RBI Scientists Receive Over 2 Million Kuna
The National Foundation for Science, Higher Education and Technology (NZZ) in the Republic of Croatia through its institutional support program will finance two projects headed by RBI scientists with over 2 million kuna in funding.
Within the project Photochemical polycyclic molecules: from studies of reaction mechanisms to new drugs and medical applications under the direction of Dr. Nikola Basarić, research will be conducted and photochemical transformations and mechanisms of photochemical reactions. In addition this project aims to develop new applications of photochemistry in medical treatment, compound synthesis, as well as potential antivirus and antitumor drugs. The project is multidisciplinary in nature and will include research in organic chemistry and photochemistry, theoretical chemistry, spectroscopy and biology. The total award for this project is 1.080.000 kuna.
A second project entitled Development of targeted nanotechnology sensors for biological macromolecules under the direction of Dr. Daniel Lyons, will invovle the development of novel biological analytical methods based on novel supramolecular complexes and nano-structured materials for the molecular recognition of marine biotoxins, with the aim of increasing the quality and safety of food sources. The total award for this project is 1.095.000 kuna.
Dr. Nikola Basarić has been recognized for his research with a number of awards among which are the prestigious "Leopold Ružička" prize in 2008, given to outstanding young investigators by the Croatian Chemical Society for research in the area of chemistry, the Vladimir Prelog award (2005) granted by the Croatian Chemical Society, and the young scientist award (2005) awarded by the Society of University Lecturers.
Dr. Daniel Lyons received his PhD from the National University of Ireland (2001). He has conducted scientific research at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology (Haifa, Israel) as well as at Infineon Technologies AG (Villach, Austria). Post-doctoral research in the development of novel nanomaterials at University College Cork was funded by a fellowship in the EU Future and Emerging Technologies program. Dr. Lyons now works at the Ruđer Bošković Institute, lectures at the University of Juraj Dobril in Pula and is a registered chemist in the Royal Society of Chemistry.