Villum Experiment Grants Awarded to Two NAT Researchers
Molecular biologist Narcis-Adrian Petriman and chemist Mathias Lander Skavenborg have both received a Villum Experiment grant, awarded to unconventional research projects.
The Villum Foundation’s special program for unconventional research projects, Villum Experiment, has selected two recipients from the Faculty of Science: Postdoc Narcis-Adrian Petriman from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BMB), and Postdoc Mathias Lander Skavenborg from the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy (FKF).
The foundation has awarded funding to 52 research projects, all of which share the courage to think differently and take risks. The projects were selected through an anonymous review process, where the originality and potential of the idea weigh more heavily than the researcher’s CV.
This creates space for the unexpected and the untested — and that is precisely the core of Villum Experiment, the foundation writes in a press release.
Allowing curiosity to dominate
“Villum Experiment is about giving room to ideas that don’t necessarily fit into conventional frameworks. We believe that it’s often in the quirky and the wild that major breakthroughs are hidden,” says Thomas Bjørnholm, Director of Research at the Villum Foundation, and adds:
“When we remove names and credentials from the evaluation, we open up a field where curiosity and courage are allowed to dominate.”
Narcis-Adrian Petriman is a postdoc in the section ”Biomedical Mass Spectrometry and Systems Biology” at BMB. Mathias Lander Skavenborg is a postdoc and works in inorganic chemistry at FKF.
Mathias Lander Skavenborg: DKK 2,4 million
Project description: Renewable energy such as wind and solar power is being implemented worldwide as alternatives to today’s oil-based energy sources. Storing this renewable energy is increasingly necessary to create an efficient and reliable power grid — even on windless or cloudy days. Redox flow batteries are among the most popular technologies for large-scale energy storage. Commercially available vanadium batteries are among the most developed technologies, but their widespread use is limited due to the cost and availability of vanadium. In this project, we aim to develop a previously unseen symmetric redox flow battery based on manganese, which is 1,000 times cheaper and less toxic compared to vanadium. This will be achieved by developing and testing new organic ligands to control the redox activity of manganese, thereby achieving the desired performance and stability of a manganese complex for redox flow batteries.”
Narcis-Adrian Petriman: DKK 2,5 million聽聽
Project description: The accumulation of non-degradable plastic in the environment is a global pollution problem. Microalgae have emerged as cost-effective, natural bio-detoxifiers that can absorb and eliminate heavy metals, salinity, and pesticides, while also reducing carbon emissions. Enzymes that degrade one of the most common types of plastic, poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), into non-toxic compounds have been identified in bacteria. This research project will insert the gene for a plastic-degrading enzyme onto the surface of the green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. This will transform microalgae into a natural, renewable detoxification agent capable of breaking down plastic into non-toxic compounds.”