3. Doctor of Philosophy, Chemistry, Georgetown University, Department of Chemistry, Washington, DC, USA, September 2013 – December 2019; Doctoral thesis: „Solid State Synthesis and Study of Porous Materials“ Advisor: Dr. K. Travis Holman (Georgetown University); Co-advisor: Dr. Tomislav Friščić (McGill University, now University of Birmingham)

          2. Master of Science, Chemistry, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Science, Department of Chemistry, Zagreb, Croatia, October 2010 – October 2012; Master's thesis: „Mechanochemical synthesis of metalloorganic compounds of copper(ii) with aromatic amines and their reactivity in the solid state“, Advisor: Dr. Branko Kaitner

          1. Bachelor of Science, Chemistry, October 2007 – September 2010; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Science, Department of Chemistry, Zagreb, Croatia.

Scholarship of the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange – Ulam Programme – Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Warsaw (2020)

Bepina Sabalić Kunin fellowship – PhD, Georgetown University (2013-2015, 2017- 2018)

The Ludo Frevel Crystallography Scholarship, IUCr – PhD, Georgetown University (2017)

The Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) grant – PhD, Georgetown & McGill Universities (2015)

CCDC award for the best presentation by a young scientist at the 28th Croatian-Slovenian Crystallographic Meeting, Poreč, Croatia (2022)

Mettler-Toledo Outstanding Oral Presentation at the 6th Crystal Engineering and Emerging Materials Workshop of Ontario and Quebec, Montreal, QC, Canada (2019)

Xerox 1st Place Award for Oral Presentations; CSC Materials Awards committee at the 99th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition, Halifax, NS, Canada, (2016)

2019 ACS Outreach Volunteer of the Year for the Washington DC section (2019)

Medal of the Department of Chemistry for excellence in studies (2012)

Rector's award for the original research work „Schiff bases derived from mesalazine and aromatic amines: mechanochemical and vapour digestion solid-state synthesis“; University of Zagreb, Croatia (2012)

Martinez, V.; Stolar, T.; Karadeniz, B.*; Brekalo, I.*; Užarević, K.* “Advancing mechanochemical synthesis by combining milling with different energy sources“, Nat. Rev. Chem. 2023, 7, 51–65. (Perspective review article) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41570-022-00442-1

Muratović, S.; Martinez, V.; Karadeniz, B.; Pajić, D.; Brekalo, I.; Arhangelskis, M.; Mazaj, M.; Mali, G.; Etter, M.; Friščić, T.; Krupskaya, Y.; Kataev, V.; Žilić, D.*; Užarević, K.* “Low-Dimensional Magnetism in Multivariate Copper/Zinc MOF-74 Materials Formed via Different Mechanochemical Methods”, Inorg. Chem. 2022, 61, 18181–18192. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.2c02898

Brekalo, I.; Martinez, V.; Karadeniz, B.; Orešković, P.^†; Drapanauskaite, D.; Vriesema, H.; Stenekes, R.; Etter, M.; Dejanović, I.; Baltrusaitis, J.*; Užarević, K.* “Scale-Up of Agrochemical Urea-Gypsum Cocrystal Synthesis Using Thermally Controlled Mechanochemistry”, ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2022, 10, 6743–6754. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c00914

Brekalo, I.; Yuan, W.; Mottillo, C.; Lu, Y.; Zhang, Y.; Casaban, J.;  Holman, K. T.*; James, S.L.*; Duarte, F.; Williams, P. A.; Harris, K. D. M.*; Friščić, T.* “Manometric real-time studies of the mechanochemical synthesis of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks”, Chem. Sci. 2020, 11, 2141. https://doi.org/10.1039/C9SC05514B

Brekalo, I.; Deliz, D. ^†; Barbour, L. J.; Ward, M. D.*; Friščić, T.*; Holman, K. T.* “Microporosity of a Guanidinium Organodisulfonate Hydrogen Bonded Framework“, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2020, 59, 1997. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201911861

Brekalo, I.; Kane, C. M.; Ley, A. N.; Ramirez, J. R.; Friščić, T.*; Holman, K. T.* “Use of a “Shoe-Last” Solid-State Template in the Mechanochemical Synthesis of High-Porosity RHO-Zinc Imidazolate” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, 140, 32, 10104-10108. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.8b05471