Prof. dr. sc. Ivana Radojčić Redovniković, president

Prof. PhD. Ivana Radojčić Redovniković was born in 1977 in Belgrade. She graduated in Biochemical Engineering (2001) at the Faculty of Food and Biotechnology of the University of Zagreb, and at the Faculty of the same name she obtained the title of Doctor of Science in the field of Biotechnology (2007). She completed her habilitation in 2009. in the area of ​​Biocatalysis at the Department of Biochemical Engineering, Faculty of Food and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb. Since 2017, she has been working as a full-time professor in the Laboratory for Technology and Application of Cells and Biotransformation. She teaches at the undergraduate study program “Biotechnology”, “Food Technology” and “Nutritionism” and at the graduate study programs “Bioprocess Engineering” and “Molecular Biotechnology”, as well as at the university doctoral program “Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering, Food Technology and Nutrition”. She is currently the manager of one HRZZ project and two bilateral projects with China and Austria, and she has also participated in several domestic scientific and technological projects. She is a mentor to students of study programs at the Faculty of Food and Biotechnology. The field of scientific research of Prof. PhD. Ivane Radojčić Redovniković is related to plant biologically active compounds, the possibilities of using plants for phytoremediation of heavy metals from the soil and green solvents. For the last 10 years, she has been systematically researching the application of natural eutectic solvents as new environmentally friendly solvents for the extraction of bioactive compounds from various raw materials of plant origin, biocatalysis and drug formulation. The results of the scientific research work have been presented in 50 scientific papers and publications and have been cited over 1,600 times so far. She participated in more than 30 international and domestic scientific congresses.

Prof. dr. sc. Vesna Zechner-Krpan, vice-president

Prof. Dr. Sc. Vesna Zechner-Krpan was born in 1965 in Zagreb, Republic of Croatia. She acquired her academic titles B.Sc. eng., M.Sc. and Dr.Sc. in Biochemical Engineering from the Faculty of Food and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb. She completed her habilitation in 1998 in the field of animal cell culture technology at the, at the Department of Biochemical Engineering, Faculty of Food and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb. Since then, she has been working at the same Department, but in the Laboratory for Biochemical Engineering, Industrial Microbiology and Malt and Beer Technology, and since 2011 as a full-time professor. She is a lecturer at the undergraduate study “Biotechnology”, the graduate studies “Bioprocess Engineering” and “Molecular Biotechnology” and the postgraduate university doctoral study “Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering, Food Technology and Nutrition”. She has participated in research on several domestic and international scientific projects, is a mentor to undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students at the Faculty of Food and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb. Her areas of scientific interest are: cell culture technology; toxicology; hormonal reproduction; biochemical engineering and industrial microbiology; physiology of industrial microorganisms, especially yeast; isolation, purification and characterization of active compounds from yeast cells; development and application of analytical methods in wine technology; pretreatment of raw materials in the production of biochemicals. She published part of the results in scientific papers and participated as an invited or plenary lecturer in numerous national and international scientific meetings and confresses. She is n Executive Editor for section Microbial and Enzyme Technology at journal Biotechnology Letters, Springer Publisher. In the Croatian Society for Biotechnology, she held the position of treasurer and vice-president for several terms, and from 2012-2016. and 2020-2024. she was the president of this Society.

 

Prof. dr. sc. Marina Tišma, vice-president

Prof. PhD. Marina Tišma is a full-time professor at the Osijek Faculty of Food Technology, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University in Osijek, Croatia. She received her doctorate in the scientific field of biotechnology at the Faculty of Food and Biotechnology of the University of Zagreb. She completed pedagogical-psychological and didactic-methodical training at the University of Osijek’s Faculty of Teachers, and in 2021 she completed the Executive Program Circular Economy & Sustainability Strategies at the University of Cambridge in Great Britain. Her area of ​​scientific interest is the development of sustainable biofuel production processes and high-value products from waste lignocellulosic biomass. Before her academic career, Marina Tišma worked in the malt and beer industry, as part of which she trained in Belgian malthouses and breweries. As an invited or plenary lecturer, she participated in numerous congresses in the country and around the world, and publishes the results of her research in prestigious international scientific journals such as Chemical Engineering Journal, Bioresource Technology, Applied Energy, Journal of Cleaner Production, etc. In the last 10 years, she was the leader or collaborator of several development and research projects, four of which were financed from the structural funds of the European Union. She is currently the head of the Croatian-Slovenian research project “Valorization of residues from the vegetable oil industry based on biorefinery approach” and is a researcher on the project “Bioeconomy excellence alliance for stimulating innovative and inclusive green transition” which is financed by the Horizon Europe program. She is a member of the editorial board of the scientific journals Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Journal Quarterly (CABEQ) and Croatian Journal of Food Science and Technology (CJFST), and was a guest editor of the journal Frontiers in Biotechnology and Bioengineering. She is a reviewer of Horizon Europe projects and international scientific projects from the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Latvia. She is the vice-president of the Association of Sports Recreation and Kinesitherapy “Kinesis” and also the winner of The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) President’s International Fellowship Initiative for 2024.

Dr. sc. Marijan Logarušić, secretary

Dr. Marijan Logarušić is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Laboratory for Cell Technology and Applications and Biotransformation at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology (FFTB). In 2023, he completed his doctoral studies under the supervision of Prof. Igor Slivac. During his postgraduate studies, he spent five months in Vienna, Austria, collaborating on the END-2-END project, a partnership between the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) and the company Bilfinger. His doctoral research focused on working with mammalian cell cultures, optimizing nutrient media by adding plant-based protein isolates and hydrolysates to enhance cell growth and productivity.

Dr. Logarušić is currently employed as part of a Croatian Science Foundation project: “Biocatalytic Process Intensification Using Deep Eutectic Solvents in Microflow Systems for Sustainable Waste Valorization“, under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Marina Cvjetko Bubalo. His current research interests involve the preparation and characterization of deep eutectic solvents, as well as conducting biocatalytic reactions in these solvents for waste valorization purposes.

Dr. Logarušić has been involved in several scientific and bilateral projects. He has participated in 14 scientific conferences and has published 13 scientific papers. He is a member of the Croatian Society for Biotechnology.

Dr. sc. Manuela Panić, treasurer

Manuela Panić was born on October 27, 1991. at Čakovec. In 2016, she graduated in Bioprocess Engineering at the Faculty of Food and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb with excellent marks, and in the same year enrolled in the postgraduate study Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering, Food Technology and Nutrition. Doctoral thesis entitled “Application of natural deep eutectic solvents in isolation of anthocyanins and biocatalysis with lipase”, prepared under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Sc. Ivana Radojčić Redovnikovi, defended on April 8, 2020. and obtained the academic degree of Doctor of Science in the scientific field of Biotechnical Sciences, scientific field of Biotechnology. Since 2016, she is employed as an assistant in the Laboratory for Technology and Application of Cells and Biotransformation on the project “Green Solvents for Green Technologies”, and from 2020 as a postdoctoral student on the project “Rational Design of Natural Eutectic Solvents for the Preparation and Formulation of Chiral Medicines” in the same Laboratory and on the project “Sustainable management of waste from wine production”. Her research work is directed towards the preparation, physical-chemical and biological characterization of natural eutectic solvents, and their application in biocatalysis, extraction and natural sciences.