4. EVALUATION OF THE FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND FORESTRY
4.5 Department of Physics and Mathematics
A SCIENTIFIC QUALITY OF RESEARCH
The Department of Physics and Mathematics has three main research areas:
1) Research output from the Photonics research Group is at the high international level, because several of them are world renowned professors attracting students and post-docs internationally from outside of Finland. It is also proved by the statistics of citations. Two professors out of nine have more than 4000 and five professors have more than 1000 citations. The total number of publications in 2010–2012 in JUFO level-3 journals was 11, in level-2 journals 125, and in level-1 journals 135. In the field of Photonics, Optics Express and Optics Letters are well cited journals with impact factors of 3.75 and 3. 4, respectively, but they are classified as level 2, although one could argue that at least the former might belong to level 3. One reason for the relatively low number of citations is the characteristic of the field: The European Optical Society has a large number of members but many of them belong to industry and do not publish much.
The photonics group collaborates with Tshinghua University in Beijing, China, the College of Optical Sciences in Arizona, USA, and Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany, which are among the top 5% of the photonics research units in the world. This is arguably the leading photonics research unit in Finland; another remarkable locus of photonics research with different research foci is at the Tampere University of Technology – which is the main national collaborator.
2) The scientific quality of the Mathematics research group in the Department is high in its areas of specialization, taking into account the resources available. The publications appear in good quality journals relevant to the research specialization fields of mathematics.
3) Physics and Mathematics Education research group belongs to the area of Establishment of new areas of expertise in research and education in the strategy of the UEF. Especially, the research supports efforts for improving the preconditions of subject teacher education in natural sciences and mathematics.
B RESEARCH ACTIVITIES VS STRATEGY
The Photonics group research belongs to the expertise area of new technologies and materials defined in the strategy of the University. Joint research is performed with the School of Computing and the Surgery Unit of the Kuopio University Hospital in spectral color imaging for the purpose of diagnostics. On bio-photonics, there is collaboration on fluorescent imaging with the Department of Biology. With the Department of Applied Physics, there is collaboration on the development of
4.5 DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND MATHEMATICS
A SCIENTIFIC QUALITY OF RESEARCH
The Department of Physics and Mathematics has three main research areas:
1) Research output from the Photonics research Group is at the high international level, because several of them are world renowned professors attracting students and post-docs internationally from outside of Finland. It is also proved by the statistics of citations. Two professors out of nine have more than 4000 and five professors have more than 1000 citations. The total number of publications in 2010–2012 in JUFO level-3 journals was 11, in level-2 journals 125, and in level-1 journals 135. In the field of Photonics, Optics Express and Optics Letters are well cited journals with impact factors of 3.75 and 3. 4, respectively, but they are classified as level 2, although one could argue that at least the former might belong to level 3. One reason for the relatively low number of citations is the characteristic of the field: The European Optical Society has a large number of members but many of them belong to industry and do not publish much.
The photonics group collaborates with Tshinghua University in Beijing, China, the College of Optical Sciences in Arizona, USA, and Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany, which are among the top 5% of the photonics research units in the world. This is arguably the leading photonics research unit in Finland; another remarkable locus of photonics research with different research foci is at the Tampere University of Technology – which is the main national collaborator.
2) The scientific quality of the Mathematics research group in the Department is high in its areas of specialization, taking into account the resources available. The publications appear in good quality journals relevant to the research specialization fields of mathematics.
3) Physics and Mathematics Education research group belongs to the area of Establishment of new areas of expertise in research and education in the strategy of the UEF. Especially, the research supports efforts for improving the preconditions of subject teacher education in natural sciences and mathematics.
B RESEARCH ACTIVITIES VS STRATEGY
The Photonics group research belongs to the expertise area of new technologies and materials defined in the strategy of the University. Joint research is performed with the School of Computing and the Surgery Unit of the Kuopio University Hospital in spectral color imaging for the purpose of diagnostics. On bio-photonics, there is collaboration on fluorescent imaging with the Department of Biology. With the Department of Applied Physics, there is collaboration on the development of
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spectral imaging of cartilage damage. With the School of Pharmacy, there is a long-term collaboration on optical characterization of pharmaceutical products.
The Mathematics group participates in the Spearhead Project “Multi-Scale geospatial analysis of Forest Ecosystems” together with the School of Forest Sciences, the Department of Applied Physics, the Department of Biology, and the School of Computing.
The Physics and Mathematics Education group has strong collaboration with the School of Applied Educational Science and Teacher Education following the strategy of the Department.
Physics and Mathematics Education research belongs to the area of Establishment of new areas of expertise in research and education in the strategy of the UEF. Especially, the research supports efforts for improving the preconditions of subject teacher education in natural sciences and mathematics.
C INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL RESEARCH COLLABORATION AND RESEARCHER MOBILITY
The group of Photonics in the Department of Physics and Mathematics has strengths in terms of international collaboration with many internationally well-known institutions such as Tshinghua University in Beijing, China, the College of Optical Sciences in Arizona, the USA, and the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany; these are among the top 5 % of the photonics research units in the world.
The strength of the Mathematics group lies in networking, the efficiency of postgraduate training, and research partners in internationally leading universities, including the University of Lund, University College London, and Cerfacs.
The Department also actively collaborates with Tampere University of Technology, which has different research foci from that of the Department.
The Department of Physics and Mathematics has been an active organizer of conferences, work-shops and summer schools over the years. During the period 2010–2012, more than 500 people participated in five different conferences. In Photonics, an internationally open summer school with 20 participants on average is organized annually. This continuous effort results in publicity and successful international collaborations with world-leading research units in the USA, Europe, and Asia. This effort is also effective in opening the scientific achievement to other groups and also to get information from outside. Furthermore, domestic and international collaborations were and will be started as triggered by these conferences and workshops.
D OPERATIONAL CONDITIONS
The research of the Department is not tightly divided into individual research groups. The main re-search areas form a natural base for the division into three main research fields. The research is managed by the professors who are responsible of the research teams on the main research areas. Professors are also in charge of the externally funded projects. In projects, typically one of the senior
researchers acts as a project coordinator. His/her responsibility is to follow the overall progress of the project and take care of the reporting. The nominated administrative persons are responsible for the procurement of goods for research purposes. The administrative staff maintains also research equipment and laboratories.
The Photonics research can be further divided into research teams according to the main research fields. These teams interact constantly with each other and usually the same person contributes to the research of, at least, a couple of the teams in such a way that the exact number of researchers in each team cannot be given, especially in the photonics group. Therefore, nine professors, one tenure-track associate professor, nine senior researchers, five post-doc researchers, 24 doctoral students, and six auxiliary staff members are working in the field of photonics. They form groups based on the various subjects. However, this grouping is not fixed—it may vary depending on the project needs to perform research most efficiently. This flexible structure is an advantage to the Photonics group, very dynamically fitting their researching activity in the best suited way in a rapidly changing physics study field.
E IMPACT OF RESEARCH
The major part of the Department, the Photonics group, has already developed extensive collaboration with the industry based on externally funded projects, in which the main financer is a public one and companies pay a small share of the total costs. This collaboration seems to have been very fruitful for both sides and it has produced new product and research ideas, project reports, and scientific publications. Even a local company has had an essential role in some doctoral studies in the field of replication of high precision micro-optics. This is very valuable for both industry and academia and must be well supported by the University.
Photonics group
There are three highlights of the research as described below.
(1) Fluorescence and Raman Signal Enhancement in Bio-photonics: This is of interest from both fundamental sciences including physics and chemistry, and application in biology. The phenomena have been known for quite some time but detailed studies made by the group are important to further development of applications.
(2) Spectral Imaging in Medicine: By this method, the spectral imaging of human retina and articular cartilage were successfully performed and showed the importance of spectral imaging for medical applications.
(3) Ultra Precision Unit and Parallel Micro-Structuring Using Femtosecond Laser and Spatial Light Modulator: This method makes the laser machining that is extremely efficient in industry.
researchers acts as a project coordinator. His/her responsibility is to follow the overall progress of the project and take care of the reporting. The nominated administrative persons are responsible for the procurement of goods for research purposes. The administrative staff maintains also research equipment and laboratories.
The Photonics research can be further divided into research teams according to the main research fields. These teams interact constantly with each other and usually the same person contributes to the research of, at least, a couple of the teams in such a way that the exact number of researchers in each team cannot be given, especially in the photonics group. Therefore, nine professors, one tenure-track associate professor, nine senior researchers, five post-doc researchers, 24 doctoral students, and six auxiliary staff members are working in the field of photonics. They form groups based on the various subjects. However, this grouping is not fixed—it may vary depending on the project needs to perform research most efficiently. This flexible structure is an advantage to the Photonics group, very dynamically fitting their researching activity in the best suited way in a rapidly changing physics study field.
E IMPACT OF RESEARCH
The major part of the Department, the Photonics group, has already developed extensive collaboration with the industry based on externally funded projects, in which the main financer is a public one and companies pay a small share of the total costs. This collaboration seems to have been very fruitful for both sides and it has produced new product and research ideas, project reports, and scientific publications. Even a local company has had an essential role in some doctoral studies in the field of replication of high precision micro-optics. This is very valuable for both industry and academia and must be well supported by the University.
Photonics group
There are three highlights of the research as described below.
(1) Fluorescence and Raman Signal Enhancement in Bio-photonics: This is of interest from both fundamental sciences including physics and chemistry, and application in biology. The phenomena have been known for quite some time but detailed studies made by the group are important to further development of applications.
(2) Spectral Imaging in Medicine: By this method, the spectral imaging of human retina and articular cartilage were successfully performed and showed the importance of spectral imaging for medical applications.
(3) Ultra Precision Unit and Parallel Micro-Structuring Using Femtosecond Laser and Spatial Light Modulator: This method makes the laser machining that is extremely efficient in industry.
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Outputs (1) and (2) are good examples of advantages of optical methods of spectroscopy, which can be used for medical applications having impact in the field of medicine. Output (3) is especially important for industry.
During the past three years there has been no patent application.
Recommendation:
i. If the results are sufficient for real application, we recommend that the researchers apply for patents supported by the University.
Mathematics group
The mathematics group has only two professors but they are doing quite well in education and research even though the field being covered is of course very limited. They are publishing in reasonably good quality journals.
Physics and Mathematics Education Research
The effort on teaching is very valuable for educating students for the future of Finnish science in a situation of decreasing numbers of high-school students who enter physics and mathematics. This is a worldwide problem.
F STRATEGIC VISION
Major strengths of the Department are its excellent international reputation in teaching and research, very good national and international cooperation networks, excellent research and teaching laboratories, focused research topics in the main research fields, good publication culture, success in getting external funding, good balance in the age structure of the staff members, and success in the recruitment of international master and doctoral students.
Weaknesses include the small amount of international funding and the difficulty in the recruitment of Finnish students.
OVERALL COMMENTS
The Photonics group is internationally well-known; it has been involved in successful international collaboration with outstanding groups in the world. The group looks like one well-organized team with a flexible intra-group structure. The Mathematics group is small but doing well in a focused area. The Department also plays an important role in education, which is vitally important in the future development in science and technology in Finland.
From the viewpoint of the success of the group of Photonics in biomedical and industrial applications, we recommend exploring the possibility of joining in applications especially with the Medical Physics group in the School of Applied Physics.
NUMERIC EVALUATION
CRITERIA NUMERIC
EVALUATION SCALE 1-6
Scientific quality of research 5
International and national research collaboration and
researcher mobility 5
Operational conditions 3
Impact of research 5
OVERALL ASSESSMENT (not the average of the scores
above) 4
NUMERIC EVALUATION
CRITERIA NUMERIC
EVALUATION SCALE 1-6
Scientific quality of research 5
International and national research collaboration and
researcher mobility 5
Operational conditions 3
Impact of research 5
OVERALL ASSESSMENT (not the average of the scores
above) 4
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