news – Page 5 – Chemistry department

Chemistry Department is the holder of the first coordinator project in the EIT program

Chemistry Department is in the process of signing a contract for the realization of its first coordination project in the programs of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).

Since 2017, the Chemistry Department has participated in six partner EIT projects, and a great effort and success in mastering the project preparation methodology in this branch of the Horizon Europe program is crowned by the DeepGreenInno coordination project. This is the first coordination project in our country, as well as in the countries of the Western Balkans in this science support program.

DeepGreenInno: Deep Tech in Material Sciences: Greening the Balkan HEIs Innovation and Entrepreneurial Potential is a project with a total budget of €750,000 and a total of eight partners from six countries (Bulgaria, Italy, Serbia, Greece, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina).

It should be noted that the preparation of the DeepGreenInno project application was supported by the Ministry of Scientific and Technological Development, Higher Education and Information Society of the Republic of Srpska and the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which at the same time represents one of the most successful examples of the dedicated use of domestic programs to support the preparation of projects from the framework of Horizon Europe.

The opening of all 16 projects that received funding in this call was held in Prague at the workshop held on May 29-30, 2023, where four teams from our consortium attended. Additionally, the event in Prague was the first training workshop in defining the Innovation Vision Action Plan (IVAP).

After this event, on June 15, 2023, the first official meeting of the entire project consortium was held at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Banja Luka, where plans for activities during the implementation of the project were defined.

Links:

https://eit-hei.eu/

https://www.vladars.net/sr-SP-Cyrl/Vlada/Ministarstva/mnk/Pages/default.aspx

http://www.mcp.gov.ba/?lang=en

Chemistry department at Science Festival 2023

Chemistry department was successfully presented at the 11^th Science Festival, which was held under the sponsorship of the Ministry for Scientific and Technological Development, Higher Education and Information Society.

Festival took place on 8^th and 9^th June at two locations, at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Republic of Srpska and at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Banja Luka.

Like previous years, our students, with the help of teaching assistants and professors, prepared a large number of experiments, as well as models and presentations, which attracted the attention of numerous visitors during both festival days.

In addition to exciting and fun experiments, convenient for the youngest audience, this year we also chose those that contribute to the understanding of scientific concepts and phenomena that occur in nature, to point out the crucial importance of science in modern society.

Also, our presentation was highly noticed by the media. Teaching assistant Dragana Gajić was going live from the stand of the Chemistry department, in front of the Museum of Contemporary Arts, in the morning show of RTRS, you can see it at the link.

Teaching assistant Dejana Savić, apart from the Festival itself, also participated in its promotion on several television channels, you can watch the appearance on RTRS television on the link, and the BHT television report of the 11^th Science Festival is also online.

Professor Milica Balaban held a lecture at the EnviroChem2023 symposium

At the 9th Symposium on Chemistry and Environmental Protection EnviroChem2023, held from June 4 to 7 in Kladovo, Serbia, Prof. Milica Balaban, PhD held a notable invited lecture entitled “Polymers for Energy Applications: Between Efficiency and Green Chemistry”.

The lecture is dedicated to the new generation of photovoltaic devices, such as organic and hybrid solar cells (OSC, PSC), organic light-emitting diodes (OLED), organic field effect transistors (OFET), and flexible and elastic electronic devices, which are based on organic, polymeric semiconductor materials. Besides semiconductors, polymers have other important roles in hybrid solar cells, mainly as additives to control crystal growth and improve device stability.

However, from the environmental aspect, a severe limitation of the broader application of these materials is that their synthesis often requires many steps. At the same time, stoichiometric amounts of toxic metal reagents are also present in photovoltaic devices. As part of the lecture, an overview of alternative sustainable, i.e., “green” ways of synthesizing polymer and other components of hybrid solar cells was given.

During the symposium organized by the Environmental Chemistry Section of the Serbian Chemical Society, researchers, scientists, and experts from various fields of environmental chemistry used the opportunity to exchange ideas, the latest scientific achievements, and technological innovations.

At this year’s symposium, two plenary and four invited lectures were held, 18 oral presentations and more than 60 poster presentations were presented, and two-panel discussions were held on the most current topics in the field of environmental chemistry.

Company NIS presents to chemistry students

Representatives of the company Naftna industrija Srbije a.d. (NIS) from Novi Sad held a guest lecture and presentation for chemistry students at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Banja Luka on May 4, 2023. This activity is part of the “Energy of Knowledge” program, through which the company has been providing support to educational institutions in Serbia since 2012.

During the visit, Jovana Savković, an expert in cooperation with universities, presented the activities, mission, vision, and values that NIS a.d. Novi Sad stands for. She also introduced two student internship programs that are available to students at the University of Banja Luka. The first is a three-month program called “NIS Calling,” in which students can gain 480 hours of practical experience. The second is a one-year paid program called “NIS Energy” for students in their final year of undergraduate studies and master’s students. The program provides training and real-life experience, as well as work on projects under the mentorship of company experts.

Dr. Maja Stanisavljević, a leading engineer in the chemistry of production processes and an alumna of the University of Banja Luka, gave a lecture on the use of chemicals in oil and gas production. The vice-rector for international and interuniversity cooperationof the University of Banja Luka, prof. dr. Milica Balaban, was also present. The lecture was an excellent opportunity to showcase career development opportunities for students in the future.

A student from South Korea is currently on an exchange program at the Department of Chemistry

Jae Won Kim, a student from South Korea, is staying in Banja Luka from February to July 2023 as part of an exchange program in Chemistry and Biology. Jae is studying medical sciences (Dept. of Global Medical Science) at her home institution, Sungshin Women’s University in Seoul, which is a prestigious private school founded in 1936. This exchange is being carried out through the Sungshin International Exchange program.

Kim expressed her satisfaction with studying at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Banja Luka as part of a student exchange program. She drew a similarity between South Korea and Bosnia and Herzegovina regarding division, and she also highlighted the hospitality and warmth of the people in Banja Luka, even though it was initially difficult for her to adjust to a foreign country

PREPARATORY CLASSES

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:

sphemija@pmf.unibl.org

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!

Zbirka Zadataka za pripremnu nastavu iz hemije

Lecture Series by the visiting professor Nuno Maulide from the University of Vienna

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.

GREEN CHEMISTRY IN ACTION

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 21^st century.

Links:

http://www.osce.org/bih

The 59th Meeting of the Serbian Chemical Society

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.

CHEMISTRY STUDENTS WON FIRST PLACE AT THE 15TH INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE “STUDENTS ENCOUNTERING SCIENCE”

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.