Evaluation Report Publications of the Academy of Finland 1/11

Research environment
The unit is well equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation for preparative work 
and analytics, such as a microwave reactor, a polarimeter, gas chromatography, and 
HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography). NMR (400–600 MHz) and liquid 
chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) is only available at the UTU 
Department of Chemistry, which might be a logistic problem.
Research networking and interaction
The unit has some national collaboration, mainly with groups from ÅA and UTU. 
Participation in two COST actions is very important and allows for student exchange 
with Milano, Italy. However, the number of visiting researchers decreased remarkably 
during the last two years in the review period, and all senior researchers, lecturers and 
postdoctoral researchers graduated from the UTU.
Recommendations
The unit should continue its research on biocatalysis, especially enzyme-catalyzed 
reactions, which is an attractive field in organic chemistry. This gives the unit a unique 
research profile in Finland. Testing of compounds towards their biological activities 
should be pursued, ideally in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies. 
Recruitment of PhDs and postdoctoral researchers from other places is strongly 
recommended. The perspective of the personnel structure of the unit should urgently 
be discussed, since the head of the unit will soon retire.