A specialissue of “Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Quarterly”
is dedicated to Prof. Dr. Durda Vasic-Racki on the occasion of her 60th birthday

C. Wandrey

English

HRČAK - Portal of Croatian Scientific and Professional Journals

60 Years Prof. Dr. Ðurða Vasiæ-RaèkiCURRICULUM VITAEPersonalJuly 7th 1946 born in Za-greb, CroatiaEducation1971 – B. Sc. in chemicalengineering at Faculty of Chem-ical Engineering and Technol-ogy, University of Zagreb1976 – M. Sc. in chemicalengineering at Faculty of Chem-ical Engineering and Technol-ogy, University of Zagreb1981 – Ph. D. in chemicalengineering at University of Za-grebProfessional Experience1978 – assistant at Faculty of chemical engineer-ing and Technology, University of Zagreb1983 – assistant professor of chemical engineer-ing at University of Zagreb1987 – associate professor of chemical engineer-ing at University of Zagreb1992 – full professor of chemical engineering atUniversity of ZagrebTeaching ActivitiesFaculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology,University of Zagreb, Croatia– mass and energy balances;– chemical engineering;– biochemical engineering;– biocatalysis and biotransformations;– environmental engineering.Visiting professor at Faculty of Food Technology,University J. J. Strossmayer, Osijek, Croatia, since 2000:– chemical and biochemical engineering.Visiting professor at Facultyof Chemistry and Chemical En-gineering, University of Maribor,Slovenia, 2004/2005– biochemical engineering.Supervisor of more than 40B. Sc., 11 M. Sc. and 7 Ph. D.theses. Founder of the postgrad-uate study Environmental Engi-neering at University of Zagreb.Guest researcher at Insti-tute of Biotechnology 2, Re-search Centre Jülich, Germany,since 1985.Research interest– enzyme reaction engineering;– biotransformations;– bioreactors;– computer modeling;– biochemical engineering;– environmental engineering.Project contractor in 3 national and 3 interna-tional projects.Publicationsbooks: 2 chapters (BIA, Slovenia, VCH-Wiley,Gemany)refereed journals: 49refereed international proceedings: 18symposia, conferences, congresses: more than 70ConsultingSeveral consulting assignments to industry in thearea of chemical and biochemical engineering:Pliva, Zagreb/HR, Pinus, Raèe/SI, Vitiva, Nova vaspri Markovcah/SI60 Years Prof. Dr. Ðurða Vasiæ-Raèki, Chem. Biochem. Eng. Q. 20 (3) 225–226 (2006) 225MembershipsAssociate member of Croatian Academy of Tech-nical ScienceRegular member of working party AppliedBiocatalysis of European Federation of BiotechnologyMember of International Organization for Bio-technology and BioengineeringMember of Croatian Society of Chemical EngineersMember of Administrative board of Society ofUniversity Professors ZagrebEditorial Boards– Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Quar-terly (Croatian Society of Chemical Engineers,Slovenian Chemical Society and Austrian Associationof Bioprocess Technology, Zagreb);– Acta Chimica Slovenica (Slovenian ChemicalSociety, Ljubljana);– Bioprocess and Biosystem Engineering(Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg)Awards2003 – Golden diploma of University of Maribor,Slovenia2004 – Central European Initiative Award “FromResearch to Enterprise”2006 – Croatian State Award for ScienceA special issue of “Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Quarterly”is dedicated to Prof. Dr. Durda Vasic-Racki on the occasion of her 60th birthday.She is a member of the Editorial Board. She andher co-workers contributed quite frequently to thisjournal. She is a chemical engineer who was educatedat the University of Zagreb. I got to know her morethan twenty years ago when she was still an AssistantProfessor. Already at this time she was a guest re-searcher at our Institute of Biotechnology (ResearchCenter Jülich, Germany). Since then she was a guest inour institute every summer for two to three months. Ihad the pleasure to follow her career in Zagreb whereshe became an Associated Professor for chemical engi-neering (1987) and a Full Professor (1992).Since experimental working conditions at theUniversity of Zagreb were quite limited 20 years ago,she focussed herself on computer modelling. Sheis thus best-known for her research activity inmodel-based enzyme reaction engineering. Everysummer we could provide here with new experimen-tal data, which she carefully analysed by means ofcomputer modelling. This symbiosis between experi-mental and theoretical work was beneficial for bothsides. I remember that our PhD-students sometimessent data to Zagreb already before her visit to Jülich.Over the years the field of cooperation was ex-panded also to fermentation and down stream pro-cessing, so that many co-workers out of her group alsospend some time in Jülich. I especially remember thePhD-examination of Dr. Bruno Zelic in Zagreb, whereProf. Vasic-Racki and I were the referees. He just vis-ited our institute again (August 2006).In the meantime the situation for experimentalwork in the field of enzyme reaction engineering hasimproved a lot at the University of Zagreb. Prof.Vasic-Racki could attract in a most astonishing way alot of resources under difficult conditions. She wrotesuccessful grant proposals and could also convince in-dustrial partners to finance her work. Over the years,when her successful scientific work was more andmore recognised, she became member of several edi-torial boards and scientific associations (e.g. Associatemember of Croatian Academy of Technical Science(1992)).I would like to thank her for all her engagementduring so many years. Since she speaks perfect Ger-man, I had a better chance to get to know her warmpersonality and her modesty. I hope very much thatmore than twenty years of Croatian-German coopera-tion in the field of enzyme engineering will also be anillustrative example for our younger colleagues andco-workers, who finally have to carry on this work.Prof. Dr. C. Wandrey Jülich, Germany226 60 Years Prof. Dr. Ðurða Vasiæ-Raèki, Chem. Biochem. Eng. Q. 20 (3) 225–226 (2006)

60 Years Prof. Dr. Djurdja Vasic-Racki

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

HRČAK - Portal of Croatian Scientific and Professional Journals

Hrčak - Portal of scientific journals of Croatia