Nordisk Kemiteknolog Konferens

During the last half century, many forms of cooperation have been established between the most different areas of the societies in the Nordic countries. One of the institutions formed among many others in this time was NKK. The abbreviation NKK stands for the Swedish words Nordisk Kemiteknolog Konferens, which can be translated as Conference for Nordic Students of Applied Chemistry.

NKK was first thought of and put to action more than thirty years ago, in the 1970s. The aim of the conferences was to let students of applied chemistry meet their colleagues from Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway. The original universities involved in the project were those of KTH (Stockholm), Uppsala, Chalmers (Gothenburg), TKK (Helsinki), Turku, DTU (Copenhagen), Trondheim, Luleå, Umeå and Linköping. During the conferences, which are summoned once a year in one of the above mentioned cities according to an established system of circulation, the host city is to present industry typical for its region. The original language of the conference was Swedish, but with the addition of the technical university of Tallinn from Estonia in 2006, the official language of the conference is now English.

The NKK has evolved into an annual happening in which about 50 privileged students of applied chemistry, usually the most active ones of their student organisations and members of their boards, come together to get acquainted with each other, visit companies of their own future trade, have parties together and discussions of what topics might be of current interest at the time being. The participants have usually been able to take part in NKK free of charge, thanks to the companies sponsoring NKK. It has been a relationship of mutual benefit for the NKK organisation and the sponsoring companies; the companies have got a lot of positive publicity amongst a group of future professionals in their own trade, and moreover, as the participants usually are in quite prominent positions in their respective organisations, the knowledge of the participating companies usually have a good spreading around the Nordic countries.

Unfortunately NKK has not been possible to arrange every year during the last decade, as it requires a lot of work of the students in the host university, and it can’t be taken for granted that adequate funding can be raised in the host city.

List of host universities

NKK 2009 @ CTH, Gothenburg (12th to 15th November 2009)

NKK 2008 @ LTH, Lund [1] (Thursday 20th to Sunday 23rd November 2008)

NKK 2007 @ DTU, Copenhagen [2] (Wednesday 7th to Sunday 11th of November 2007)

NKK 2006 @ TKK, Helsinki [3]

NKK 2005 @ KTH, Stockholm

NKK 2002/2003 @ Åbo/Turku

NKK 2001 @ UU, Uppsala

NKK 2000 @ DTU, Copenhagen

NKK 1999 @ Åbo/Turku

NKK 1994 @ Åbo/Turku

NKK 1993 @ LTH, Lund