Marija Banožić at the student exchange on Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology in Maribor

Marija Banožić, ByProExtract team member, has attended on student exchange at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology in Maribor, Slovenia. The exchange was realized within the framework of the CEEPUS academic exchange program for students of Central and Eastern Europe. This exchange is a continuation of good cooperation between the Faculty of Food Technology and Engineering in Osijek and the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology in Maribor.
During the period of four weeks she has been working on the laboratory of Separation Processes and Product Design, where she has been working on extraction with supercritical CO2 and subcritical water extraction on tobacco waste as well as on analytical chromatography and optimization.

Additionally, the Separation and Production Technology Laboratory at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology of the University of Maribor is one of the best research laboratories of this kind. Under the guidance of prof. dr. sc. Željko Knez, this department has 19 researchers and 6 active international and bilateral projects (one of which is a Faculty of Food Technology Osijek) and highly developed equipment, especially in the field of supercritical fluid application. The research activity of this laboratory covers the determination of basic thermodynamic and transport properties of systems required for process planning, including experimental determination of basic thermodynamic and transport properties of the system, which are required for process design including experimental determination of phase equilibria, mass transfer study and modelling by the use of thermodynamic and empirical models, design and optimization of conventional and high pressure processes, such as extraction and adsorption for isolation and concentration of active ingredients from natural materials, analytical and preparative chromatography with supercritical fluids and Transfer of processes into industrial scale.

Prestigious US Department of State fellowship for our team member

Our team member, Ines Banjari, PhD, Associate Prof. was nominated by the US Embassy in Zagreb to represent Croatia in the prestigious International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) organized and supported by the US Department fo State. She was selected from the group of experts in the field of Food and Nutrition and along with 11 other experts during May and April 2019 traveled across the US. The Program included visit to a number of federal institutions, universities and non-profit organizations in Washington, DC, Sacramento, California, Albuquerque, New Mexico and in New Orleans, Louisiana. We are confident that she will transfer at least part of the knowledge to our team, and contacts with colleagues in the US will certainly be useful not only to our team but the whole Faculty!
Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Waters Seminar: Sample Preparation and LC-MS/MS analysis

The Waters User-Meeting and educational seminar was held on March 5th 2019 in Hotel Osijek with key topics relevant for UPLC, UHPLC i HPLC analysis, mass spectrometry, supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) and overall laboratory equipment and maintenance. Our project team members also attended Waters seminar which included lectures and workshops with an emphasis on toxicology, food, water, environmental and pharmaceutical analytics.

A new young researcher joins the project team

According to the public vacancy published on 21st November 2018 for the admission of one doctoral candidate to an associate position and work place of an assistant in the project by the Croatian Science Foundation “Young Researchers’ Career Development Project – Training of Doctoral Students”, Silvija Šafranko, mag. chem., was employed on 15th Februray 2019. Silvija Šafranko will write her PhD thesis as a part of this project research under the supervision of a PhD. Stela Jokić, associate professor. The candidate is employed on a fixed-term contract and her salary will be financed by HRZZ (Croatian Science Foundation).
During her undergraduate and graduate program, Silvija Šafranko was involved in several research studies in the field of bioinorganic chemistry, more precisely, investigating precipitation of calcium oxalate and participating in several conferences. Recently, two A1 articles have been published in journals Urolithiasis and Chemistry in Industry, and several articles are still in revision process. Also, she gained great computer skills using Microsoft Office package, OriginLab, ChemDoodle, Mathcad, Photoshop CS2, CorelDraw,…).
She has participated in various events promoting science, was a member of student associations, but also a president of Student Council of Department of Chemistry in Osijek. S. Šafranko recieved Rector’s Award twice (2017. and 2018.), and also a Dean’s Award (2018.).

New EU project

As part of the “Internationalization of Higher Education” program funded by European Social Fund (ESF) and the Operational Program “Effective Human Resources 2014-2020”, a new project entitled “Development and Establishment of Graduate Study” has been approved for Faculty of Food Technology in Osijek. Graduate study „Biotechnology in English“ is supported by the Faculty of Food Technology Osijek and partners: Medicinal Faculty Osijek and the University of J. J. Strossmayer in Osijek. The project leader on Faculty of Food Technology is Stela Jokić, PhD, also principal investigator of project ByProExtract.

The article about this project was published in Glas Slavonije – click on the following LINK

Find out more about this project on the video below:

Project team Year-end meeting

On December 18, 2018, 1st Year-end meeting research group members was held. At the meeting, project member evaluated their work in the last year, and prepared goals for the next year. According to work in the previous year, they are all convinced of the continued successful collaboration on the ByProExtract project and are looking forward to new scientific knowledge.

2nd Night of Science

The Faculty of Food Technology Osijek continued its tradition and organized the 2nd Night of Science held on December 14, 2018. Employees and students of the Faculty organized and performed various interesting workshops, primarily intended for high school students as well as for the wider population. Some of the workshops topics were: CSI PTF, How to Make Beer?, Discover the Secret of Beauty, Chemistry and Food as Thor and Dr. Strange, Chocolate Empire, Nutri room, Test Your Senses, Fruit as Superheroes, Magic Water, and Learn Through Fun.
The head of project „The Night of Science“ received financial support from the Ministry of Science and Education for the Programs of popularization of science in 2018.

1. Radio interview with Stela Jokić, associate professor on “Brtva Glave” programme

2. Županijska Panorama – HRT

3. Television Slavonia – STV (Section: Uz jutarnju kavu)

4. Workshop photographs

PhD student from University of Caliagri on our Faculty

Kasia Gil, PhD student on University of Caliagri has attended on student exchange on our faculty from 1st to 30th November. Within the ByProExtract project, she’s been working on extraction of some specific phenolic compounds from floral waste of saffron production (lyophilized extract obtained from squeezed juice from saffron flowers – feijoa flowers). Last day, she had attended a workshop about producing natural cosmetics.

ByProExtract project team members – The best team of young scientists of Serbia

A project team member and research assistant of Faculty of Technology Novi Sad (Serbia) Jelena Vladić, was awarded with prestigious Danubius Young Scientist Award for her scientific achievements. A successful research group with Senka Vidović, associate professor and Jelena Vladić, PhD, is currently investigating the application of different extracts obtained from by-products of plant origin.

Research PhD Student employment

Faculty of Food Technology Osijek invites tenders for the selection of PhD Student position on the project by the Croatian Science Foundation “Young Researchers’ Career Development Project – Training of Doctoral Students” (Application of innovative techniques of the extraction of bioactive components from by-products of plant origin) for a limited period of time of 4 years.

Deadline for a Public tender application is within 30 days of this announcement being published on the official Faculty website and Večernji list newspaper. Additional job details can be found on the following LINK.