Members of the QuantiX unit

Members of the QuantiX unit

Salvatore Marco Giampaola

    • Location: IRB


    Fabio Franchini

      • Location: IRB


      Dr. Kosuke Nomura

          Position:

          • Postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Science University of Zagreb (Department of Physics)

          Fields of interest:

          • Nuclear structure, nuclear shapes and collective excitations, symmetries and phases in nuclei
          • Structure of N~Z nuclei, double-beta decay
          • Algebraic methods in nuclei, nuclear energy density functional theory, nuclear shell model

          Awards:

          • 10th Young Scientist Award of the Physical Society of Japan (Division of Nuclear Theory, Mar 2016)
          • Springer Theses Prize (Mar 2012)
          • Dean’s Award for best Ph.D. thesis in physics (Faculty of Science, University of Tokyo, Mar 2012)
          • Dean’s Award for best MSc thesis in physics (Faculty of Science, University of Tokyo, Mar 2009)

          Five selected publications:

          • Nomura, T. Niksic, D. Vretenar, “Beyond-mean-field boson-fermion model for odd-mass nuclei”, Phys. Rev. C 93, 054305 (2016).
          • Nomura, T. Otsuka, P. Van Isacker, “Shape coexistence in the microscopically guided interacting boson model”, J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 43, 024008 (2016).
          • Nomura, D. Vretenar, T. Niksic, B. –N. Lu, “Microscopic description of octupole shape-phase transitions in light actinide and rare-earth nuclei”, Phys. Rev. C 89, 024312 (2014).
          • Nomura, N. Shimizu, D. Vretenar, T. Niksic, T. Otsuka, “Robust Regularity in γ-Soft Nuclei and its Microscopic Realization”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 132501 (2012).
          • Nomura, N. Shimizu, T. Otsuka, “Mean-Field Derivation of the Interacting Boson Model Hamiltonian and Exotic Nuclei”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 142501 (2008).

          The most important grants (as PI)

          • 2013 – 2015 Principal investigator of a research project within the Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowships – “Microscopic and Algebraic Theory of Nuclei under Extreme Conditions (MATNEC)”
          • 2012 – 2013 Principal investigator of a research project “Unified Description of Nuclear Collective Motion and the Structure of Exotic Nuclei”, Japan Society for Promotion of Science

          Bio:

          Kosuke Nomura received his MSc degree in physics from the University of Tokyo, Japan, in 2009 and defended his PhD thesis at the University of Tokyo, Japan, in 2012 (supervisor Takaharu Otsuka). In his dissertation, he developed method that allows a systematic and computationally feasible description of nuclear shapes and collective excitations, by combining the nuclear energy density functional theory and algebraic model of interacting boson systems. In the period from 2012-2013 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institut fuer Kernphysik, Universitaet zu Koeln, Germany. His research at Cologne was focused on extending his method to describe nuclei with more complex shapes. In particular, the focus was on microscopic descriptions of shape coexistence and octupole deformed (pear-shaped) nuclei. In 2013 he moved to the GANIL (Grand Accélérateur National d’Ions Lourds), France, as a postdoctoral fellow of the Marie-Curie Fellowships from European Union. At that time he has extended his expertise to nuclear shell model. The research within his projects was focused on spin-isospin correlations in nuclei with equal proton Z and neutron N numbers, and neutrino-less double-beta decay. Since 2015 he is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zagreb. His research has been focused on developing new method to describe microscopically the spectroscopy of nuclei with odd number of nucleons, by incorporating nuclear density functional theory in the particle-plus-core coupling scheme. KN authored and co-authored 1 book, more than 20 publications in peer reviewed journals with 450+ citations and 15 publications in conference proceedings, and has given more than 15 invited talks in scientific meetings.


          Dr. Vinko Zlatić

            • Location: The Ruđer Bošković Institute
            • Website: Link

            Position:

            Fields of interest:

            Awards:

            Five selected publications:

            Scientific projects:

            Bio:


            Prof. Davor Horvatić

              • Location: Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb


              Dr. Dario Jukić

                  Position:

                  • Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Zagreb (Faculty of Civil Engineering)

                  Fields of interest:

                  • Ultracold atomic gases
                  • Optics and photonics

                  Awards:

                  • Annual award ‘Znanost’ by National Science Foundation for the best student paper in natural science, in 2009
                  • Award by the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, for exceptional success as a student, in 2007

                  Five selected publications:

                  • D. Jukić and H. Buljan, Four-dimensional photonic lattices and discrete tesseract solitons, Phys. Rev. A 87, 013814 (2013).
                  • D. Jukić, H. Buljan, D.-H. Lee, J. D. Joannopoulos, and M. Soljačić, Flat photonic surface bands pinned between Dirac points, Opt. Lett. 37, 5262 (2012).
                  • J. Radić, V. Bačić, D. Jukić, M. Segev, and H. Buljan, Anderson localization of a Tonks-Girardeau gas in potentials with controlled disorder, Phys. Rev. A 81, 063639 (2010).
                  • D. Jukić, B. Klajn, and H. Buljan, Momentum distribution of a freely expanding Lieb-Liniger gas, Phys. Rev. A 79, 033612 (2009)
                  • D. Jukić, R. Pezer, T. Gasenzer, and H. Buljan, Free expansion of a Lieb-Liniger gas: Asymptotic form of the wave functions, Phys. Rev. A 78, 053602 (2008).

                  Bio:

                  Dario Jukić received a MSc degree in physics from the University of Zagreb in 2008 and defended his PhD thesis at the same university in 2012 (supervisor Hrvoje Buljan). After that, in 2012-2013, he was a visiting scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, USA) in the group of Marin Soljačić. In the period 2013-2015, he was a postdoctoral guest scientist at Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (Dresden, Germany) in the group of Thomas Pohl. After the postdoc period he moved back to the University of Zagreb as an Assistant Professor of Physics at the Faculty of Civil Engineering. The topics of his research include nonequilibrium dynamics of low-dimensional many-body systems, light-matter interaction in cold atomic gases, nonlinear optics, and photonics. DJ authored and co-authored 11 publications in peer reviewed journals with ~80 citations.

                  DJ has been promoted to the rank of Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Zagreb in 2015. At present, he teaches Physics course (1rd year undergraduates).


                  Prof. Karlo Lelas

                    • Location: University of Zagreb Faculty of Textile Technology

                    Position:

                    • Assistant Professor of Physics at the Faculty of Textile Technology University of Zagreb (Department of Fundamental Natural and Technical Sciences)

                    Fields of interest:

                    • Ultracold atomic gases: interacting quantum systems, synthetic gauge fields

                    Five selected publications:

                    • Lelas, N. Drpić, T. Dubček, D. Jukić, R. Pezer, and H. Buljan, Laser assisted tunneling in a Tonks-Girardeau gas, New J. Phys. 18, 095002 (2016).
                    • Dubček, K. Lelas, D. Jukić, R. Pezer, M. Soljačić, and H. Buljan, The Harper-Hofstadter Hamiltonian and conical diffraction in photonic lattices with grating assisted tunneling, New J. Phys. 17, 125002 (2015).
                    • K. Lelas, T. Ševa. H. Buljan, and J. Goold, The pinning quantum phase transition in a Tonks_Girardeau gas: diagnostics by ground state fidelity and Loschmidt echo, Phys. Rev. A 86, 033620 (2012).
                    • K. Lelas, D. Jukić, and H. Buljan, Ground state properties of a one-dimensional strongly-interacting Bose-Fermi mixture in a double well potential, Phys. Rev A 80, 053617 (2009).
                    • Chatrchyan et al (CMS Collaboration), Transverse-Momentum and Pseudorapidity Distributions of Charged Hadrons in pp Collisions at sqrt(s)=7Tev, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 022002 (2010)

                    Bio:

                    Karlo Lelas received a master’s degree in physics from the University of Zagreb in 2007 and defended his PhD thesis at the same university in 2012 (supervisor Hrvoje Buljan). In the period from 2007-2015 he was a scientific novice and teaching assistant at Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture (FESB) at University of Split. During this period, he worked in two fields: (i) theoretical physics of strongly interacting one-dimensional quantum systems, and (ii) experimental elementary particle physics. He started his work as a scientific novice in the field (ii) but with time he focused on the field (i), in which he defended his PhD theses. His current interest is in synthetic gauge/magnetic fields in ultracold atomic gases.

                    KL was promoted to the rank of Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Zagreb in 2015. He teaches General Physics and Classical Mechanics.


                    Prof. Robert Pezer

                      Assistant Professor

                      Position:

                      • Assistant Professor of Physics at the Faculty of Metallurgy University of Zagreb (Department of physical metallurgy)

                      Fields of interest:

                      • Optics and photonics: nonlinear optics and solitons
                      • Ultracold atomic gases: interacting quantum systems
                      • Materials physics: computational modelling of microstructure evolution, molecular dynamics

                      Five selected publications:

                      Scientific projects (associate):

                      • 2007-2013 Nonlinear phenomena and wave dynamics in photonic systems funded by MZOS
                      • 2008-2010 Croatian-Israeli bilateral project (in collaboration with Prof Dr. Mordechai Segev, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology) funded by the Ministry of Science in Croatia (MZOS) and Ministry of Science of the State of Israel
                      • 2013-2015 Pseudomagnetic forces and fields for atoms and photons funded by the Unity through Knowledge Fund (UKF, ukf.hr)

                      Bio:

                      Robert Pezer (213706) was born in 1970 in Zagreb. He has been a staff member of the University of Zagreb Faculty of Metallurgy since 2007 and in June 2013 he was appointed Associate Professor. He currently works within the Department of Physical Metallurgy. He teaches and gives lectures in Physics and Applied Mathematics.
                      Robert Pezer completed an undergraduate study program at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Natural Sciences, where he also completed a PhD program in 2002 and worked as Research Assistant in the period from 1996 until 2007, mainly in the field of many-body and statistical physics phenomena within the nuclear theory group. His research interests are associated with the ultracold gases theory and nonlinear optics, ranging from exactly solvable models to designing new experiments with a focus on evaluating quantum observables in many-body systems for purposes of experimental verification. His significant competence and knowledge in computational techniques and software development is evident from the numerous developed software packages. He has collaborated actively with researchers from several different disciplines of theoretical and experimental physics, particularly nuclear physics, nonlinear optics and molecular physics and ultracold gases. He is an active referee for: IOP Publishing, Physical Review, Optics Letters and Journal of Optical Science. He has a strong scientific research interest in numerical modeling of many-body systems, statistical physics and the related phenomena aimed at improving the “ab initio” (DFT, MD, LBA) models, bridging the gap between microstructures at the lowest relevant physical scale and macroscopic properties of complex systems.

                      He has published 17 CC scientific papers (being the principal author in the case of 7), 7 refereed conference papers and 4 papers out of the CC database. He has presented his work at a dozen of conferences and workshops. He is also a member of the Research Group at the Department of Physics of the University of Zagreb that is strongly devoted to research activities associated with “ab initio” computational modeling of complex systems. Robert Pezer, PhD, holds several physics courses at the Faculty of Metallurgy. He has been one of the leading members of the Working Group that carried out a substantial revision and implementation of undergraduate and graduate study programs in metallurgy. During the period from 2009 until 2013 he served as Vice Dean of the Faculty of Metallurgy responsible for teaching and study programs.

                       


                      Dr. Marko Cvitaš

                        • Location: The Ruđer Bošković Institute

                        Research Associate

                        Position:

                        • Research Associate at Ruđer Bošković Institute, Department of physical chemistry

                        Fields of interest:

                        • Quantum molecular dynamics, reactive scattering, molecular collisions, rovibrational molecular spectrascopy.

                        Five selected publications:

                        • M.T. Cvitaš, P. Soldan, J.M. Hutson, P. Honvault and J.M. Launay, Ultracold Li + Li­2 collisions: bosonic and fermionic cases, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 033201 (2005).
                        • M.T. Cvitaš, P. Soldan, J.M. Hutson, P. Honvault and J.M. Launay, Ultracold collisions involving heteronuclear alkali metal dimers, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 200402 (2005).
                        • M.T. Cvitaš and S.C. Althorpe, State-to-state reactive scattering in six dimensions using reactant-product decoupling: OH + H2→H2O + H (J=0), J. Chem. Phys 134, 223901 (2004).
                        • M.T. Cvitaš and S.C. Althorpe, A Chebyshev method for state-to-state reactive scattering using reactant-product decoupling: OH + H2→H2O + H (J=0), J. Chem. Phys 139, 064307 (2013).
                        • M.T. Cvitaš, S.C. Althorpe, Locating instantons in calculations of tunneling splittings: The test case of malonaldehyde, J. Chem. Theor. Comput. 12, 787 (2016).

                        The most importnat grants (as PI):

                        • 2007-2011 Ramon Jenkins Senior Research Fellowship, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.

                        Bio:

                        Marko Cvitas received a Dipl. Inž. Degree in Phyiscs at University of Zagreb in 1999 and a PhD from Durham University, UK in 2004 under supervision of Professor Jeremy Hutson. In the period 2004.-2007., he was a postdoctoral fellow at University of Nottingam and Cambridge in the group of Professor Stuart Althorpe. From 2007.-2011., he was a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge, and since 2012. a Reasearch Associate at Ruđer Bošković Institute, Departement of physical chemistry. His research was initially focused on the quantum theory of molecular collisions in ultracold gases. Later, he worked on numerical methods for description of molecular collisions at higher energies, using quantum mechanics. Recently, the focus of his research has been on the development of numerical methods for semiclassical description of tunneling, with the aim of calculating rates and bound states in larger molecular systems. MC co-authored 15 publications in peer reviewed journals with cca 500 citations.


                        Dr. Ivan Balog

                          • Location: Institute of Physics


                          Dr. Osor Barišić

                            Senior research associates


                            Prof. Goranka Bilalbegović

                              • Location: Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb


                              Prof. Vito Despoja

                                • Location: Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb


                                Prof. Marinko Jablan

                                  • Location: Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb
                                  • Website: Link

                                  Assistant Professor

                                  Position:

                                  • Assistant Professor of Physics at the Faculty of Science University of Zagreb (Department of Physics)

                                  Fields of interest:

                                  • Optics and photonics: graphene nanophotonics, nonlinear optics

                                  Five selected publications:

                                  • M. Jablan, D.E. Chang, Multiplasmon Absorption in Graphene, Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 236801 (2015).
                                  • M. Jablan, M. Soljačić, H. Buljan, Plasmons in Graphene: Fundamental Properties and Potential Applications, Invited paper in Proceedings of the IEEE 101, 1689 (2013).
                                  • O. Ilic, M. Jablan, J.D. Joannopoulos, I. Celanovic, M. Soljačić, Overcoming the black body limit in plasmonic and graphene near-field thermophotovoltaic systems, Optics Express 20, A366 (2012).
                                  • M. Jablan, M. Soljačić, H. Buljan, Unconventional plasmon-phonon coupling in graphene, Phys. Rev. B 83, 161409(R) (2011).
                                  • M. Jablan, H. Buljan, and M. Soljačić, Plasmonics in graphene at infra-red frequencies, Phys. Rev. B 80, 245435 (2009).

                                  The most important grants (as PI)

                                  • (2014-2015) Principal Investigator of a research project: Graphene based nonlinear quantum optics, Marie Curie FP7-PEOPLE-2011-COFUND-NEWFELPRO
                                  • (2011) Principal Investigator of a research project: Exploiting opto-mechanical properties of graphene for novel nano-technologies, funded by Unity through Knowledge Fund.

                                  Awards:

                                  • 2008 Science Award for the best student paper, prestigious award given to only 3 students in Croatia per year.
                                  • Top scholarship for Top students 2006, prestigious scholarship awarded to only 40 students in Croatia per year.
                                  • International Mathematical Olympiad 2001 (Bronze medal).
                                  • 1st prize: National Competition in Math (1998, 1999, 2001), Physics (1999, 2001), and Chemistry (1997).

                                  Bio:

                                  Marinko Jablan received a Msc degree in physics from the University of Zagreb in 2006. and defended his PhD thesis at the same university in 2012. (supervisor Hrvoje Buljan). During his PhD studies (in 2008. and 2011.) he stayed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA as a visiting student in the group of Marin Soljačić. After PhD, during 2013-2015. he stayed at ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences as a postdoctoral research in the group of Darrick Chang. Research interest of MJ are primarily focused on the optical properties of graphene and their technological applications. After postodoc, MJ stated working at the University of Zagreb as an Assistant Professor.

                                  Marinko Jablan authored and co-authored 11 publications in peer reviewed journals with ~900 citations. He mentored one diploma thesis. He teaches Electromagnetic waves and optics (undergraduate), and Computers and Operating Systems (undergraduate).


                                  Prof. Danko Radić

                                    • Location: Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb
                                    • Website: Link

                                    Assist. Prof.

                                    Position:

                                    • Assistant Professor of Physics at the Faculty of Science University of Zagreb (Department of Physics)

                                    Fields of interest:

                                    • One-electron, collective and topological effects induced by external and synthetic magnetic field in condensed matter systems of anomalous dimensions (graphene, quasi-onedimensional systems, high Tc superconductors…)
                                    • Nanoelectromechanical systems: tunneling electron and spin transport, mechanisms of inducing electromechanical instabilities (carbon nanotubes, graphene)

                                    Awards:

                                    Five selected publications:

                                    • Radić and L. Y. Gorelik, “Quantum Theory of Magnetoelectromotive Instability in Nanoelectromechanical Systems with Positive Differential Conductance”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 186802 (2013).
                                    • Radić, A. Nordenfelt, A. M. Kadigrobov, R. I. Shekhter, M. Jonson, and L. Y. Gorelik, “Spin controlled nanomechanics induced by single-electron tunneling”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 236802 (2011).
                                    • Radić, A. M. Kadigrobov, L. Y. Gorelik, R. I. Shekhter, and M. Jonson, “Self-excited oscillations of charge-spin accumulation due to single-electron tunneling”, Phys. Rev. B 82, 125311 (2010).
                                    • M. Kadigrobov, A. Bjeliš and D. Radić, “Magnetic Breakdown Induced Peierls Transition“, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 206402 (2008).
                                    • Radić, A. Bjeliš and D. Zanchi, “Magnetic oscillations and field-induced spin-density wave (TMTSF)2ClO4”, Phys. Rev. B 69, 014411 (2004).

                                    The most important grants (as PI)

                                    Bio:

                                    Danko Radić graduated in physics at the Department of physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb in 1997, received his MSc degree in 2002, and defended his PhD thesis at the same university in 2006 under mentorship of prof.dr.sc. Aleksa Bjeliš. Major field of his scientific interest was the condensed matter physic, especially collective effects like spin and charge density waves induced by external magnetic field in the systems of anomalous dimensionality. During the period 2008-2010 he was a postdoc at the University of Gothenburg, and then during 2010-2011 at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden, where he has broadened his scientific interest into fields of physics of nanoelectromechanical systems and thermally assisted magnetic recording. At the moment, he is involved in the field of collective and topological effects of sinthetic magnetic fields.

                                    He was employed at the position research associate at the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb in 2009, and he got the position of assistant professor at the same institution in 2013. Danko Radić is the author of 22 scientific publication indexed in CC, 13 abstracts in domestic and international conference proceedings, 10 oral presentations at domestic and international conferences. He worked as a collaborator on 6 domestic and international scientific projects.

                                    He teaches Selected topics in solid state physics, Elementary solid state physics, Seminar in solid state physics and Differential equations and dynamical systems at Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb. He supervised one diploma thesis and had co-mentorship in one PhD thesis.


                                    Prof. Krešimir Kumerički

                                      • Location: Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb

                                      Position:

                                      • Associate Professor of Physics at the Faculty of Science University of Zagreb (Department of Physics)

                                      Fields of interest:

                                      • Quantum chromodynamics, structure of hadrons
                                      • Particle physics beyond the Standard model

                                      Five selected publications:

                                      • K. Kumerički, S. Liuti and H. Moutarde, GPD phenomenology and DVCS fitting – Entering the high-precision era, Eur. J. Phys. A52 (2016) 157-1 – 157-31, arXiv:1602.02763 [hep-ph], doi:10.1140/epja/i2016-16157-3.
                                      • P. Čuljak, K. Kumerički and I. Picek, Scotogenic RnuMDM at Three-Loop Level, Phys. Lett. B744 (2015) 237-243, arXiv:1502.07887 [hep-ph], doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2015.03.062.
                                      • K. Kumerički, I. Picek and B. Radovčić, TeV-scale Seesaw with Quintuplet Fermions, Phys. Rev. D86 (2012) 013006 arXiv:1204.6599 [hep-ph], doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.86.013006.
                                      • K. Kumerički, D. Müller and A. Schäfer, Neural network generated parametrizations of deeply virtual Compton form factors, JHEP 1107(2011) 073, arXiv:1106.2808 [hep-ph], doi:10.1007/JHEP07(2011)073.
                                      • K. Kumerički and D. Müller, Deeply virtual Compton scattering at small xB and the access to the GPD H, Nucl. Phys. B841 (2010) 1-58,arXiv:0904.0458 [hep-ph], doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysb.2010.07.015.

                                      The most important grants (as PI)

                                      • 2014- Principal investigator of project “MIAU – Matter and Interactions at Accelerators and in Universe” funded by Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ)
                                      • 2008-2010 Principal investigator (together with M. Polyakov) of project “Revealing Generalized Parton Distributions”, funded by German Science Foundation (DFG)
                                      • 2012-2014 Coordinator for University of Zagreb and member of the Governing Board of project HadronPhysics3 – Study of strongly interacting matter, funded by EC within FP7

                                      Bio:
                                      Krešimir Kumerički defended his PhD thesis “Rare decays of K mesons” (supervisor Ivica Picek) in 1998. The focus of his research at that time was interplay of electroweak and QCD effects in various decays involving quark flavour change. In the meantime, after longer stay at Universities of Oslo and Regensburg (2005-2006), his interest shifted to studies of quark-gluon structure of nucleon as encoded by so called generalized parton distributions. This offers novel three-dimensional picture of the nucleon structure, studied at many present (CERN, Jlab) and future experimental facilities (electron-ion collider, EIC). He pioneered application of neural networks in these studies. He is also involved in studies of Large Hadron Collider phenomenology of various extensions of Standard model, in particular those that aim for explanation of small neutrino masses. He authored 29 journal papers which are cited more than 600 times (according to inSPIRE).
                                      He was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Zagreb in 2011, has mentored 10 diploma theses and is presently mentoring a PhD thesis. He teaches particle physics at undergraduate and doctoral level.


                                      Prof. Tomislav Marketin

                                      • Tel: ++385 1 4605663
                                      • Location: Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb
                                      • Website: Link

                                      Assist. Prof.

                                      Position:

                                      • Assistant Professor of Physics at the Faculty of Science University of Zagreb (Department of Physics)

                                      Fields of interest:

                                        Nuclear physics: semileptonic weak interactions, decay properties of nuclei, heavy element nucleosynthesis

                                      Five selected publications:

                                      • R. Caballero-Folch et al., First Measurement of Several β-Delayed Neutron Emitting Isotopes Beyond N=126, Physical Review Letters 117, 012501 (2016)
                                      • T. Marketin, L. Huther, and G. Martínez-Pinedo, Large-scale evaluation of beta-decay rates of r-process nuclei with the inclusion of first-forbidden transitions, Physical Review C 93, 025805 (2016)
                                      • M. Eichler et al., The role of fission in neutron star mergers and its impact on the r-process, Astrophysical Journal 808, 30 (2015)
                                      • E. Litvinova, B. A. Brown, D.-L. Fang, T. Marketin, and R. G. T. Zegers, Benchmarking nuclear models for Gamow-Teller response, Physics Letters B 730, 307 (2014)
                                      • T. Marketin, E. Litvinova, D. Vretenar, and P. Ring, Fragmentation of spin-dipole strength in Zr-90 and Pb-208, Physics Letters B 706, 477 (2012)

                                      The most important grants (as PI)

                                      • Bilateral collaboration agreement “Microscopic description of weak-interaction processes relevant for heavy element nucleosynthesis” with Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany, 2014 – 2015
                                      • IAEA Coordinated research project “Application of the covariant density functional theory to the beta-delayed neutron emission probabilities”, 2013 – 2017

                                      Bio:

                                      Tomislav Marketin received a MSc degree in physics from the University of Zagreb in 2004., and successfully defended his PhD thesis in 2010., also at University of Zagreb under the supervision of Prof. Dario Vretenar. In the period from March 2011. to February 2012. he was at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung as a postdoctoral fellow, and continued from March 2012. to February 2013. at the Technische Universität Darmstadt in the research group of Prof. Gabriel Martínez-Pinedo. His research was focused on charge-exchange excitations in exotic nuclei and applications in nuclear astrophysics. In particular, his efforts were directed on the description of the Gamow-Teller resonance and its low-energy tail that is crucial in the description of decay properties of neutron-rich nuclei. The description of the nuclear response was applied in a large-scale calculation of decay properties of r-process nuclei. With the conclusion of the postdoctoral position, he returned to the Department of Physics at the Faculty of Physics, University of Zagreb as an Assistant professor, where he is expanding his interests to beta-delayed neutron emission in exotic nuclei.

                                      He authored and co-authored 25 publications in peer-reviewed journals with 200+ citations. Teaching activities include Introduction to programming, Data structures and algorithms and Introducton to quantum physics.


                                      Prof. Tamara Nikšić

                                        • Tel: ++385 1 4605574
                                        • Location: Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb
                                        • Website: Link

                                        Position:

                                        • Associate professor at the Faculty of Science University of Zagreb (Department of Physics)

                                        Fields of interest:

                                        • Theoretical nuclear physics: nuclear energy density functionals, collective models of nuclear structure, clustering in light nuclei
                                        • Computational nuclear physics

                                        Awards:

                                        • Annual Croatian State Award for Science in 2012

                                        Five selected publications:

                                        • J.-P. Ebran, E. Khan, T. Nikšić, D. Vretenar: How atomic nuclei cluster, Nature 487, 341 (2012).
                                        • T. Nikšić, T. Nikšić, D. Vretenar, P. Ring, Relativistic nuclear energy density functional: Mean-field and beyod, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. 66, 519 (2011).
                                        • T. Nikšić, D. Vretenar, P. Ring: Relativistic nuclear energy density functionals: Adjusting parameters to binding energies, Phys. Rev. C 79, 034318 (2008).
                                        • T. Nikšić, D. Vretenar, G.A. Lalazissis, P. Ring: Microscopic description of nuclear quantum phase transitions, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 092502 (2007).
                                        • T. Nikšić, D. Vretenar, P. Finelli, P. Ring: Relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov model with density-dependent meson-nucleon couplings, Phys. Rev. C 66, 024306 (2002).

                                        Biography:

                                        Tamara Nikšić is an associate professor at the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, where she has been employed from 2000. She received her PhD degree from the University of Zagreb in 2004 («Relativistic description of nuclear structure: models with density-dependent meson-nucleon couplings», supervisor professor Dario Vretenar). She was an Alexander von Humboldt fellow at the Technical University Munich (2005-2006) in the group of professor Peter Ring.

                                        Her research interests span both theoretical nuclear physics and computational physics. Most of her work has been on developing the new generation of nuclear energy density functionals and describing the correlations originating from restoration of broken symmetries and fluctuation of the quadrupole and octupole deformations. Recentely, she has been involved in describing possible mechanisms of cluster formation in light nuclei. She has co-authored 55 original scientific papers and 2 review papers with 2000+ citation. In 2012 she received the Annual Croatian State Award for Science.

                                        She teaches Classical Mechanics, Quantum Physics and Nonlinear Phenomena at the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb.


                                        Prof. Nils Paar

                                          • Tel: ++385 1 4605650
                                          • Location: Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb
                                          • Website: Link

                                          Prof.

                                          Position:

                                          • Professor of Physics at the Faculty of Science University of Zagreb (Department of Physics)

                                          Fields of interest:

                                          • Nuclear structure, exotic modes of excitation, exotic nuclei, effective nuclear interactions
                                          • Nuclear astrophysics, weak interaction processes, neutrino-nucleus reactions, neutron stars
                                          • mathematical modeling, computational physics

                                          Awards:

                                          Five selected publications:

                                          • X. Roca-Maza, N. Paar, G. Colò, “Covariance analysis for energy density functionals and instabilities”, J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 42 034033 (2015).
                                          • N. Paar, Ch. C. Moustakidis, T. Marketin, D. Vretenar, and G. A. Lalazissis, Neutron star structure and collective excitations of finite nuclei, Phys. Rev. C 90, 011304 (Rapid Communications) (2014).
                                          • N. Paar, H. Tutman, T. Marketin, T. Fischer, “Large-scale calculations of supernova neutrino-induced reactions in Z=8-82 target nuclei”, Phys. Rev. C 87, 025801 (2013).
                                          • N. Paar, Y. F. Niu, D. Vretenar, and J. Meng, “On the isoscalar-isovector splitting of pygmy dipole structures”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 032502 (2009).
                                          • N. Paar, D. Vretenar, E. Khan, and G. Colo, “Exotic modes of excitation in atomic nuclei far from stability”, Rep. Prog. Phys. 70, 691 (2007).

                                          Bio:
                                          Nils Paar is professor at the Faculty of Science University of Zagreb. His research is focused on exotic nuclear modes of excitation in the relativistic quasiparticle random phase approximation and nuclear structure in the framework of correlated realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions. In particular, the focus is on exotic nuclear excitations including pygmy resonances, evolution of excitation spectra toward limits of nuclear stability, and modeling nuclear structure within unitary correlation operator method. He is also active in the field of research of weak interaction processes of relevance for nuclear astrophysics. The research includes spin-isospin excitations, neutrino-nucleus reactions, stellar electron capture, exotic nuclear structure. He also extended his work toward neutrino and nuclear processes of astrophysical relevance. NP authored and co-authored more than 70 publications in peer reviewed journals with 2200+ citations, and 39 publications in peer-reviewed conference proceedings.


                                          Prof. Nenad Pavin

                                            • Tel: ++385 1 4605663
                                            • Location: Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb
                                            • Website: Link

                                            Associate Professor

                                            Position:
                                            Professor of Physics at the Faculty of Science University of Zagreb (Department of Physics)

                                            Fields of interest:
                                            Biophysics of cells, Microtubules and molecular motors, Mitotic spindles
                                            Evolution

                                            Five selected publications:

                                            • J. Kajtez, A. Solomatina, M. Novak, B. Polak, K. Vukusic, J. Rudiger, G. Cojoc, A. Milas, I Sumanovac Sestak, P. Risteski, F. Tavano, A.H. Klemm, E. Roscioli, J. Welburn, D. Cimini, M. Gluncic, N. Pavin, I.M. Tolic.
                                              Overlap microtubules link sister k-fibers and balance the forces on bioriented kinetochores.
                                              Nat. Commun. 7, 10298 (2016).
                                            • M. Gluncic, N. Maghelli, A. Krull, V. Krstic, D. Ramunno-Johnson, N. Pavin, and I.M. Tolic.
                                              Kinesin-8 Motors Improve Nuclear Centering by Promoting Microtubule Catastrophe.
                                              Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 078103 (2015).
                                            • V. Ananthanarayanan, M. Schattat, S.K. Vogel, A. Krull, N. Pavin, I.M. Tolic-Norrelykke.
                                              Dynein motion switches from diffusive to directed upon cortical anchoring.
                                              Cell 153, 1526-1536 (2013).
                                            • I. Kalinina, A. Nandi, P. Delivani, M Chacón, A. Klemm, D. Ramunno-Johnson, A. Krull, B. Lindner, N. Pavin, I.M. Tolic-Norrelykke.
                                              Pivoting of microtubules around the spindle pole accelerates kinetochore capture.
                                              Nat. Cell Biol. 15, 82-87 (2013).
                                            • L. Laan, N. Pavin, J.Husson, G. Romet-Lemonne, M. van Duijn, M. Preciado López, R. D. Vale, F. Jülicher, S. L. Reck-Peterson and M. Dogterom.
                                              Cortical Dynein Controls Microtubule Dynamics to Generate Pulling Forces that Position Microtubule Asters.
                                              Cell 148, 502 (2012)

                                            Scientific projects:

                                            • 2015- Collaborator at the Scientific Center of Excellence for Quantum and Complex Systems – QuantiX
                                            • 2013-2017 Co-principal investigator of the project Kinetochore oscillations in mitotic metaphase funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) (research grant together with Iva Tolić).
                                            • 2013-2015 Principal investigator of a project The role of microtubule pivoting in formation of complex structures such as microtubule bundles and mitotic spindles funded by the Unity through Knowledge Fund (research grant together with Iva Tolić).

                                            Bio:


                                            Prof. Dario Vretenar

                                              • Tel: +385 1 460 5576
                                              • Location: Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb
                                              • Website: Link

                                              Prof.

                                              Position:

                                              Professor at the Faculty of Science of the University of Zagreb (Department of Physics)
                                              Fields of interest:

                                              Theoretical nuclear physics: energy density functional theory and applications to the structure of exotic atomic nuclei far from stability, fission, low-energy nuclear effective field theory, nuclear weak interactions and astrophysical applications, algebraic structure models and high-angular momentum states in nuclei.

                                              Computational physics and mathematical modeling.
                                              Awards:

                                              • Croatian Academy of Science and Arts – Award for Science and Mathematics 2002
                                              • Croatian National Award for Science 2003

                                              Five selected publications:

                                              • T. Nikšić, D. Vretenar: “Sloppy” nuclear energy density functionals: Effective model reduction, Physical Review C 94, 024333 (2016).
                                              • J.-P. Ebran, E. Khan, T. Nikšić, D. Vretenar: How atomic nuclei cluster, Nature 487, 341 (2012).
                                              • T. Nikšić, D. Vretenar, P. Ring, Relativistic nuclear energy density functional: Mean-field and beyod, Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics 66, 519 (2011).
                                              • N. Paar, D. Vretenar, E. Khan, G. Colo: Exotic modes of excitation in atomic nuclei far from stability, Reports on Progress in Physics 70, 691 (2007).
                                              • D. Vretenar, A. V. Afanasjev, Relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory: static and dynamic aspects of exotic nuclear structure, Physics Reports 409, 101 (2005).

                                              Biography:
                                              M.Sc. in Physics, University of Zagreb, 1982. Ph. D in Physics, University of Zagreb, 1988. Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bologna (1988-1989), Yale University (1990), and as an Alexander von Humboldt fellow at the Technical University Munich (1991-1993). Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, University of Zagreb 1993, Associate Professor 1997, Full Professor 2001. Visiting Professor at the Technical University Munich, University of Bologna and University of Tokyo. Visiting scientist at University of Bologna, Yale University, Technical University Munich, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Institut de Physique Nucléaire d’Orsay, Aristotle University Thessaloniki, Peking University Beijing, University of Tokyo, GSI Darmstadt, University of Jyvaskyla, Southwest University, Chongqing.
                                              Fellow of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts 2012; member of the Academy of Europe (Academia Europaea) 2016.
                                              Courses at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Zagreb: Quantum Physics, Mathematical modeling and Numerical Methods, Nuclear Physics, Nuclear Structure, Nuclear Astrophysics. Courses at the Graduate School: Structure of the Atomic Nucleus I & II, Mathematical modeling.
                                              PAC member, Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Italy (2005-2012); PAC member, JYFL Jyvaskyla, Finland (2013-2016); member of the ISOLDE and Neutron Time-of-Flight Experiments Committee (since 2017). Board of Directors – Euroschool on Exotic Beams (since 2012). Chair of the Physics Committee, Agency for Science and Higher Education, Croatia. President of the Board of the Croatian Science Foundation.


                                              Hrvoje Buljan

                                              • Tel: +385 1 4605591
                                              • Location: Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb
                                              • Website: Link

                                              Full Professor

                                              Position:

                                              • Professor of Physics at the Faculty of Science University of Zagreb (Department of Physics)

                                              Fields of interest:

                                              • Optics and photonics: graphene nanophotonics, nonlinear optics and solitons
                                              • Ultracold atomic gases: interacting quantum systems including 1D Bose gases

                                              Awards:

                                              • Annual Croatian State Award for Science in 2010

                                              Five selected publications:

                                              • Dubček, C.J. Kennedy, L. Lu, W. Ketterle, M. Soljačić, and H. Buljan, Weyl Points in Three-Dimensional Optical Lattices: Synthetic Magnetic Monopoles in Momentum Space, Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 225301 (2015).
                                              • Pezer and H. Buljan, Momentum distribution dynamics of a Tonks-Girardeau gas: Bragg reflections of a quantum many-body wave packet, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 240403 (2007).
                                              • Buljan, O. Cohen, J.W. Fleischer, T. Schwartz, M. Segev, Z.H. Musslimani, N.K. Efremidis, and D.N. Christodoulides, Random-phase solitons in nonlinear periodic lattices, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 223901 (2004).
                                              • Cohen, G. Bartal, H. Buljan, T. Carmon, J.W. Fleischer, M. Segev, and D.N. Christodoulides, Observation of random-phase lattice solitons, Nature (London) 433, 500 (2005).
                                              • Jablan, H. Buljan, and M. Soljačić, Plasmonics in graphene at infra-red frequencies, Phys. Rev. B 80, 245435 (2009).

                                              The most important grants (as PI):

                                              • 2015- Leader of the Scientific Center of Excellence for Quantum and Complex Systems – QuantiX
                                              • 2013-2015 Principal investigator of a project Pseudomagnetic forces and fields for atoms and photons funded by the Unity through Knowledge Fund (UKF, ukf.hr)
                                              • 2008-2010 Principal investigator of a Croatian-Israeli bilateral project (in collaboration with Prof Dr. Mordechai Segev, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology) funded by the Ministry of Science in Croatia (MZOS) and Ministry of Science of the State of Israel
                                              • 2007-2013 Principal investigator of a project Nonlinear phenomena and wave dynamics in photonic systems funded by MZOS

                                              Bio:

                                              Hrvoje Buljan received a MSc degree in physics from the University of Zagreb in 1997 and defended his PhD thesis at the same university in 2002 (supervisor Vladimir Paar). In the period from 2002-2004 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology in the group of Moti Segev. His research at the time was focused on nonlinear optical phenomena. In particular, the focus was on propagation of partially coherent optical waves in nonlinear photonic structures, and nonlinear phenomena such as incoherent solitons and modulation instability in these systems. After the postdoc period he moved back to the University of Zagreb as an Assistant Professor and formed his group with activities also in ultracold atomic gases. The research in his group focused on one-dimensional time-dependent quantum many-body systems, which were in the last decade experimentally realized in ultracold atomic gases. In recent years his research topics include also plasmons in graphene. HB authored and co-authored more than 60 publications in peer reviewed journals with ~1900 citations.
                                              HB was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Zagreb in 2009, and to the rank of Full Professor in 2013. He received the Annual Croatian State Award for Science in 2010. He mentored three PhD theses and more than 30 diploma theses. He teaches Classical Electrodynamics (3rd year undergraduates), Nonlinear Optics, and Nonlinear Continua (post-graduate courses).