One of the world's leading scientific journals in the field of chemistry, Chemical Communications (IF 5.34) has just published a feature article on Chiral bis (amino acid) - and bis (amino alcohol)-oxalamide gelators. Gelation properties, self-assembly motifs and chirality effects by Prof. Mladen Žinić, PhD and Leo Frkanec, PhD. This extensive paper describes internationally recognized results of fifteen years of research in the RBI Laboratory for Supramolecular and Nucleoside Chemistry and its contribution to supra-molecular chemistry of organic gels and specifically identifying stereo chemical impact on processes of self-assembly of molecules into nano-sized organic threads.

RBI Scientists from the Laboratory for the Measurement of Low-Level Radioactivity (LNA) have been granted a three-year European Commission project called SOWAEUMED (Network in Solid Waste and Water Treatment between Europe and Mediterranean Countries) under the 7th Framework Programme (FP7).

RBI scientists Stjepan Lugomer, PhD and Aleksandar Maksimović, PhD from the Laboratory of Molecular Physics of the Division of Material Physics, in cooperation with their Hungarian colleagues from the Research Institute for Technical Physics and Materials science (MFA) at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences published the valuable scientific paper on Nanostructuring of a silicon surface by laser redeposition of Si vapor in the prestigious Journal of Applied Physics. In their paper scientists experimentally and theoretically explained the process of forming silicon nanoparticles with IC laser method of redeposition Si-steam.

The Governing Board of the National Foundation for Science, Higher Education and Technological Development of the Republic of Croatia (NZZ) at its last session in 2009 positively evaluated project Cambridge Structural Database Workshop in Zagreb by the RBI scientist Alexander Višnjevac, PhD. Based on this evaluation the RBI will host the Workshop on March 3rd and 4th 2010. The workshop will gather postgraduate and doctoral students from five countries of the Southeast European region (Croatia, Slovenia, B&H, Serbia and Macedonia).

At the annual meeting of the Croatian Chemical Society, Nikola Basarić, PhD was awarded with the prestigious award 'Leopold Ružička'. This award is given annually to young Croatian scientists for excellence in academic work in the field of chemistry.

The Ruđer Bošković Institute partnered with the Energy Institute Hrvoje Požar, HEP Renewable Energy Sources, the City of Šibenik, the Šibenik-Knin County, Private Gymnasium in Šibenik, as well as numerous scientific authorities and local companies, to establish new international graduate study of energy and ecology in Šibenik. This will be the first of such international study programmes ever launched in Croatia.

RBI scientists Branko Pivac, PhD, Nikola Basarić, PhD, and Irena Ciglenečki-Jušić, PhD, were granted three Croatian-Chinese bilateral projects based on the Protocol signed at the 4th session of the Croatian-Chinese Commission for Scientific and Technological Cooperation which was recently held in Beijing.

RBI Division of Laser and Atomic Research and Development (DLARD) has successfully recertified its Quality Management System (QMS) for ISO 9001:2008 certification, the latest global benchmark in the standards of excellence.

The paper by RBI scientists professor Zvonimir Maksić, PhD, and Robert Vianello, PhD, on computer design and synthesis of a new superbaze with interesting properties, was published in one of the most cited journals in chemistry - Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Professor Daniel Ferenc, PhD, a professor at the University of California, Davis, USA, will give a lecture titled: An Opportunity for Croatia - Novel Photosensors for Next-Generation Projects in (Astro) Particle Physics, Medical Imaging, And Defense on December 1, 2009 at the RBI.