Millennium Youth Camp, summer camp for young scientists, started for the first time on Monday, 7th of June in Finland. The two hour opening ceremony took place on the Kumpula Campus of Helsinki University.
The ceremony started with a demo show of chemical reactions and after the show Rector Thomas Wilhelmsson from Helsinki University welcomed the campers to Finland. “We are privileged to have such talented young people here. But also you are privileged as the competition was hard”, Wilhemsson said. “I hope you enjoy the camp and return home safely with a lot of nice memories and experiences.”
Next speaker was Ilkka Turunen, Secretary General of the Research and Innovation Council. He brought greetings from the Ministry of Education and Culture. Turunen underlined in his speech that scientific research is done increasingly in international co-operation and how important for Finland it would be to have more international students.
After Turunen was the turn of Kjell Forsén, the CEO of Vaisala Group. Vaisala, specialized in environmental and industrial measurement, is one of the sponsors for Millennium Youth Camp and Forsén told about the working opportunities the company could offer for young scientists.
The last speaker was Professor Timo Vesala from the Department of Physics in Helsinki University. Vesala gave a lecture on the greenhouse effect and how to slow it down. Vesala managed to activate the audience by using funny examples and after the lecture the flow of questions was enormous.
The opening ceremony was closed with an experimental music performance. Music artist Miro Mantere created etno kind of sounds by using different kind of laboratory tools.
Millenium Youth Camp is an international science camp and it is held in Finland the 6th –13th of June, 2010. The goal is to improve awareness of Finland as an innovative country in research and technology and the opportunities Finland offers for work and study.
The camp participants will also have the opportunity to follow the Millennium Technology Prize Gala, to be held in Helsinki on 9 June, and they will have the chance to meet the prize-winners.
Kemira is one of the sponsors for the camp and the Millennium Technology Prize Competition.
Pictures from Opening Ceremony on June 7, 2010