the future.

The University of Tartu Museum and Natural History Museum won three valuable awards at the Estonian annual museum awards ceremony at the Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn on 19 January. The University of Tartu Museum received two Museum Rat awards for the best scientific event and the best collection development. UT Natural History Museum was awarded the special Rat Trap prize as the most tourist-friendly museum.

Estonian Olympic Committee recognises eighteen regional multifunctional sports centres, which stand out for their high-quality infrastructure and offer services and conditions that enable to promote youth and amateur sports in the region.

The daily newspaper Postimees has recognised lead research fellow in conservation biology of the University of Tartu Asko Lõhmus with the title “Person of the Year 2017”. “Lõhmus has led the forest ecology and logging discussion in a balanced and well-argued manner, and thereby significantly contributed to the nature conservation debate in Estonia,” Postimees editor-in-chief Lauri Hussar explained the choice of the staff.

Minister of education and research Mailis Reps and rector of the University of Tartu Volli Kalm signed the merger agreement of Tartu Observatory and the University of Tartu today, on 13 December. Tõravere-based Tartu Observatory will operate as an institute in the Faculty of Science and Technology as of 1 January 2018.

Cooperation between researchers in the United States and Estonia helps to discover changes in brain tissue, which are associated with the very early stages of dementia. The cause of nearly half of all cases of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease. It is estimated that 47 million people are suffering globally from Alzheimer’s – nearly the population of Spain. Due to the ageing of the population, it is predicted that 131.5 million people will be suffering from Alzheimer’s by 2050 – this is slightly less than the entire population of Russia.

With great sorrow, the University of Tartu announces the unexpected death of Rector Volli Kalm on Saturday, December 23. Volli Kalm was born on February 10, 1953 in Vändra. He graduated from the University of Tartu in 1976 with a degree in geology. In 1984, Kalm earned his PhD in geology from the Estonian Academy of Sciences after successfully defending his doctoral thesis "Formation, composition and usage of glaciofluvial deposits in Estonia." From 1988-1989, he attended postdoctoral studies in the geology department of the University of Alberta.

At the extraordinary senate session on 27 December, the senate of the University of Tartu unanimously appointed professor Tõnu Lehtsaar as the acting rector. In his speech to the senate, Lehtsaar said that his primary goal as the university’s acting rector is to maintain stability and find a new rector. “We will keep the university going. I asked members of the Rector’s Office at the meeting this morning if they were willing to continue in their office. I didn’t expect them to answer right away, but they confirmed that we will go forward together,” he said.

Professor Volli Kalm, Rector of the University of Tartu (10 February 1953 – 23 December 2017)

The University of Tartu is in deep mourning. Our Rector Professor Volli Kalm passed away yesterday. This is a loss difficult to put into words. The University’s staff, students, alumni, collaborators, friends and supporters are all feeling bereft. The goals set by the Rector are in place and the University is firm in its resolve to move forward in the chosen direction. We are grateful for what he has done for the University and for the Estonian higher education, science and society.

A new volume "Russia and the European Court of Human Rights: the Strasbourg Effect" has just been published at Cambridge University Press, which sheds a light on how Russia has managed in the European Court of Human Rights during the last nearly 20 years.

Friday, December 1 2017 marks the 98th birthday of the Estonia’s national university in Tartu. To celebrate the event, several events take place during the week-long celebrations – honorary doctorates and doctorates are conferred, the University’s honorary member named and the laurate of The University of Tartu Award for Contribution to Estonian National Identity named.

On December 8, the sTARTUp Day international business festival was held in AHHAA science centre. On its four stages, one of which was UT IdeaLab pitching stage, business ideas were presented and teams competed. The event brought together a total of 2600 visitors.

On Thursday, the 7th of December, the biggest business festival in the Baltics takes off with over 2500 attendees from 27 countries. The sTARTUp Day 2017 business festival is happening only for the 2nd time, but just as last year, the event has been sold out. The theme of this year’s event “From Zero To Hero” focuses on how to work oneself to the top with limited resources. During the opening day there will be numerous side-events around the city of Tartu: trainings and seminars on production, education, biotechnology, business and export topics.

On Thursday Nov 30, UT IdeaLab student project and business idea competition Kaleidoskoop took place. 43 teams partook in the competition and the top 10 were selected to the next round - Kaleidoskoop Finals at sTARTUp Day on the UT IdeaLab pitching stage. This semester’s competition included ideas from a wide area of topics, a large number of which included apps or websites. This semester’s TOP 10 are:

On December 1-3, Tartu hosts the conference Crossing Disciplinary Borders in Viking Age Studies, the 7th Austmarr Symposium, which brings together experts from different parts of the world.

On November 22 at 16.15, UT Professor of Asian Economy Peter Hwang will deliver his inaugural lecture in the University of Tartu assembly hall. The lecture deals with the rise of Asia and differences in Eastern and Western management styles. The economic and political capabilities and importance of Asian countries, especially China, has been on the rise in the world.