Organizers of the Terry Fox Run in Zagreb, the Canadian embassy in Croatia, MPG, the Croatian League Against Cancer, Zagreb Holding and the Regent Esplanade, held a press conference today at the the RBI to hand over a donation in the amount of 500.000 kuna to Sonja Levanat, PhD, from the Department of Molecular Medicine at the RBI. This donation will aid Dr. Levanat's work which is aimed at research and treatment of hereditary forms of breast and ovarian cancer.

Davor Ristić, PhD, has been awarded a three year post-doctoral research grant for a project entitled Novel silicon based materials for optoelectronics in the amount of 149.000 Euros. The project which was ranked first in a strongly competitive field of applications was awarded by the Italian province of Trentino.

The American Chamber of Commerce and Vernexo consulting will hold a conference on intellectual property rights, Intelektiv, on February 25, 2010 at the Sheraton Hotel in Zagreb. The RBI is one of many sponsors for this event and Danica Ramljak, PhD, Director General of the RBI will participate in a roundtable discussion on the subject of 'How to generate profits from intellectual capital and innovation?'.

Danica Ramljak, PhD, held her second press conference since assuming the role of Director General at the RBI in May of 2009. Danica Ramljak, PhD, announced plans for this year’s 60th anniversary celebration of the founding of the RBI which will encompass a variety of events throughout the year including a gala event on June 9, 2010 to be held in the Vatroslav Lisinski concert hall in Zagreb.

Magdalena Grce, PhD, received the prestigious 'Pearl of Wisdom' award for her work in the European Cervical Cancer Association (ECCA) on January 26/27 at a meeting of the European Parliament in Brussels marking the 4th European week for the prevention of cervical cancer.

In December of 2009, the book Mathematical Methods and Modeling for Students of Chemistry and Biology edited by Ante Graovac, PhD, Ivan Gutman, PhD, and Damir Vukičević, PhD, was published by Hum Copies Ltd., Zagreb.

On Saturday, 23 Jan 2010, Croatia’s president-elect Professor Ivo Josipović, PhD, was a guest on a popular music show on Radio Sljeme. In the first part of the show Professor Josipović conversed with the show’s host on the subject of music, while in the second part of the show he answered a series of questions posed by prominent public figures from the fields of culture and science, including Danica Ramljak, PhD, Director General of the Ruđer Bošković Institute.

Analytical Chemistry (IF: 5.712), the world's leading journal in the field of analytical chemistry, has accepted for publication paper Blind separation of analytes in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and mass spectrometry: sparseness-based robust multicomponent analysis by Ivica Kopriva, PhD (DLARD) and Ivanka Jerić, PhD (DOCB). The paper describes a method for blind extraction of analytes from mixtures. The method is exemplified on the examples in NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry.

The fourth year in a row Croatia is marking the European Week of Cervical Cancer Prevention in the organization of the European Association against cervical cancer (ECCA), whose member is the Ruđer Bošković Institute as well. The aim of this action, which is being held on 24 - 30 January 2010, is to raise public awareness about cervical cancer and ways of its prevention.

A retired RBI scientist Branimir Miletić, PhD, passed away on 5 January 2010. He arrived at the Ruđer Bošković Institute on the invitation of Academician Ivan Supek in 1957 where he founded the Laboratory of Cellular Radiobiology and started the first molecular genetic research in Croatia. He is considered the founder of molecular biology in Croatia.