Employee Notices

Celebrating UP’s 20th anniversary on Wednesday, employees asked themselves how we can be an even better version of ourselves, a UP 2.0 version. This kind of reflection is not limited to round anniversaries, however, but also spurs us on, which is why the name for Wednesday’s employee activities has been kept. We would like to thank all those who have made the effort to organise sports, educational and cultural activities, based on the wishes expressed in the employee surveys, for the beautiful act of building good and collegial relations. 

A meeting on the book “Why are you silent, Hava?”, by the young Copra author Selma Skenderova, took place in the Armeria’s Lobby, where the participants of the Walk with the Artists (Friday, 22 March) will be guided through Koper, and at this event, the participants chatted about the book during the walk.

Various workshops were held for the staff – 5x 5 LANGUAGE TIPS – for the second time, by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vladka Tucovič Sturman, during which she gave a practical presentation of the most frequently observed language slip-ups that need correction. A WORKSHOP ON THE BASICS OF BUSINESS BONTON was held at UP FM, led by Dr. Simona Kustec, and was aimed at all those who want to learn and understand the key skills for successful appearance in the business world. EMPATHETIC TRAINING: STRENGTHENING CONCENTRATION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL RESILIENCE IN THE WORKPLACE (UP IAM SCRS) – the participants of the workshop discovered the power of empathy to improve concentration and psychological resilience in the work environment.  UP COMMUNICATION OFFICE offered a workshop on DIGITAL COMMUNICATION – Karin Marinič, UP Social Media Editor, presented ways to optimise editing and traffic on social media, how to format posts and what to look out for when posting on different platforms. A workshop “WHY LEARN ARABIC?” was also held at UP FHŠ – with the help of Dr Polona Oblak, participants learned how to greet and introduce themselves in Arabic.

There were also lectures:

– PRESENTATION OF THE VOLUMES: REFUGEE STORIES AND GLOBAL FACES OF AGING (UP FM) – the event started with Dr Primož Štrbenc talking about migrant flows from the Middle East, the wider Muslim world and Africa, followed by Dr Majda Naji presenting the two volumes.

– OPTIMISATION OF SLEEP (UP FVZ, SPORT UP) – at the workshop, participants had the opportunity to learn about how sleep works, the impact of daily activities on sleep quality and practical tools they can use to improve the quality and duration of sleep and, consequently, their long-term health and well-being. The workshop was facilitated by Luka Kejžar (UP FVZ, SportUP).

– HOW TO COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY? (UP FAMNIT) – with Dr Vesna Jug, they touched upon communication filters and barriers, different communication skills (positions in communication, forms of communication, active listening, checking understanding, asking questions and strong questions), assertiveness, etc.

The exhibition Portorož villas – architectural heritage and tourism of quiet luxury from the beginning of the 20th century was opened at UP FTŠ Turistica. The exhibition shows the rich architectural heritage of Portorož, with an emphasis on the flourishing of villas as a building object of the wealthier class of the population, which coincides with the rise of Portorož as a fashionable resort at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The opening was followed by a one-hour lecture by mag. Tomi Brezovec.

In the late afternoon, a lecture on self-improvement through fairy tales will be held at UP PEF, and a trip to the mathematical universe on the Sudoku game at UP FAMNIT.

    

     

   

December is also a time for children to come together, including the children of UP employees. This year, for the first time, a visit from Santa Claus was organised for the children of all employees at the same time – they gathered on two dates, Monday and Tuesday, in the festively decorated lobby of our faculty.

The visit of the good man, with a performance for children, was marked by the involvement of UP employees and students – the role of real and traditional Santa claus was kindly and excellently played by assoc. prof. dr. Stanko Pelc (UP FHŠ, UP PEF), and the theatre performance “The Magic Hat” was prepared and performed by UP PEF students, who engaged the children in active participation with the magical animals in the forest.

The event was also marked by charity, as the children brought contributions for the charity campaign of Radio Capris (Warm Heart Fridge), supported by UP – so they received and gave joy and completed the circle of December kindness.

In 2003, on March 17 exactly,  University of Primorska was entered in the court register. Yesterday, March 17, 2022, we celebrated its 19th birthdday on the Ceremonial Academy in the Hall of St. Francis, where awards and prizes of the University of Primorska were presented.

In the introductory part of the ceremony, Klavdija Kutnar, PhD, Rector of the University of Primorska, greeted the visitors and highlighted the key achievements of the last year. Katja Kosem, Vice President of the UP Student Council, presented the students’ wishes in regard to the covid-19 epidemic. The keynote speaker was Mag. Robert Ljoljo, President of the Management Board of Lek d. d., who stressed the importance of cooperation in mixed research teams, as they bring together different views. Among other, he mentioned a joint project with UP FAMNIT, which allowed mutual exchange of knowledge. 

The Rector, together with the Vice-Rector and the Deans, presented the awards of the University of Primorska, among them employees and students of UP FAMNIT.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jasna Prezelj

Nominated by UP FAMNIT and UP IAM, the Golden Plaque of the University of Primorska is awarded to Jasna Prezelj for her contribution to the development of the UP and for her important role in the successful realization of the 8th European Congress of Mathematics, which strengthened the reputation and visibility of UP in both the global university network and the wider Slovenian society.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jasna Prezelj is a higher education teacher in the field of mathematics who received her Doctorate in 2000 from the University of Ljubljana and is the leading expert of her generation in the field of complex analysis. She has been employed at UP since 2014. In addition to scientific research and pedagogical work, she also promotes the popularization of science and the visibility of the UP. She is the founder of the Mathematical Advent Calendar, which UP FAMNIT has created annually from 2015 onwards. As an extremely active member of the organizing committee of the 8^th European Congress of Mathematics (taking care of sponsorship and donor funds, organization of the contests, organization of the section in the field of complex and quaternionic geometry and of satellite conferences for representatives of Slovenian insurance companies and actuarial associations), she contributed to its successful implementation in 2021.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jasna Prezelj

Prof. Dr. Elena Bužan

Nominated by UP FAMNIT and UP IAM, the University Award for Scientific Excellence of the University of Primorska for 2021 is awarded to Elena Bužan for the publication of 10 original scientific articles in the Web of Science in 2021.

Prof. Dr. Elena Bužan received her Doctorate from the University of Ljubljana in 2007, and has been employed at UP FAMNIT since its establishment. Her research area includes a number of intertwined sciences, such as molecular ecology, biochemistry, conservation biology, conservation and the genetics of population and immunology. A special emphasis of her research is on the use of molecular biology techniques in basic and applied research in the fields of evolution, biogeography and conservation of natural heritage.

Her bibliography consists of 53 original scientific articles (10 of which were published in 2021) in the Web of Science database and includes 523 in-text citations. Among other things she is successful at obtaining international projects. She is the project manager of Horizon “STEP CHANGE: Science Transformation in EuroPe through Citizens involvement in HeAlth, coNservation and enerGy rEsearch”, and has participated in the successful implementation of three more Horizon projects and in a number of other research projects.

The nominee is also a national coordinator of the European Reference Genome Atlas initiative and a member of the editorial board of the international scientific journal Ornitologia Neotropical.

Prof. Dr. Elena Bužan

Besfort Shala

Nominated by UP FAMNIT, the »Srečko Kosovel« award for students is awarded to Besfort Shala.

Besfort Shala, under the mentorship of Assoc. Prof.  Russ Woodroofe, wrote the final project paper titled “The Probabilistic Zeta Function of a Finite Lattice”. In the work, Besfort examines a definition of Ken Brown’s 2000 article. The little-studied definition of this article generalizes the Dirichlet series, obtained from (the coset lattice of) a group, to a similar series obtained from any lattice. The original purpose of the task was for the student to try to calculate what happens to this series on simple cases, such as a partition lattice. The student was quick to notice that the partition lattice does not usually give ordinary Dirichlet series because rational numbers appear in the base. As a result, he continued to demonstrate a more cautious version of this as well as similar results for other types of lattices. A student research project is successful when a student tells a mentor something they do not already know. According to the mentor, this happened early and several times in this project. In fact, the student was quite independent, as several ideas for definitions came mostly alone. The result of the project is a well-written dissertation, which is almost a publication-worthy article.

Amar Bapić

Nominated by Student Council UP and UP FAMNIT, the Recognition of the University of Primorska for students of the University of Primorska is given to Amar Bapić.

Amar Bapić is a doctoral student of 3rd year Mathematical Sciences at UP FAMNIT. From 2018, he has been an active member of the UP FAMNIT Student Council and, from 2020, also its Vice-President. During this time, he actively participated in the organization of numerous events for students. He aims to equip students with as much useful information as possible, and at the same time he remains available to them for individual questions. He also manages the (graphic) creation of content by getting as close as possible to the students. Since 2019, he has been a representative of students on the UP Management Board. In the academic year 2020/21, he was the head of volunteers at the 8^th European Congress of Mathematics, hosted by our university in Portorož in June 2021. In addition to his role as a volunteer coordinator, he helped with the creation of a large pool of promotional materials and in obtaining databases to facilitate analysis of information about congress participants. He was also part of the technical support group for the operation of the Zoom videoconferencing system at the location and online. At any given opportunity he also promotes the UP on the international level (visits to primary and secondary schools, universities, presentations). Among other things, he toured the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Tuzla this past year, presenting the benefits of volunteering at 8ECM and study programmes at UP, and presented a system of cooperation of foreign students with tutor students at Erasmus Days 2021 organized by UP. His role as a tutor at UP FAMNIT began in 2021.

Amar Bapić

The list of award recipients and the justifications can be viewed here.

We congratulate all receipents of The University of Primorska awards!