Strategic Meeting on the Opportunities and Benefits of Croatian Membership in the European Organization for Nuclear Research – CERN gathered today at the RBI leadership of CERN, distinguished representatives of the Croatian scientific and academic community, senior Croatian government officials from the Ministry of Science, Health, Economy and Foreign Affairs, as well as high representatives of ICT, civil engineering and electrical engineering industry to discuss the possibilities and benefits that Croatia's potential membership in CERN would create for its science, education and business sector.

The American Chamber of Commerce and a consulting company Vernexo are organizing the first Croatian business conference on the Intellectual Property – Intelektiv, which will take place on 25 February 2010 at Hotel Sheraton in Zagreb. The one-day conference will gather leading Croatian and foreign experts and entrepreneurs, as well as representatives of SMBs and large enterprises. The Conference content is organized around business benefits and practical guidance to companies in managing and protecting patents, copyright and trademarks to share their knowledge and experiences on intellectual property.

Vjekoslav Štrukil, BSc, Research Assistant in the RBI Laboratory of Physical-Organic Chemistry, received the CrystEngComm Award for the poster titled A Mechanochemical Approach Towards Solvent-Free Synthesis at the recent Symposium on Mechanochemistry and Solvent-Free Synthesis, held on 6-7 November at Queen's University Belfast in Belfast (UK). The study presented on the awarded poster was created in cooperation with Dr. Tomislav Friščić from the Materials Chemistry Group at the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge.

KDSA 2009 Workshop on Knowledge Discovery in Scientific Domains, which was held at the RBI today, brought together collaborators from all seven projects included in the research program Computational Knowledge Discovery in Scientific Applications supported by the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports.

Distinguished American scientist Prof. Josef Michl, PhD, professor of Chemistry at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Head of the Laboratory at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Prague, will be visiting the Ruđer Bošković Institute on Monday, 9 November 2009. On this occasion he will give talk titled: From Molecular Rotors to Molecular Bubbles and meet with the RBI Director Danica Ramljak, DVM, PhD, to discuss possible cooperation between the RBI and the University of Colorado as well as the Institute of Organic Chemistry.

Organized by the RBI scientists from the Laboratory for Ion Beam Interactions, an intensive two-day workshop on Ion Beam Applications for Materials Modification and Analysis gathered sixty participants from the RBI, University of Zagreb, Rijeka and Dubrovnik, Institute of Physics, Croatian Conservation Institute, the Academy of Fine Arts, the Croatian State Archives, Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, the National and University Library of Zagreb, Institute 'Vinča' (Serbia), Josef Stefan Institute (Slovenia), University of Sarajevo (BiH), TAEK (Turkey) and the State University of St. Petersburg (Russia). Besides the presentation of the work on the project 'Upgrade of the RBI Tandem Accelerator Facility' which was launched in 2007 within the EU FP6 INCO program, the participants had the opportunity to visit the Laboratory for Ion Beam Interactions and get familiar with the work of Tandem Accelerator system and devices.

At the invitation of Dr. Susanne Radtke, European Programme Manager at the US-NCI Liaison Office of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda (NCI), the RBI Director Danica Ramljak, DVM, PhD, has started a two-day working visit to Brussels. During her visit she will meet with the leaders of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) and the European Cancer Organization (ECCO). The purpose of this visit is to present RBI potential in cancer research and promote its successful integration into the network of leading European research institutions connecting basic with clinical research.

Professor Branimir I. Šikić, MD, Co-Director of the Stanford Centre for Clinical and Translational Education and Research at the Stanford University and professor of Medicine in the Division of Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine, will be visiting the Ruđer Bošković Institute on Tuesday, 10 November 2009. On this occasion he will give talk on Predictive Biomarkers for Cancer Therapy: Steps towards Personalized Medicine.

The round table discussion on Digital Data Storage System - Development of the National Strategy organized by the RBI Centre for Informatics and Computing in partnership with the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Zagreb will be held on Friday, 6 November at 10 a.m. at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb.

At the invitation of the Ambassador of Croatia to Finland and Estonia Damir Kušen, PhD, the RBI Director Danica Ramljak, DVM, PhD, and Hrvoje Zorc, PhD, Head of the Division of Laser and Atomic Research and Development and Adviser to the Director for Technology and Innovation Development, have started on Monday a five-day working visit to Finland. During their visit they where they will meet with the leaders of Finnish institutions that finance science and high technology projects.