What happened in 1997

The Exhibition "Hadrons for health"

The exhibition "Hadrons for heath" visited the University of Oslo in August and September this year. The exhibition has been realised by CERN (the European Institute for Particle Physics in Geneva) in collaboration with GSI-Darmstadt and the TERA Foundation/ Italy. The exhibition focused in particular on the direct connection which exists between basic knowledge in fundamental physics and biology, the invention and development of new instruments, and new methods in cancer treatment and diagnostics.

Nuclear medicine seminar

In connection with the two exhibitions (mentioned above and below), there was a seminar concerning nuclear medicine. The planned Norwegian activity within diagnosis, treatment, and medical research based on accelerator-produced radionuclides was discussed. Also, new methods within cancer therapy using hadrons (hadrons are heavy particles which are made of quarks) were presented.

The Exhibition "Science bringing nations together"

The exhibition "Science bringing nations together" visited the University of Oslo also in August and September. It consists of two parts, one prepared by CERN and the other by the JINR laboratory in Dubna, Russia. It shows how scientific collaboration has promoted mutual understanding, not only among individuals of different nationality, but also among different nations. This combined exhibition was shown for the first time here in Norway.

CAS-school in Gjøvik

In September an Intermediate Accelerator Physics course was held in Gjøvik. This course was organised by CERN Accelerator School in collaboration with the Department of Physics.

His Majesty the King's gold medal to Dr. scient. Børge Holme

His Majesty the King's gold medal is awarded to a brilliant, younger researcher for a scientific work evaluated at the University of Oslo. The scientific work must be recognised as an active contribution to the scientific research literature. Dr. scient. Børge Holme received this medal for his work on his thesis for the dr.scient. degree: "Structures in reduced magnetite. An investigation into the porous iron ammonia synthesis catalyst". In this thesis, Holme presents a study of the iron catalyst used in the ammonia process with aluminium and potassium added as promoters. Many studies have been performed previously on these important catalysts, however, they have not revealed such details before. Holme achieved this by using a very interesting and, in this context, non-traditional technique - polarisation light microscopy combined with electron microscopy.

The award for popularization from the Research Council of Norway and the University of Oslo's award for scientific popularization to Professor Alv Egeland

Professor Alv Egeland received two prizes in 1997. Egeland and professor Asgeir Brekke got the award for popularization from the Research Council of Norway. The University of Oslo's award for scientific popularization was won by Egeland alone. Both awards were won because of Egeland's outstanding and tireless popularization of cosmic geophysics.

The Northern Light Exhibition

The Northern Light Exhibition, an exhibition which deals with the polar aurora and solar terrestrial phenomena, has this year been shown several places in Norway, and abroad in Hamburg, Berlin, and CERN. The exhibition was first shown at Lillehammer before and during the Olympic Games in 1994.

A new Transmission Electron Microscope

In December this year, a contract for buying a new transmission electron microscope (TEM) was signed. The transmission electron microscope with a Schottky field emission gun will be installed in October 1998 in the Centre for Material Science, University of Oslo. This instrument will be the first TEM instrument with a field emission gun in Norway.