Amid stiff competition and ten nominated candidates from Europe and the USA, RBI scientist Dr. Robert Vianello was awarded the Promising Scientist Award at the 15th international conference on Quantum Systems in Chemistry and Physics. The award was given by the Centre for applied quantum Mechanics in Paris for his significant contributions to the computational design of extremely strong superacids and superbases and insights into their properties.

In step with European and international strategies toward the development of nanotechnology as a driver of economic development, the Ruđer Bošković Institute is organizing the first international summer school, Adriatic School of Nanoscience - ASON-1 in cooperation with leading institutions in the field of nanotechnology: Finnish Centre for Nanotechnology, University of Jyvaskyla and Joanneum Research in Graz.

Thanks to the unique expertise of RBI scientists in crystal diffraction with macromolecules, Dr. Marija Luić and Nives Ivić made a significant contribution to the article "Homologs of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases acylate carrier proteins and provide a link between ribosomal and nonribosomal peptide synthesis".

Amid stiff competition among 36 submitted projects in the Scientific Cooperation call by the UKF, RBI scientists won 3 out of 9 financed projects with a total funding of 2.5 million kuna. Evaluation and selection of projects was conducted by 120 leading international experts. The projects will lead to major scientific and technological development at Croatian scientific institutions and through collaboration with diaspora scientists help in the transfer of scientific knowledge and the realization of scientific results in the Republic of Croatia.

On the invitation of Dr. Danica Ramljak, US ambassador James B. Foley made his first official visit to the Ruđer Bošković Institute.

Mr. Krešo Perica, director of IBM, Croatia and Mr.Damir Zec, leader of service sales have organized a one day visit by RBI director, Dr. Danica Ramljak and Dr. Marin Roje, assistant director of finance, to IBM’s research laboratory in Zurich. The delegation was hosted by Dr. Paul Seidler, leader of the Department of Science and Technology. During the visit the RBI delegation will tour the cleanroom facilities and hold a series of meetings on the subject of future collaborations and the possibility of building such a centre in Croatia.

RBI scientist Dr. Darko Orešković from the laboratory of neurochemistry and molecular neurobiology in the Department of Molecular Biology and Dr. Marijan Klarica from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Zagreb have published an article in the prestigious journal Brain Research Reviews (IF 7.39) entitled, “The formation of cerebrospinal fluid: nearly a hundred years of interpretations and misinterpretations”. The journal is one of the top 8% of journals in the field of neuroscience.

RBI scientists Matija Harcet, Helena Ćetković and Drago Perina from the Laboratory for Molecular Genetics in collaboration with Kristijan Vlahoviček and Maša Roller (PMF, University of Zagreb and Prof. Werner Muller and Matthias Weins from the University of Mainz have published an article entitled “Demosponge EST sequencing reveals a complex genetic toolkit of the simplest metazoans” in the prestigious journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.

The third in a series of summer schools in applied molecular microbiology entitled Microbial Metabolites: Signals to Drugs will be held on August 21-29, 2010 at the Inter-University Centre (IUC) in Dubrovnik.

At a meeting of the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR), held last week in Oslo, Dr. Sonja Levanat from the Department of Molecular Medicine was elected to honorary membership in the EACR.