The first press conference of the year at the Ruđer Bošković Institute was held today. The Director General, Dr. Danica Ramljak, acquainted journalists with the strategy of the Institute on the path toward a European center of excellence, preparations for ithe RBI’s transformation into a modern European institute and the demanding and necessary process of independent international evaluation. This is the first time that a scientific institution in the Republic of Croatia has been subjected to such a rigorous evaluation. During the conference, there was also a presentation of the extensive program of events being organized by the Institute in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the birth of Ruđer Bošković, one of the most distinguished European scientists of the eighteenth century. The Director General also addressed the need for active involvement by Croatian diplomacy in the promotion of science, as well as the significance of the Embassy Series Sponsored by the RBI.

Today, at the invitation of the Director General of the Ruđer Bošković Institute, Dr. Danica Ramljak, a strategic meeting was held between scientists of the RBI and representatives of Agrokor. The Agrokor delegation was led by the Executive Vice President of the Business Group for Retailers, Mr. Ante Todorić, and also included the Executive Vice President of the Food Operations Group, Mr. Mislav Galić; the Director of Projects in the Food Operations Group, Mrs. Žaklina Marta Bogdanić; the Executive Director of Control, Mr. Vlado Bedeniković; and the Executive Director of Research and Development, Dr. Tomislav Smolić. The host of the meeting at the RBI was the Assistant to the Director General of Finance, Dr. Marin Roje.

At today's press conference, the organizers of the humanitarian campaign Terry Fox Run – MPG Agency, the Embassy of Canada, the Croatian League Against Cancer, Zagreb Holding and the Regent Esplanade Hotel – presented the funds raised by the Eleventh Terry Fox Run in Croatia to the Division of Molecular Biology of the Ruđer Bošković Institute and the Pediatric Clinic of the Rebro Clinical Hospital Center in Zagreb.

The Rector of the University of Zagreb, Prof. Aleksa Bjeliš, Ph.D., the Vice Rector for Research and Technology, Prof. Melita Kovačević, Ph.D., and the Director General of the Ruđer Bošković Institute, Danica Ramljak, Ph.D., met today with the Rector of the University of Ljubljana, Prof. Radovan Stanislav Pejovnik, Ph.D., and the Director of the Jožef Stefan Institute, Prof. Jadran Lenarčič. The meeting was held at the Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana.

Yesterday in the Conference Hall of the Croatian Chamber of Economy, as part of the Embassy Series sponsored by the Ruđer Bošković Institute, His Excellency Dr. Bernd Fischer, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Croatia, presented a lecture entitled The Common Future of Germany and Croatia within Europe. In his lecture, attended by prominent members of the scientific, business and diplomatic communities, Ambassador Fischer stressed the excellent diplomatic relations and special relationship between Croatia and Germany. The Director General of the RBI, Dr. Danica Ramljak, noted that a process has begun for establishing a foundation in Berlin to provide support for the Ruđer Bošković Institute.

You are cordially invited to attend the third lecture in the Embassy Series, sponsored by the Ruđer Bošković Institute. His Excellency Dr. Bernd Fischer, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Croatia, will present a lecture entitled The Common Future of Germany and Croatia within Europe. The lecture will take place on Monday, January 31, 2011, at 5 p.m. in the Conference Hall of the Croatian Chamber of Economy, Rooseveltov Trg 2, Zagreb.

As part of the series Progress in Molecular and Subcellular Biology, the Springer Publishing Company recently published a book entitled Long non-coding RNAs. The editor of the book is Đurđica Ugarković, Ph.D., a senior scientist at the Ruđer Bošković Institute and Assistant Director for Science. The book contains nine articles by distinguished research groups, including a group from the Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics at the RBI.

On December 29, 2010, the State Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Croatia granted a patent for the innovation “NN'N'' -Tris-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-guanidine, No. P20040341, the procedure of preparation from carbodiimide and application in reactions of the transesterification of oil” to the inventors Mirjana Maksić, Ph.D., and Zoran Glasovac, Ph.D., researchers at the Laboratory for Physical-Organic Chemistry, Division of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Ruđer Bošković Institute.

Following recognition by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the European Patent Office (EPO) granted Patent No. 077000434.9 for a Mixed Bacterial Culture for Atrazine Degradation to Dubravka Hršak, Ph.D., senior scientist at the Center for Marine and Environmental Research of the Ruđer Bošković Institute.

The innovation is based on a new mixed bacterial culture with specific catabolic properties that rapidly and completely degrades Atrazine and other S-triazines pesticides in a wide range of concentrations and temperatures. Atrazine is a selective Triazine herbicide that has been used for broad and narrow leaf weed control for the past 30 years in over 80 countries throughout the world. Unfortunately, due to its mobility in the soil, it is one of the most significant pollutants of surface and ground water, sea water and soil.

As part of the lecture series Distinguished speakers at the RBI, the scientist Vlasta Bonačić-Koutecký of Humboldt University (Berlin) and the Interdisciplinary Center for Advanced Science and Technology (ICAST) at the University of Split will deliver a lecture at 1 p.m. on January 25 in the Auditorium of Wing III at the Ruđer Bošković Institute (RBI) entitled Metallic clusters as building blocks for optical and catalytic materials.