Danubius Awards 2015
within the frame of the High-Level Event
of the Joint Research Centre of the
European Commission
www.bmwfw.gv.at
Danubius and
Danubius Young Scientists Award
The Danubius Award was created in 2011 by the
Austrian Federal Ministry for Science and Research (BMWF) and the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe (IDM) with the intention
to honor persons with extraordinary achievements
in their scientific activity and output in relation to
the Danube Region. Within a rotation system in
one year achievements in the fields of humanities, social and cultural studies are awarded, in
the following year achievements in the fields of
life sciences.
Previous award winners were Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c.
Klaus Roth (Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Institute for European Ethnology), Prof.
Dr. Miroslav Veskovic (Rector of the University of
Novi Sad) and Prof. Dr. András Inotai (Institute
for World Economics of the Hungarian Academy
of Sciences).
Since 2014 this award is complemented with a
specific price for young scientists – the so-called
„Danubius Young Scientists Award“. The award
seeks to encourage young scientists to engage
themselves in the scientific examination of problems and questions specifically related to the
Danube and to stimulate the scientific community
in the Danube region. Universities, Academies of
Sciences and Research Institutions in all 14 countries of the Danube Region have been encouraged
to nominate suitable and promising candidates
that then have been assessed by an international
expert jury. The highest ranked candidate of each
of the countries that submitted eligible nominations will now be awarded with the prize.
The Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research
and Economy is glad to announce the winners of
2015:
Danubius Award
in the field of Life Sciences:
Leopold März
AUSTRIA
Em.O.Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.nat.
techn. Dr.h.c. Leopold März had been
working as Rector of the BOKU-University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, between
1993 and 2003. Currently he holds a
professor emeritus status.
Prof.Dr. März started working as an
Associate Professor of Biochemistry in 1983 and
became quickly the head of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Vienna. Leopold März acted as president of the Austrian Association of agricultural, environmental and
life sciences research. He was the founding president of the Austrian Society for Biotechnology and
the President of the Danube Rectors Conference, for
both of which he still acts as Honorary President.
Since 2000 he is a member of the Board of Trustees
of the Danube University Krems. Since 2002 he is
the Chairman of the board of the Agency for Health
and Food Safety and since 2003 he is the Chairman
of the Interuniversity Consortium for Agricultural
and Related Sciences in Europe and the Vice President of the Eco-Social Forum Austria.
He has received several awards and is member of
several scientific councils.
Danubius
Young Scientists Awards:
Marija Zunabovic
AUSTRIA
Marija Zunabovic holds a PhD in Food
Science and Biotechnology from the
University of Natural Resources and
Life Sciences, Vienna. She works
as a Senior Scientist at the Institute of Food Science since 2012 and
as a Senior Scientist at the Institute
of Sanitary Engineering and Water
Pollution Control since 2013.
Dr. Marija Zunabovic has a broad expertise in the
fields of Food Technology; Food Control, Microbiology and Water Quality Assessment. She won several national and international awards and is an active member at the Association of Austrian Food and
Biotechnologists, the Austrian Association for Gas
and Water and the European Hygienic Engineering
and Design Group.
Other than her teaching activities, Marja Zunabovic
is involved in eight ongoing Projects, 3 of them are
Danube region relevant.
Jelena Trivic
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA
Jelena Trivic, born August 8th 1983
received her bachelor‘s degree in
economics from the University of
Banja Luka in 2006. A year later
Jelena gained the master degree in
economics from the University of
Bologna and started working as an
Assistant Professor at the Faculty of
Economics at the University of Banja
Luka. In 2013 she obtained a PhD degree from the
Faculty of Economics at the University of Belgrade.
Her research interests include the field of international economics, i.e. international trade and trade
policy, international finances, globalization, as well
as the field of European integration process.
Jelena Trivic participated actively at the DRC summer schools in Vienna and Pecs and presented papers which were published in proceedings from the
conference.
Strahil V. Karapchanski
BULGARIA
Stela Jokić
CROATIA
Chief Assistant Professor Strahil
Karapchanski was born on Dezember 06th 1983 in Yambol, Bulgaria.
Since 2010 he has been an assistant
professor at the „Angel Kanchev“
University of Ruse. In 2014 he was
awarded a PhD degree.
Stela Jokić, PhD, assistant professor
at the University of Osijek, Faculty of
Food Technology Osijek, was born on
31st July 1982.
Mr. Karapchanski has conducted profound research on the cooperation processes in the
Danube area. He has examined the potentials for
macro-regions to introduce new modes of governance into the European practice and also their
added value towards the Cohesion policy of the European Union.
In most of his scientific work, Dr. Strahil has reflected on the European Strategy for the Danube
Region as an instrument for bridging the gap in
the development of Central and Eastern European
countries and, in the same time, as an incentive
for the more efficient cooperation and exchange of
best-practices in old and new member states.
Mr. Karapchanski holds several awards.
Since May 2007 she has been an
employee at the Department of Process Engineering at the Faculty of
Food Technology in Osijek and since
the academic year 2010/2011 she has also been
teaching at the Faculty of Agriculture and Food
Technology at the University of Mostar.
She enrolled in a Postgraduate University Study
Program of Food Engineering in 2008 and received
her PhD in 2011 at the Faculty of Food Technology
in Osijek.
She designed and built one pilot plant for supercritical fluid extraction at the Faculty of Food Technology Osijek, which is the first device of its kind in
the Republic of Croatia.
She has received several prestigious awards for her
work.
Abraham Kabutey
CZECH REPUBLIK
Florian Kührer-Wielach
GERMANY
Ing. Abraham Kabutey, Ph.D. born on
December 31st 1980 in Ghana received his PhD in 2014 and currently
works as a postdoctoral researcher
at the Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague specializing in renewable
sources of energy and bioeconomy.
Florian Kührer-Wielach, born March
27th 1982 received his PhD in philosophy/history in 2013 and is currently working as a research fellow
at the Institute for German Culture
and History in South Eastern Europe,
where he also acts as deputy of the
director.
Currently he is working on the description of mechanical behavior of bulk oilseeds
or kernels such as rape, sunflower, jatropha and
oil palm under compression loading. This in-depth
knowledge is intended for application in the industrial technology involving mechanical screw presses
for improvement of oil yield and energy utilization
and to help engineers with all necessary information in designing new presses with low energy input
or pressure for utilization in the rural areas of underdeveloped and developing countries.
The projects and initiatives of Dr. Florian Kührer—
Wielach approach the culture and history of the
Danube—Carpathian region from the 19th to the
21st century.
He lays a focus on questions of ethnical and religious minorities, examining the specific development of Central and South Eastern Europe in the
interwar period through the example of Romania,
examining issues which are still relevant today: the
creation and consolidation of pluralistic societies as
well as democratic order.
Valentin Brodszky
HUNGARY
Valentin Brodszky, MD, PhD was born
on March 31st 1975 and graduated
as a medical doctor from the Semmelweis University of Budapest in
1999. After medical school he started to study Business Administration
at Corvinus University of Budapest,
he defended his PhD at Semmelweis
University in 2010 and his research
topic focused on cost-of-illness and quality of life in
patient with chronic inflammatory disorders.
His scientific research focuses on evidence based medicine and main areas of health economic
evaluation, including the methods for measuring
costs-of-illness, eliciting utility weights, decision
modelling and issues relating to the transferability
of economic data.
He works as an associate professor at the Department of Health Economics of the Corvinus University of Budapest and holds several domestic awards.
Victor Popescu
REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA
Dr. Victor Popescu born on December 17th 1982 in Podgorica (Montenegro) holds a PhD in engineering.
He is currently working as associate
professor at the Department of rural
electrification and automation at the
Agricultural Engineering and Automobiles Faculty of the State Agrarian
University of Moldova.
His research activity focuses on solving problems
ensuring reliability indicators of electrical systems. The scientific results obtained by Dr. Popescu have a noticeable impact for Electrical Power of
the Moldova Republic and of other countries in the
actual conditions of influence of various random
factors which cause a large number of refusals in
operation.
Dr. Victor Popescu is a very active researcher, author and co-author of over 120 scientific papers
methodical — didactic and reports at national and
international scientific forums and an experienced
teacher. He is a multiple winner of competitions
and laureate of valuable prizes in Moldova.
Milena Djukanovic
MONTENEGRO
Dr. Milena Djukanovic, born June 8th
1983 is currently working as Co-director at the Confucius Institute at
the University of Montenegro and as
a lecturer at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of
Montenegro.
She received her PhD in Electrical
Engineering in 2012 by analyzing techniques of
side-channel attacks on smart cards in the past
decade. She has been awarded Most Successful Woman in Science in 2013, by the Ministry of
Science of Montenegro. Her work has not only been
focused on hardware security but also Robotics and
Mathematics.
Dr. Milena Djukanovic is currently involved in two
international projects focusing on hardware security challenges and mechatronic systems.
Alida Timar-Gabor
ROMANIA
Dr. Habil. Alida Timar-Gabor born
September 17th 1983 works as lecturer and senior scientist at the Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoc.
She holds a PhD in Physics, Nuclear Physics and habilitated herself in
2015. Dr. Timar-Gabor holds a variety of awards, her work has been
committed to the development of
methods of measuring past radiation doses using
solid state dosimetry.
Dr. Gabor was originally trained as a physicist, a
background that clearly marked her. Her first applications in luminescence dating were directed
towards archaeological materials, while later on,
she has moved to helping others finding answers in
geology, a field that has almost adopted her. Teaching courses to students in environmental science
and engineering, she has the opportunity to further
develop these topics but also to get involved in studies concerning the potential effects of radioactivity on human health and environment.
The scientific activity presented above resulted in
50 publications in peer reviewed indexed journals.
Ivan Jarić
SERBIA
Domen Mongus
SLOVENIA
Ivan Jarić, born May 18th 1978,
received his PhD in Environmental
Management from the University of
Belgrade in 2010. In his dissertation he wrote about “Histopathological
changes and heavy metal accumulation in sterlet populations from the
Danube River”.
Domen Mongus, PhD born October
1st 1982 is an assistant professor at
the Faculty of Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science, University of
Maribor, Slovenia. He is active in the
field of computers science, in particular geometric pattern recognition
in Earth Observation data.
Since 2013 he is a research assistant professor
at the Institute for Multidisciplinary Research, he
is also a Postdoc Fellow at the Leibniz-Institute of
Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin
since 2014.
He defended his PhD in 2012, is the author of 11
SCI-indexed journal papers, more than 20 conference paper, a USA patent application, and more
than 60 other bibliographic entries. He has received several awards for his scientific and pedagogic
work.
Dr. Jarić’s research has been strongly focused on
the Danube River, and on the monitoring, management and conservation of its natural aquatic ecosystems.
Relevance of his work beyond the national borders
is also represented by a very high scientific output,
with the publication record of over 40 peer-reviewed publications.
Dr. Mogus`s work mainly focuses on mathematical
morphology. Environmental information is of crucial importance for understanding how our planet
is changing and recognising the role played by human activities in these processes.
Martin Urík
SLOVAKIA
Anton Manilov
UKRAINE
Dr. Martin Urík born December 14th
1982 is a post-doc research fellow
at the Institute of Laboratory Research on Geomaterials, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University
in Bratislava with primary interest in
Environmental biogeochemistry.
Dr. Anton Manilov, born July 30th
1984 earned his PhD in Physics and
Mathematics in 2012 with a dissertation about “Physical-chemical properties of Pd / porous Si heterostructures under hydrogen interaction.”
His research is focused on environmental and geochemical aspects of biologically induced transformation of significant soil and water
contaminants, such as arsenic, antimony, selenium, mercury, aluminium and zinc.
His work has been published in 40 peer-reviewed
journals, including 26 journals from Current Contents Connect® Thomson Reuters database. He
received his PhD in 2010 and holds several awards.
Dr. Manilov`s work focuses on renewable energy, hydrogen energy,
solar energy, chemical gas sensors and material
characterization.
He is a very active researcher, author and co—author of 33 publications and an experienced teacher
of solid-state physics and physics of semiconductor
devices.
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