Ernst Jaakson memorial fund scholarship was awarded to Research Fellow in Materials Science Kristjan Kalam

On 21 February, the recipient of this year’s Ernst Jaakson memorial fund scholarship was announced at the ceremony of the anniversary of the Republic of Estonia in the University of Tartu assembly hall. The 18,000-euro scholarship was awarded to Kristjan Kalam, a Research Fellow in Materials Science at the Institute of Physics.

Kristjan Kalam completed his bachelor’s and master’s studies at the University of Tartu with outstanding results and defended his doctoral thesis in 2020. “He has actively used every opportunity to expand his knowledge and learn from top experts in the field. For example, during his doctoral studies, he spent a year as an intern at the Barcelona Microelectronics Institute and represented Estonia at a meeting with Nobel Prize laureates,” said Toomas Plank, Director of the Institute of Physics. Last summer, Kalam went to the University of Valladolid in Spain for postdoctoral research with funding from the Estonian Research Council.

His research focuses on magnetically or electrically active nanoscale layers of solid materials. This subfield of materials science and technology is called spintronics. For example, Kristjan studies memory materials made from nanolaminates of iron and hafnium oxides. Memory materials can be applied in the memory of computers and smart devices.

Kristjan Kalam is very grateful for the scholarship. “The scholarship allows me to make the most of my postdoctoral research. Instead of just commuting between the lab and home, I can visit partners at other universities, attend events and conferences, and get to know the local academic life, as well as life outside the university. I can also involve my family more in these activities,” said Kalam. He believes that the scholarship enables him to complete his postdoctoral research in a way that is close to ideal.

Kristjan is a versatile and active young researcher who has enough energy for research, passing on his knowledge to students and standing for scientific thinking in public. Besides all that, he finds time to dedicate to his family, who won the honourable title of Large Family of the Year 2023.

Ernst Jaakson memorial fund was established at the University of Tartu Foundation in 2000 with assets (8,935,417 Estonian kroons) bequeathed to the university by Estonian diplomat and statesman Ernst Rudolf Jaakson. The memorial fund aims to support Estonian doctoral students, researchers and lecturers who continue their studies or research abroad. The idea of the scholarship is to raise a strong new generation of the University of Tartu scientific community. This year, the scholarship was awarded for the 16th time.