Director General of the Ruđer Bošković Institute Danica Ramljak, PhD, was a member of Croatian delegation led by Croatia’s Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor on a working visit to the Finnish Research Centre for Nanotechnology Micronova in Helsinki.

On April 14-15, 2010 the Department of Experimental Physics (DEP), RBI will organize its first Festival of Science by young researchers. The festival will showcase the recent research of doctoral students in the department.

RBI Scientists Brankica Mravinac, PhD, and Miroslav Plohl, PhD, from the Laboratory of Structure and Function of Heterochromatin, Department of Molecular Biology have published a research article entitled Parallelism in Evolution of Highly Repetitive DNAs in Sibling Species. The article was published in one of the most respected journals in the field of molecular biology Molecular Biology and Evolution (IF 7.280).

At a recent meeting marking the end of the second cycle of a project of cooperation between Norway and Southeast European partners, held in Sarajevo, publication of "Crossing Minds and Borders" was announced.

The new "Cyclone 18/19C" cyclotron at the Ruđer Bošković Institute was officially opened today. This cyclotron is one of the most modern in Europe and represents a joint science/industry venture involving the Ruđer Bošković Institute, Ruđer Innovations Ltd. and Medikol Ltd. The total project is valued at 7 million Euros. In addition to providing radiopharmaceuticals for medical diagnostics, the cyclotron will also be used for basic scientific research in the fields of physics, radiochemistry and biomedicine.

RBI scientist Dubravka Hršak, PhD, from the Institute for Marine and Environmental Research and engineer Maja Havriluk were awarded a US patent on February 9th 2010 for their discovery of a "Mixed bacterial culture for atrazine degradation". The patent describes a new mixed bacterial culture with specific properties that quickly and completely degrades atrazine and other s-triazite pesticides over a wide concentration range and at different temperatures.

At the recently held annual meeting of the Croatian Genetics Society, Snježana Jurić was awarded the prestigious "Željko Trgovčević" award for research excellence in the field of molecular biology and genetics. The award is granted annually to a young scientist by the Croatian Genetics Society and the RBI Institute for Molecular Biology.

A commemoration in honor of our dearly departed colleague, Professor Greta Pifat-Mrzljak, was held today at the Ruđer Bošković Institute. Together with many dignitaries and scientists the ceremony featured contributions from the General Director of the RBI, Danica Ramljak, PhD, the Rector of the University of Zagreb, Dr. Aleksa Bjeliš, the Director of the Institute of Biophysics and Nanosystem research in Austria, Professor Peter Laggner, the Austrian Ambassador to Croatia and Mr. Jan Kickert. Professor Robert Huber a Nobel Prize winner from the Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry, attended the commemoration as well.

The official Croatian delegation, consisting of the Croatian Ambassador in Israel, Zorica Matković, the General Director of the RBI, Danica Ramljak, PhD, and the Director's Advisor for International Collaboration at the RBI, Mary Sopta, PhD, visited the Weizmann Institute in Israel today. To mark the occasion, the Croatian national flag was flown, full mast, alongside its Israeli counterpart.

At a recent meeting of the Scientific Council of the Plitvice Lakes National Park, a new concept of scientific projects and their application was presented. This included a discussion about priority areas of research. Chaired by the Minister of Science, Education and Sports, Radovan Fuchs, PhD, the conference was attended by a number of prominent scientists and experts, including the Director General of the Ruđer Bošković Institute, Danica Ramljak, PhD.