News

The Science Centre Ahhaa will organize eighth Researchers’ Night Festival from 22 September to 27 September. The subtitle of the festival is “Great Experiment”. The peak of the festival will be Pan-European Researchers’ Night on Friday 27 September, which will be celebrated with approximately three hundred events all over Estonia.

At the Council of the UT Faculty of Exercise and Sport Sciences meeting held on 25 September, Priit Kaasik, Professor in Functional Morphology, was elected Dean of the Faculty. According to Kaasik, the priorities are high-level teaching and research, motivating new academic generations and taking research results outside the academic world.

On 23–25 September, the 10th international conference of the Estonian Association of Comparative Literature, titled "National Literature and Comparative Literary Research", shall be held at the Tartu Literature House (Vanemuise 19). Among the issues discussed at the conference is the question of national literature, more specifically, extending the significance of national literature and its research into the international consciousness in order to prevent it from remaining a nation’s “internal matter”.

September 20, 2013 Näituse 2 - 102 ALAIN DAGHER, MD (McGill University, Canada) Time: 13.00-14.15 “The role of dopamine in risky and impulsive behavior: a neuroeconomics approach“

The patron of the conference, the President of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who led the European Union e-health work group in 2011-2012 has said in his speech in 12. May 2012: "Healthcare is lagging behind by approximately ten years when compared to other spheres in the implementation of different IT-solutions. We know, based on the example of many other services, that information technology applications may completely change and complement our current approach.

Professor of Culture, Health and Well Being at the University of Turku Marja-Liisa Honkasalo will hold a public lecture entitled "Culture, Health, and the Human Condition" on Friday the 13th of September 2013 at 12:15 - 13:45 pm in the Institute of Cultural Research and Fine Arts of Tartu University (Ülikooli 16-214).

On the 5 September, Volli Kalm, the Rector of the University of Tartu, opened the newly renovated study building in the New Anatomicum. The Institute of Psychology and the Department of Special Education of the Institute of Education of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Education moved to the study building at Näituse 2.

The Estonian Research Council approved decisions on assigning grants from the Norwegian-Estonian Research Cooperation Programme. A total of 13 projects with the volume of 2.9 million euros will be funded. Eight projects led by researchers from the University of Tartu also received a grant of more than 1.7 million euros.

Autumn term of this academic year marks two decades since the beginning of English-based studies at the University of Tartu. Twenty years ago the University of Tartu was the first in Estonia to offer a full semester module in English for international students, forming the foundation for today’s international studies.

On 4 September 2013, T. E. Frédéric Billet, the Ambassador of France, will name Anu Treikelder, lecturer in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Tartu, and Tanel Lepsoo, Head of the Institute of Germanic, Romance and Slavonic Languages and Literatures, Knight in Order of the Academic Palms at the French residence for the work carried out for promoting French language and culture in Estonia.

On Monday, September 2 at 10 a.m., an opening ceremony of the new academic year starts in the assembly hall of the University of Tartu, where Rector Professor Volli Kalm, the Minister of Education and Research and the major of Tartu welcome the students. In the new academic year, a total of 3,237 students from all levels of study start their acquisition of education in daytime studies.

Peep Veski, Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmaceutics of the University of Tartu was named Honorary Doctor of Semmelweis University. Regalia of Honorary Doctor will be handed over on 15 November, 2013 at Semmelweis University in Budapest. The degree of Honorary Doctor, which will be issued this year for 39th time at Semmelweis University, recognizes people who have had a long and scientifically productive cooperation relationship with Semmelweis University in addition to considerable contribution to promoting international science.

Admission to the degree studies at the University of Tartu is drawing to a close. Admission to the open university, which ended on Friday, added another 2049 applicants, which means that the biggest number of applications were submitted to the University of Tartu - 11,441 in total. The student body commencing their studies at the UT this year is of a higher academic level, given that the average competition scores of those admitted were higher compared to the previous year.

20. augustil antakse TÜ raamatukogu teenindusosakonna juhatajale Olga Einastole üle IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) rahvusvaheline turundusauhind. Turundusauhinna pälvis projekt „Rääkivad õpikud“, mille eesmärk on abistada pimedaid ja vaegnägijaid tudengeid õppematerjalide kasutamisel ja eksamiteks valmistumisel. Projekt nägi ette raamatute sisselugemist ja salvestamist audiofailidena ning õppematerjalide digitaliseerimist.

The University of Tartu was praised in June issue of Latvian business magazine Forbes in article “Potential of Institutions of Higher Education – Patents” („Augstskolu potenciāls – patenti“) where Maija Goluboviča writes that the University of Tartu has commercialised 20 patents during the last two years, whereas the universities in Latvia have not succeeded in commercialising intellectual property.

It was the fourth time for Estonian Bar Association to organize a competition of student works as a result of which three Faculty of Law students at the University of Tartu were awarded Bar Association scholarship.

On 20 August, Olga Einasto, Head of the Service Department of UT Library, will be given the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) International Marketing Award. The project “Talking Textbooks” won the award. The aim of the project is to help blind and visually impaired students use the study materials and prepare for the exams. The project focused on reading the books out loud and saving them in audio files as well as digitizing the study materials.

Scientists of the University of Tartu and Tartu Observatory and AS Regio help calibrate the world’s most accurate satellite WorldView-2. Calibration is needed for identifying more accurately different objects on the ground, assessing small space changes or even specifying the types of plants on the land and the depth of water in the sea by means of a photo taken from the satellite.

On the 2 August at 1 p.m., Volli Kalm, the Rector of the University of Tartu, opens the historic Schindler elevator to all museum visitors by being the first person using it. The elevator has been out of everyday use for almost 20 years. The elevator goes to the White Hall and to the floor of temporary exhibitions, Morgenstern’s Hall and the attic.

This years International Summer University that takes place from July 28 to August 4 will focus on tourism service design and marketing in case of Estonian spa industry. The students from Taurida Unviersity in Ukraine and Caucasus University in Georgia have already spent their first days in Pärnu, the Summer Capital of Estonia. The international summer university course covers topics from tourism service design to spa tourism and wellness services, from sustainability to the knowledge about how to communicate all these assets to tourists.