hrvatski / english

 

Organizers

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BRANKO DURDEVIC

Ever since he can remember Branko was fascinated with the world around him. He wanted to know everything about everything.  As difficult as it was to choose, in the end he decided to study physics. He saw physics as the most fundamental of all the sciences and a discipline that offers a deep understanding of nature. That also made it the most mysterious. He is currently finishing his undergraduate studies at the University of Zagreb and is thinking of pursuing a scientific career in cosmology or particle physics. 

Branko has been on the Summer School of Science since 2004, first as s participant. He immediately fell in love with the atmosphere there. What he loved the most was the fact that he finally found a place where he could meet people of similar interests and where he could ask all the questions he always wanted to ask. He has been coming back ever since, either as a technical assistant, project leader or school organizer. The School also went along with his interest in education, especially because he feels that regular schools usually don’t promote critical thinking and creativity so he wants to help change that.

Branko also has a strong interest in music and he likes to sing. He is a member of the Student Section of Croatian Physical Society Choir. Eventually, he would like to go a music school to explore this interest further.

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MATIJA PISKOREC

Matija became interested in science after reading James Gleick‘s "Chaos: Making a New Science", while he was a high school student in Bjelovar (Croatia). He decided to implement the formulas for creating beautiful fractal pictures in Pascal programming language and wrote the program in his notebook during lectures. After doing a seminar on nondeterministic chaos for his high school thesis he decided that computer science is a thing for him.

He was introduced to the Summer School of Science in 2008 by Nino Antulov-Fantulin - one of the organizers at the time. The same year he came to the School to lead a computer science project on complex networks. He loved the idea that high school students, university students and senior scientists come together to learn from each other and have fun. He returned to the School the next year to lead a workshop on camera obscura and analog photography.

Currently, Matija is a fifth year computer science student at the University of Zagreb. His main research interests are in the fields of bioinformatics and complex systems, because they employ methods from computer science to explore very different phenomena from nature and human society. From 2006 he competes regularly in British Parliamentary Debate tournaments in Croatia and abroad. From 2007 he is a member of photo club in KSET (Club of Students of Electrical Engineering) and a regular lecturer on a photography course organized each semester, with Photoshop and digital image manipulation being his main preoccupation. His photographs can be found on http://galerija.kset.org.

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MARKO KOSICEK

From a very early age, Marko was interested in mathematics. But soon, after “discovering” chemistry, his focus changed from numbers to molecules. That was mostly due to his chemistry teachers who encouraged him to learn more. He took part in chemistry competitions, and in 2003, while still in high school in Zagreb, won a bronze medal on the 35th International Chemistry Olympiad in Greece. Chemistry was a logical choice for his career. He graduated chemistry at the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb and started a PhD in biochemistry. At the moment, Marko is working at the Ruder Boskovic Institute in Zagreb. His scientific interests are molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease, especially the role of lipids in neurodegeneration. Since 15 million people suffer from Alzheimer’s disease worldwide and the real cause is still unknown, Marko finds this topic is extremely challenging and scientifically attractive.

In addition to chemistry, Marko’s passion is science communication and popularization. He is actively involved in Zagreb Science Festival (Science Fair) since 2007 as a lecturer and workshop leader. He participated as an invited speaker in other Science Festivals (Novi Sad, Athens, Sinj) as well. In 2008, Marko won Croatian and International FameLab competition (Cheltenham, UK), a competition in 3 minute oral presentations on scientific topics without any slides. His winning presentation “Biochemistry of love” attracted media and resulted with more than 40 interviews for national and foreign TVs, newspapers and radio stations.

Marko is also active in education. Since 2005, he is preparing young Croatian representatives for International Chemistry Olympiad. He first came to the Summer School of Science in 2007, on suggestion of his friend, Tomislav Kokotovic. He enjoyed working with talented and motivated high school students and was fascinated with how much one can do in an improvised lab without sophisticated equipment. He kept coming back to the School, first as a mentor and, in 2009, as an organizer.

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ANAMARIJA STAFA

Anamarija fell in love with science at a very early age. When she was 7, she started helping her father, also a scientist, with his plant biology experiments. After graduating in biotechnology at the University of Zagreb, she continued with the doctoral program there and finally received a Ph.D. in molecular genetics. During her graduate training, she investigated molecular mechanisms underlaying gene replacement in the simplest eukaryotic model organism, yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. She is now a postdoctoral researcher at University Paris Descartes, France, where she studies mechanisms involved in yeast aging. Fascinated by the fact that similar processes are involved in aging of all organisms, she hopes that using yeast, we will start to understand aging in humans.

Being a teaching assistant on student practicals at University of Zagreb, Anamarija is actively involved in higher education. In 2007 she also held a workshop on yeast at the Summer Science Factory, a summer program for elementary and high school students at the  Mediterranean Institute for Life Sciences in Split, Croatia.

She was invited to the Summer School of Science in 2009 by her friend, Fran Supek. At S3++ camp, she led a project that focused on molecular genetics and toxicology. She was impressed by the strong motivation and hard work of her students, as well as the interaction between project leaders and organizers. She decided to return to Visnjan next summer and enthusiastically accepted an invitation to be a co-organiser of S³++ camp in 2010.

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BRANIMIR LUKIC

Branimir got interested in science after reading Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" while still attending high-school in Pozega (Croatia). His initial interest in astronomy led him to study physics in Zagreb, followed by a PhD at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. His research focused on mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes and hydrodynamic memory effects in Brownian motion, resulting in several papers in top discipline journals. After his PhD, he did postdoctoral research at French National Institute for Health and Medical Research in Paris.

During graduate school, Branimir was active in the Croatian Society for Public Understanding of Science (znanost.org), where he developed “Connect”, an on-line network of Croatian scientists in Croatia and abroad. His work enabled Croatian scientific community to actively participate in country's science policymaking.

Branimir first came to Visnjan in 1997, as a participant of the Summer School of Astronomy. He fell in love with the spirit of the place, returning regularly to recharge his batteries with enthusiasm and inspiration and to create new friendships. He was involved in the Summer School of Science since its inception in 2001, serving a number of different roles. As a School organizer since 2004, he made a series of crucial contributions to the development of the School, including conceptual design of the scientific program. He now serves as a member of the Organizing Committee and is working on School’s long term development.

Presently, Branimir is studying German in Berlin and French in Paris and exploring his other interests like contemporary literature and creative writing.

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MARTINA MIJUSKOVIC

Martina was introduced to molecular biology by one of her teachers, while still in high school in Bjelovar (Croatia). That was the time of important breakthroughs in the field, like sheep Dolly cloning and finding the cause of the "mad cow" disease. Even though she always had a strong interest in art (she has 11 years of education in music), she was so curious about what is going on in laboratories that she decided to study molecular biology.

While she was an undergraduate student at the University of Zagreb, Martina was active in the Biology Student Association (BIUS), where together with her colleagues she organized biology journal clubs and a first bioinformatics course at the university. After graduation, she moved to ETH Zurich (Switzerland) to do her Ph.D. Her work focused on a general transcription factor TFIID, a large protein complex necessary for gene transcription.

In 2003, during her graduate studies, Martina was introduced to the Summer School of Science by her friend Branimir Lukic. Excited and inspired by the creative atmosphere at the School, she decided to come back as a project leader and, in 2005, as the school organizer. Together with Branimir Lukic, she enjoyed the creative process of designing the scientific program and laying down the plans for School’s future growth. That included conceptualizing and finally implementing the expansion of Summer School of Science to two camps: S³ and S³++. Since 2009, Martina serves as a member of the Summer School of Science Organizing Committee and is focused on School’s long-term development.

Martina currently lives in New York, where she works as a postdoctoral researcher at the NYU School of Medicine. In addition to exploring the City’s rich cultural scene, she spends a lot of time in New York's dance studios, aiming to train to the professional level. She is also active as a TED translator and hopes to visit the TED conference one day to talk about her work in education.

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KORADO KORLEVIC

Korado Korlevic is a native of Visnjan. Since a very young age, he was fascinated by astronomy (as a boy he copied a whole astronomy book  - “Nase nebo” from Oton Kucera - by hand). After studying physics education in Rijeka, he worked in the primary school in Visnjan for 12 years. He was very active in leading extracurricular  activities for his students, who went on to win the highest prizes on national science competitions. Korado is one of the founders of Visnjan Observatory and its first larger educational project, Visnjan School of Astronomy, initiated in 1986.

His scientific interests led him first to an expedition in Tunguska (Russia), where he explored the asteroid impact craters. Motivated by the possibility of asteroid collisions with the Earth, he started asteroid monitoring at the Visnjan Observatory- work that resulted in the discovery of more than 1400 asteroids and two comets that bear his name. Visnjan Observatory is placed among world’s twelve most productive Observatories of all times.

Korado continues to be active in science education and asteroid astronomy. Among his current projects are the creation of new the observatory in a near-by village Tican and the establishment of the new Science and Education Center Visnjan that cooperates internationally through the Network of Youth Excellence. In 2005, he initiated a new national science competition, VIP EUREKA, based on experimental research performed by high-school students. He provided crucial organizing support (fundraising and on-site coordination) for the Summer School of Science since it’s beginning, in 2001. He is still active as a mentor at the Visnjan School of Astronomy.