Ana Palcic

My name is Ana Palcic, Ph.D. I have obtained my Ph.D. degree at the University of Zagreb Croatia and worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the LCS, University of Caen, France. Currently I am research associate at the RBI Institute in Zagreb, Croatia. For ten years now I have been working on the preparation and characterisation of porous materials, particularly zeolites with the aim to improve their properties for catalytic and other applications. Indeed I was privileged to learn from and work with eminent scientists in the field whose knowledge and enthusiasm are a constant inspiration and had made me passionate about zeolites. I enjoy making experiments because they are fairly simple, and yet the slightest change can have a profound impact on the final product. Many times the results are totally surprising, but still can be explained when all the factors are taken into account.

The proposed project is a result of discussions with my colleague S. Babic, Ph.D., biologist. She makes toxicity tests and we have realised there are almost any toxicity studies on zeolites. Since zeolites are present in the products we use and are employed at large scales in industry, we believe it is important to make ecological assessment of these materials. I worked on the synthesis and characterisation of nanosized zeolites 1, 2 and Sanja has a lot of experience in making environmental studies 3. Hence, we believe we are qualified to complete the project and that the results are of interest not only to the scientific community, but to the rest of society as well.

May 2018