Peter R. Jackson, PhD, Chief of AIDS Research Review Branch (ARRB), Scientific Review Program, Division of Extramural Activities at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/NIH/DHHS held today a workshop on Strategies for Preparing and Submitting an NIH Grant Application.

At the special ceremony held today in the Croatian Parliament scientists, researchers and junior researchers were presented with the National Science Awards for 2008 in recognition of their exceptional achievements in scientific research, new scientific discoveries and scientific accomplishments. This is the most prestigious acknowledgment to Croatian scientists for their work, presented by the Republic of Croatia.

The Sixth Scientific Meeting of the Croatian Physical Society to be held in Primošten on October 8 - 11, 2009 will gather more than 250 Croatian scientists from the country and abroad, involved in physics research and applied physics. The objective is to promote the advancement and dissemination of knowledge in all areas of physics research and to enable graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, university faculty, and researchers across government and industry to share their latest developments and project result in the field.

Peter R. Jackson, PhD, Chief of AIDS Research Review Branch (ARRB), Scientific Review Program, Division of Extramural Activities at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/NIH/DHHS will be visiting the Ruđer Bošković Institute on Wednesday, 7 October 2009. On this occasion Dr. Jackson will give talk on The US National Institutes of Health: Strategies for Successful Grantsmanship. In this presentation he will identify resources and strategies which should facilitate the development of competitive NIH grant applications. The lecture by Dr. Jackson is the third of the Distinguished scientists at RBI series, organized under auspice of RBI Director Danica Ramljak, D.V.M, PhD.

RBI scientist Ivana Antol, PhD, research associate in the Laboratory for Physical-Organic Chemistry of the Ruđer Bošković Institute, received the Best Poster Award for the poster titled Excited state potential energy curves by single reference TD-B2PLYP and SCS-CIS (D) methods at the 45th Symposium on Theoretical Chemistry, held in the period of 8-12 September in Neuss am Rhein, Germany.

After a successful spawning of stream crawfish, RBI scientists from the Laboratory for ichtyopatology - biological materials have succeeded in breeding the first baby crawfish in ponds of the Croatian Centre for Indigenous Species of Fish and Crawfish in Karstic Waters. This is the first time ever that Croatian scientists have managed to breed stream crawfish in captivity.

The Croatian Commission for UNESCO at the Ministry of Culture and L'Oréal Adria announces the 2009 call for applications for 'For Women in Science' fellowship program. The 4,000-Euro scholarship will be granted to four promising young female scientists, doctorate or post-doctorate. The applicants should be Croatian residents not older than 35. The competition is open until 30 October, and the winners will be announced at the end of 2009.

The Ruđer Bošković Institute partnered with the Observatory Zagreb and the Croatian Astronomic Society to celebrate Galileo’s night. On Saturday, 26 September 2009, our visitors will have the opportunity to observe the sky through powerful telescopes, see a poster show “New era of Discovery”, take part in numerous workshops on astronomy and watch a DVD on 50th anniversary of NASA on Zagreb’s main square. The video show is sponsored by the U.S. Embassy.

The workshop Progress and Challenges in Flavour Physics to be held in Primošten, Croatia, from 29 September - 3 October 2009 is jointly organized by the Theoretical Physics Division of the Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb (Croatia) and Physics Department of the University of Siegen (Germany), and supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia and Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

The Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences awarded professor Joseph Schlessinger, the William H. Prusoff Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology at Yale University School of Medicine and a member of the RBI International Scientific Council, with the Medal of the Order of ‘Danica Hrvatska’ for his outstanding contribution to Croatian biomedical sciences as well as promotion of Croatia in the international scientific community. On behalf of the Croatian President Mr. Stjepan Mesić, the State Secretary for Science and Higher Education Prof. Drazen Vikić Topić, PhD, presented the medal to professor Schelssinger at yesterday`s ceremony held in the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences.