This year’s preparatory classes in CHEMISTRY for enrollment in the CHEMISTRY STUDY will be organized at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
Candidates who are interested in attending preparatory classes can apply until June 19 2022 at the E-mail address:
Preparatory classes in CHEMISTRY start on June 19 and will be held every day until June 23 2022 at 10-12 o’clock.
Attendance at preparatory classes is free for all our future students!
Welcome!
Professor Nuno Maulide from the University of Vienna, Austria will give selected lectures at the Faculty of Sciences and Mathematics Banja Luka – Department of Chemistry from 06.04.2023. to 12.04.2023.
Professor Maulide is the head of the Institute for Organic Chemistry and holder of many prestigious grants, including ERC Consolidator Grant, ERC Proof of Concept Grant, and ERC Starting Grant. Professor Maulide also leads the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Entropy Oriented Drug Design and was named “Austria’s Scientist of the Year 2018.” Additionally, he is awarded the Ignaz L. Lieben Award of the Austrian Academy of Sciences as well as the Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award. He is a full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Lectures will be held in the Faculty of Sciences and Mathematics Banja Luka amphitheater according to the following schedule.
We are kindly inviting all the students of the Department of Chemistry, as well as all interested students of other study programs, to join the lectures of Professor Maulide.
The Chemistry Department successfully implemented the project “Support for the early involvement of students to act according to the principles of green chemistry” financed by the Organization for European Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The project’s main goals were successfully accomplished through the early involvement of students in the implementation of professional practice, whereby the OSCE provided the laboratory equipment, and chemicals necessary to increase the efficiency of research focused on the analysis of organic pollutants in the environment in our research group.
As part of the project, numerous research activities were carried out, from the selection of the sampling sites to the analysis and processing of the results, shown in a short amateur video designed, recorded, and arranged by the students and assistants of the Chemistry Department.
This short video material accentuates the importance of analytical chemistry in environmental protection, as well as the use of modern instrumental techniques for the origin determination of polluting substances, including pollutants of petroleum origin, bisphenol A, and others.
In addition to the video material, during the project students had the opportunity, under the auspices of the OSCE, to promote their activities through radio shows, as another way to point out the importance of “green chemistry” in preserving the environment and the role of chemists as an important profession in 21st century.
Links:
The 59 th Meeting of the Serbian Chemical Society will be organized on June 1 st and 2 nd , 2023, at the
Faculty of Science and Mathematics of the University of Novi Sad.
The Meeting will be organized by the Serbian Chemical Society and the Serbian Chemical Society – Chemical Society of Vojvodina. Participants from the country and the region will have the opportunity to present the results of their research in the fields of chemistry, chemical technology, metallurgy, chemical engineering and chemistry teaching in 13 sections.
More about the Meeting program and participant registration can be found at the following link
https://hdv.org.rs/59shd/ .
The official languages of the Meeting will be Serbian and English.
At the international scientific and professional conference “Students encountering science ” the work of chemistry students Marija Stojaković, Dragana Ubiparip, and Dragan Gvozdenović, entitled “SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION AND CATALYTIC ACTIVITY OF ZnFe2O4 NANOCOMPOSITE” won first place in a competition of 40 papers in the field of natural science.
The jubilee 15th StES held on 17-19. in November 2022, organized by the Student Parliament of the University of Banja Luka, and this year it gathered students from all three study cycles from the entire region.
The winning work was done under the mentorship of professor Saša Zeljković and Sanja Pržulj, senior assistant, while students Teodora Tomović under the mentorship of professor Dijana Jelić, and Adriana Modrušan under the mentorship of professor assistant Ivan Samelak, presented the results of their research, as well as master students, Ljupka Railić and Slađana Ćeteković, under the mentorship of prof. Dr. Biljana Kukavica and Prof. Dr. Biljane Davidović-Plavšić.
In the course of the previous months, the RIS RESTORE project facilitated numerous activities on the dissemination of the obtained experimental results of students from Chemistry Department, as well as the very idea of the project – valorization of red mud, tailings resulting from bauxite processing. Our team’s innovative ideas on transforming the hematite component of this secondary material into magnetic types of iron oxides were presented at several conferences and events.
Prof. Dr. Suzana Gotovac Atlagić together with B.Sc. Eng. Dragan Dragojlović, team leader of the industrial partner “Alumina” d.o.o. presented part of the results orally at the 9th International Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management in Corfu, Greece.
Sunčica Sukur, a researcher on the project, together with Dajana Cvijić, our student whose graduate thesis was supported by the project funds, presented at the prestigious international conference JUNIOR EUROMAT 2022, of the Federation of European Materials Societies. Dajana’s participation was also co-financed by the support of the city of Gradiška and KP “Vodovod” Gradiška, where Dajana found employment as a chemical analyst.
Also, right before the beginning of the academic year, a summer school was held for graduate students, as well as students of the second and third cycles at the company “Alumina” d.o.o. in which our students Marija Stojaković and Ana Marković participated, together with 16 other students from Slovenia, Serbia, Greece and Austria. The educational material that our team prepared for the students and exhibited at this three-day event was co-financed from the funds of project 19.032/966-20/21 of the Ministry of Scientific and Technological Development, Higher Education and Information Society.
The combination of support from European funds, domestic industry, as well as from the local and republican levels, improved the scientific and research work of students in this project in the past 3 years.
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As in previous years, this year the teachers and associates from the Department of Chemistry achieved remarkable results and were awarded by the University of Banja Luka for the achieved international results in scientific research for the year 2021.
At the Conference of Awarded Teachers and Associates, held on November 11, 2022, prof. dr. Dijana Jelić was awarded. During 2021 prof. Jelić published three papers in indexed scientific journals of the highest category with a total impact factor of 16.25, which represents the highest total factor that has been reported so far in this competition. 
During the presentation, Professor Jelić presented her works, as well as guidelines and advices to young colleagues for easier publication of scientific works. In addition to Professor Jelić, awards were also received this year by prof. dr. Biljana Davidović-Plavšić for scientific work in a journal with an impact factor of 2.66 and prof. dr. Suzana Gotovac-Atlagić for work in a journal with an impact factor of 2.32.
On this occasion, the first authors of the papers were awarded, and the overall scientific productivity of the Chemistry Department is significantly higher, with a total of 16 papers published in high-quality indexed scientific journals in 2021. In the category of awarded international projects, prof. Dr. Suzana Gotovac received the award for coordination, and prof. Milica Balaban, Ph.D., Sanja Pržulj, M.Sc., and Dejana Savić, M.A., for participating in the implementation of the project.
As a part of the RM@Schools 4.0 project, the VII European RM@Schools Conference was successfully held in Bologna at the ISOF Institute. Students from 19 European countries aged 10-19 participated in the conference and this event, as in previous years, aimed to promote natural sciences and material technologies in schools, explaining the value of primary and secondary raw materials.
The importance of these topics is reflected in the contribution to the development of new professional careers in the material exploitation chain. Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the project is implemented by our study program, was presented by the students of two high schools (Catholic School Center and Richmond Park College) through a creative video and two poster presentations. The students devoted all their presentations to the potential of domestic resources, namely pyrophyllite from Konjic and zinc from Srebrenica, for the development of nanotechnologies.
Also, their exhibition of the collection of domestic minerals was very noticeable, and the importance of the existence of such resources for the development of the chemical industry was highlighted. In addition to having the opportunity to learn about science trends in other countries, this was an opportunity for the participants to make new acquaintances with young people from all over Europe.
Links:
https://rmschools.isof.cnr.it/
https://rps.edu.ba/en/
Chemistry hidden by ancient volcanoes
The support of domestic ministries continues with the participation of SP CHEMISTRY in the RM@Schools 4.0 project. The Ministry of Education and Culture recommended that primary and secondary schools in the Republic of Srpska use the opportunities of this international project in chemistry lessons. In addition, the Ministry of Scientific and Technological Development, Higher Education and Information Society financially supported additional teacher education, gift packages of accessories for chemistry cabinets, as well as student educational trips.
The SP CHEMISTRY project team strives to include students from smaller towns in Republika Srpska in this program as much as possible, and this time the school “Veljko Čubrilović” from Lopare was a participant. The link was created thanks to our alumni Marijana Terzić, a graduate chemist, who worked as a chemistry teacher at this school.
The mountain Ozren was chosen as the theme of this educational trip. With the help of geologists from the Faculty of Mining-Geology-Civil engineering, University of Tuzla, prof. Dr. Elvir Babajić, assoc.prof.dr Alisa Babajić and Ljiljana Tankosić, Ph.D. from the Faculty of Mining, University of Banja Luka, the students were introduced to the processes that took place at the current location of the surface mine of peridotite (magmantic rocs) on this mountain.
They were able to learn how over hundreds of millions of years ago, the underwater volcanism has generated the rocs which were then tectonically moved to the surface. Exploitation of perodotite (magmatic rocs) is ongoing for the construction purposes (concrete and alsphalt), said Prof. Dr. Bojana Grujić, expert of the University of Banja Luka in the field of civil engineering. In recent years, the use of serpentinite for CO2 binding has been intensively studied, which is based on the recovery potential of this material, which releases a considerable amount of CO2 during processing.
In addition, there are additional opportunities for chemical research at Ozren, especially due to the presence of magnesite, a mineral that is applicable in the industry of food additives (such as Mg supplements), the industry of glass, ceramics, and also its application as a binder for technologies of refractory materials, even those in nuclear reactors.
The students showed interest in the presented topics, field work, especially at the site of the semi-precious opal stone, where a small competition was held in search of attractive specimens that they then took to their school.
Links:
https://rmschools.isof.cnr.it/
https://www.vladars.net/sr-SP-Cyrl/Vlada/Ministarstva/mnk
https://www.vladars.net/sr-SP-Cyrl/Vlada/Ministarstva/mpk
The best student of the Faculty of Science and Mathematics for the academic year 2021/22 a year and the winner of the “Gold Badge with the image of Nikola Tesla” of the University of Banja Luka is Teodora Tomović, the graduate chemist.
She graduated in September 2022, with BSc. thesis “Development and characteristics of nanohybrid materials as drug carriers” mentoring by prof. dr. Dijana Jelić and achieved an average grade of 9.90. It should be mentioned that in addition to the outstanding results achieved during her studies, Teodora participated in the realization of several student scientific works, as well as the event “Biocamp 2022” organized by the company “Novartis”.
The aim of the camp was to gather the best students from all over the world in the field of natural, economic and technical sciences and introduce them to the way of working of “Novartis”, and face everyday problems in the industry with a special emphasis on current problems related to the so-called “CAR T-cell therapy“. Within this event, Teodora and her team developed the alpha version of the application called “CAR-T with me” and received the “Professional in development” award.
