The General Assembly of CERIC-ERIC, held on the 12 and 13 October in Budapest, Hungary, has unanimously approved the appointment of Jana Kolar as new Executive Director

Scientists from the Centre for Marine Research in Rovinj and the Division for Marine and Environmental Research of the RBI became partners in the Strategic Project BALMAS (Ballast water management system for Adriatic Sea protection) under IPA Adriatic Crossborder Cooperation Programme worth 7 million euros.

The Center for Marine Research (CIM) of the Ruđer Bošković Institute (RBI) becomes the first Croatian partner nad dana provider for the DNA Bank Network and the Global Genome Biodiversity Network (GGBN) as well as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), thus making its valuable collection of live cell cultures focused on the toxic species, phyto- and zooplankton in the northern Adriatic available to scientists worldwide.

Ruđer Bošković Institute and Croatian Biospeleological Society organized the 2nd Symposium on ''Anchialine Ecosystems'' in Cavtat, Croatia, on 3-6 October, in close proximity of cave ''Šipun'' - one of the most famous and remarkable anchialine caves in Croatia.

Biodiversity workshop started yesterday in the Center for Marine Research in Rovinj bringing together German and Croatian scientists with the aim to identify species of phytoplankton living in the northern Adriatic.

Through the application of an innovative approach based upon the analysis of municipal wastewater, for the first time a direct comparison has been made of drug consumption in 19 European cities.

We invite you to attend lectures by the eminent scientist Prof. Masahiro Yoshimura, Ph.D., which will begin at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 31, in the Auditorium of Wing III of the RBI.

The Director General of the Ruđer Bošković Institute, Dr. Danica Ramljak, wrote a very interesting commentary in the November 22, 2011 issue of the daily newspaper Večernji list, entitled: “Science, Forgotten Again”, about how politicians are avoiding the topic of the importance of education, science and innovation to the future of Croatia in their public appearances during the election campaign.

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.