News

The University of Tartu has signed a cooperation agreement with the consortium of the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) future survey programme 4MOST, enabling the researchers of Tartu Observatory to participate in the programme. The goal of 4MOST is to survey tens of millions of objects in the southern sky within five years.

The Space Travel blog aims to provide insight into the public and private space ventures in Estonia and the neighbouring countries.

On Tuesday 1 June, teachers and students from France, Estonia, and Austria will connect live with ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, currently living and working on the International Space Station (ISS). Teachers will be asking questions directly to Thomas Pesquet around the theme of Sustaining space: recycling resources. A livestream of the entire event, including the introductions from each country before the in-flight call, can be viewed below.

The university’s orienteering month – May – is about to end, but as the initiative has attracted much interest, the orienteering course will remain open until 6 June. The university invites all employees, students, alumni and their families as well everyone else to orienteering in the city of Tartu. Come to discover places where the university family has done exercise and sports since the early 19th century!

Despite the government’s decision to allow face-to-face studies also in higher education starting from 17 May, the university continues work as previously planned. Decisions about the organisation of studies continue to be made by the head of institute in cooperation with the vice dean for academic affairs. The only change is that the requirement not to exceed 25% room capacity has been lifted. The allowed percentage of room capacity is to be decided by the head of institute.

The Office of Academic Affairs in cooperation with the Student Union have chosen the new course registration start time. Based on the results of the survey conducted, registration will start at 21:00.

The TEST-4-SME network of testing laboratories provides testing of electronic equipment to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in laboratories close to them. This new opportunity will make life easier for small businesses and stimulate the production of environmentally friendly and innovative electronic devices in the Baltic Sea region.

The European Space Education Resource Office (ESERO) in Estonia was officially launched on 3 March 2021. The goal of ESERO is to support STEM studies in primary and secondary schools by using space as a context. ESERO Estonia, hosted by Tartu Observatory, joins European Space Agency's (ESA) growing ESERO network, currently active in 18 other ESA Member States.

Throughout May, the university invites all employees, students, alumni and their families to orienteering in the city of Tartu. The spring orienteering course, compiled by the university museum, focuses on places related to sports and recreation. Did you know that according to architect Krause’s initial floor plans there was supposed to be a fencing hall on the ground floor of the main building? If not, come orienteering and find out other exciting sports-related facts about the university.

To evaluate the development of a forest’s ecosystem, forest floor vegetation needs to be monitored consistently. Currently, this kind of data is missing. In the beginning of the year, Jan Pisek, an associate professor with the University of Tartu, Tartu Observatory, published an article in the scientific journal Biogeosciences with his colleagues.

The University of Tartu invites everyone to participate in a photo contest to get photos by talented amateur and professional photographers depicting the University of Tartu buildings, students, events, studies, and everything else related to the University of Tartu. The contest takes place from 29 March to 30 September and all participants enter a draw to win prizes.

The study, coordinated by the Tartu Observatory, will help introduce remote sensing data and technologies more widely and improve several public services. Remote sensing means collecting information about the Earth from a distance, for example, satellite or drone, and is crucial in solving environmental problems.

From 1 to 5 March, the ENLIGHT European University network organised its official kick-off week. All students and staff of the University of Tartu, as well as the wider public, was invited. Recordings of some of the exciting international lectures and discussions about the environment, digital solutions, healthcare, equity, energy and teaching are available to watch on YouTube.

The University of Tartu invites international students interested in international bachelor’s and master’s studies to submit their applications in DreamApply. Studies start at the end of August 2021.

Coronavirus is spreading widely and the situation is alarming. It is everyone’s duty to avoid unnecessary contacts. As workplaces are important sources of infection in addition to schools and homes, we must reduce contacts also at the university and ask everyone whose duties allow that to work from home.

On Estonia's Independence Day, February 24, our former colleague Erik Tago passed due to an illness. He dedicated a lot of energy to galaxy groups, clusters and superclusters.

To mark the 103rd anniversary of the Republic of Estonia, Rector Toomas Asser and Academic Secretary Tõnis Karki placed flowers at the Estonian War of Independence Memorial to Fallen Students in the university’s assembly hall.

On a beautiful crisp winter morning on February 19, our dear long-time colleague Jaan Vennik passed. Distant galaxies and how they gather to become clusters fascinated Jaan for years, even decades. As many researchers of Tõravere's first generation, he came to study at the University of Tartu as a simple boy, although he had graduated with honors from Tapa's 1st Gymnasium. After receiving his physicist's diploma, he stayed here, and the observatory – no matter what it was called at different times – remained his only workplace.

On 11 February, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science is held in Estonia for the first time, led by the Archemy research group of the University of Tartu and the Estonian Young Academy of Sciences.

On February 5, Maarja Bussov successfully defended her PhD dissertation "Clustering analysis for astrophysical structures". The defence gained her a doctoral degree in physics from the University of Tartu. Supervisors Prof. Elmo Tempel (Tartu Observatory, University of Tartu), Prof. Radu S. Stoica (University of Lorraine, CNRS, IECL) Opponent Dr. Pekka Heinämäki (Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Turku) Summary