STA, 17 May 2022 - Mathematician Franc Forstnerič, a professor at the Ljubljana Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, is one of the three Slovenians who won the prestigious ERC Advanced Grant for established researchers this year. Maths is about creating order in the universe, says the recipient of the first ERC project for mathematics in Slovenia.

Forstnerič received the European Research Council (ERC) five-year grant worth nearly EUR 1.5 million for his project titled Holomorphic Partial Differential Relations, which is aimed at coming up with new methods and findings in the area of Oka manifolds and more generally of oriented holomorphic systems.

In 1985, Forstnerič completed his doctoral thesis about holomorphic mappings in several complex variables at the University of Washington in Seattle, US.

During his studies, he was introduced to the Oka-Grauert principle, which deals with the existence and properties of holomorphic mappings from certain classes of complex manifolds. At the time, he lacked the "mathematical maturity" he now has to build on the principle, he told the STA.

After he obtained his PhD, Forstnerič first returned to Ljubljana and then went on several extended research stays abroad. In 1997, he was back in Ljubljana, determined to work intensively on the Oka-Grauert principle.

"In 1989, an important article on the subject was published by the eminent Russian-French mathematician Mikhael Gromov, the recipient of the Abel Prize in 2009. Gromov put the theory on a new footing, introduced new techniques and suggested possible further development, but he did not present detailed proof.

"Gromov is a brilliant mathematician who has contributed key new ideas in a number of mathematical fields, but he often leaves the detailed arguments and further development to others," Forstnerič said.

He involved his PhD student Jasna Prezelj in the research, and together, in a few years, they managed to make a crucial breakthrough in the understanding of Gromov's ideas.

Forstnerič then went on to work on the problem of characterising the class of complex manifolds to which the results of the theory apply. In 2006, he characterised this class by a simple "convex approximation property" and by a number of other properties which were not obviously equivalent to each other.

"This manifold property means that any holomorphic mapping of a convex set in a complex Euclidean space can be approximated by holomorphic mappings of the entire Euclidean space into a given manifold," he explains. This has solved one of the key problems posed by Gromov, and within a few years a complete theory emerged.

Based on this, Forstnerič introduced a new class of complex manifolds into the literature in 2009, which he named Oka manifolds after the theory's originator, the Japanese mathematician Kiyoshi Oka (1901-1978).

Manifolds are geometric objects such as curves and surfaces. "The world we live in is a manifold," notes the Slovenian mathematician, adding: "We live on a sphere; the sphere, galaxies, the universe, these are all manifolds."

Complex manifolds always have an even number of dimensions. "There is an additional structure to them that defines a special class of mappings between these manifolds - holomorphic mappings."

One reason why holomorphic mappings are important is because they occur naturally in physical problems. "For example, if you want to design an aircraft wing, you need to study laminar flow. The wing is situated in a flow of air, this air will bounce off, the wing will change its direction, and this will cause buoyancy.

"This is what keeps the aircraft in the air. But when you want to model how that airflow is going to flow around the wing, you draw a shape and then you have to calculate what is going to happen. It is more straightforward to use conformal mapping to map this wing shape onto a circle. Having mapped it onto a circle, you have explicit solutions of laminar flow that avoids the circle. Then you map these solutions back using conformal mapping. This is one simple application of such mappings," Forstnerič said.

His Oka theory received significant recognition in 2020. "Every 10 years, the American Mathematical Society renews the classification of mathematical fields in cooperation with the German journal Zentralblatt fur Mathematik. There was no suitable field for this theory, so we proposed it and it was accepted.

"They introduced a new field called Oka Theory and Oka Manifolds. This is my contribution to the classification. As far as I know, this is the second such case in mathematics in Slovenia," he noted.

His work is also fascinating in that it has helped to bring the theory of this type of complex manifolds back home to Japan after 80 years. "My main contribution was to conceptualise the theory and therefore make it more widely applicable."

The ERC project awarded to Forstnerič will allow him to expand his research into this field and pave the way for the existence of solutions to a number of problems in complex analysis and geometry as well as other areas of mathematics and beyond.

It will also allow him to build an international team that will include another three or four researchers. The project will be carried out at the Ljubljana Faculty of Mathematics and Physics.

Forstnerič's work has inspired Japanese mathematician Yuta Kusakabe, who managed to make some important breakthroughs in this field in his PhD thesis in 2020.

"I have invited him to Slovenia. He has a young family, so he can't come at the moment, but since the project will last five years, I hope that during that time he will be able to get a sabbatical and come here," Forstnerič said, adding he is pleased he will be joined by another established researcher, Rafael Andrist.

In science it is very important to introduce a new concept at the right moment, he said. "Examples may have been discussed before, but once you introduce a relevant concept and show that it has many different characterisations that all lead to the same goal, then it can become the germ of a new theory."

This requires a good knowledge of a specific scientific field, the ability to detect and abstract key features, and a bit of serendipity, he added.

"Mathematics is, in a way, creating order in the universe. It's not just calculations. You have to establish a concept and based on this concept, develop a theory. Once you have the right concept, you can develop it further, but until you get it, it's all a bit foggy," Forstnerič said.

STA, 10 January 2022 - The European Research Council (ERC) has granted EUR 2.2 million in funding to the project PHAGECONTROL - Development of Host Manipulation by Bacteriophage, led by Anna Dragoš from the Biotechnical Faculty at the University of Ljubljana, a prominent researcher in the field of virus-bacteria interaction.

Out of the total funding awarded, around EUR 700,000 will be allocated for a precision microscope, which will be used to study viruses that enter bacteria and change their properties by inserting viral DNA into bacterial DNA.

Some of the altered properties of bacteria may be beneficial for humans, while others may change from harmless bacteria to pathogens. The project will establish new methods and create new molecular tools to study virus transmission, which could also improve predictions of the spread of epidemics in the future.

"We will study how viruses can change the behaviour of bacteria in the first phase, the second phase will cover the molecular mechanisms responsible for these changes, and in the third phase, we will test whether viruses change the behaviour of bacteria because they are cooperating or because they are manipulators," Dragoš explained.

"There is great potential in this project to discover a significant part of the genetic 'black box' of viruses, as well as new antimicrobial compounds carried by viruses. These could eventually find medical applications, for example as alternatives to antibiotics," she added.

Dragoš is the third University of Ljubljana researcher that managed to secure an ERC grant for her project. The first one was awarded in 2011 to Nedjeljka Žagar, a researcher in the field of meteorology, and the second one went to Marta Verginella from the Faculty of Arts in 2016.

STA, 29 January 2021 - The government has not yet okayed this year's call for applications to enrol in university courses in what the Slovenian Student Organisation (ŠOS) sees as an encroachment upon tertiary education autonomy. The University of Ljubljana management thinks the procedure could be jeopardised, a risk Prime Minister Janez Janša dismissed.

The government did not give its consent to the release of Slovenia's call for enrolment into tertiary education institutions for the student year 2021-2022 at Thursday's session.

According to Janša, the issue is of strategic nature, taking into account youth employability, and will have to be discussed by the relevant committee prior to the government's decision.

At today's briefing the prime minister went on to say that the government had not yet discussed the matter due to a lack of time since the Education Ministry had submitted the relevant documents only a few days ago and there was no time for the issue to be debated by the government committee in the first place.

A list of items currently being discussed by the government shows that the application call proposal was released a week ago.

Janša said at the briefing that the proposal would be discussed by the government next week.

The higher education act sets down that the institutions publish the call at least six months prior to the start of the student year, meaning on 1 April at the latest.

Time is running out though as the relevant timeline envisages the deadline to be set around 1 February.

The news of the developments comes as a shock to the chancellors of Slovenia's public universities, they said after today's Chancellors' Conference.

The chancellor of the University of Maribor, Zdravko Kavčič, who also chairs the conference, warned that the entire enrolment process hinged on the 1 February deadline.

Students should have enough time to decide on their academic path so any delays in this process, even if they have a legal basis, directly harm the entire generation of senior secondary school students, he noted.

On top of all Covid-related challenges, they are now facing uncertainties regarding the number of course vacancies that could not be resolved at the coming university open days, he said, calling for the proposal to be given a go-ahead as soon as possible.

If there is anything wrong with the current system, such shortcomings could be discussed, Ljubljana University Chancellor Igor Papič said, warning that the procedural timeline should be heeded though.

"I really don't understand why we're doing this to the young. Let's be sensible," he urged.

Their calls have been joined by Chancellor of University of Primorska Klavdija Kutnar and Nova Gorica University Pro-Chancellor Mladen Franko.

Kutnar noted that the developments put public universities on an unequal footing with private ones since the latter are not required to get the government's green light.

Addressing a letter to the government's secretary general Božo Predalič, she also inquired about the matter on Thursday in her capacity as the head of the higher education council, however she has not yet received a reply.

Papič told the newspaper Dnevnik today that this step by the government could have serious consequences as the entire 2021-2022 enrolment process could be at risk.

The left-leaning think-tank Alternative Academy concurred with him in a press release, saying that the developments were a brutal and dangerous dismantling of universities.

Janša meanwhile denied that today, first on Twitter and then at the briefing, saying that the procedure had not been blocked or jeopardised.

Since the proposal has not yet been discussed, the government could not tell whether it is good or bad, he added.

On the social media platform he wrote today that to discuss the proposal, the relevant committee required data on staffing needs of the business and public sectors and the state in general.

The labour market needs are of course part of the criteria relevant for preparing courses and setting the number of course vacancies, however they are not the only or the most vital criterion, said the ŠOS in a press release, adding that the government "has made the already challenging year even more difficult for all the students at uni and secondary schools".

The organisation noted that the government had not discussed the call even though it had been coordinated by stakeholders and the ministry.

Based on experience, the ŠOS expects that the number of vacancies will be restricted mostly in terms of liberal arts courses at public universities and that enrolment in private tertiary institutions will be promoted, which according to the organisation is not effective and is not related to the needs of the market.

The prime minister meanwhile told the briefing that vacancies could not be based on wishes expressed by those managing public faculties. The matter is the state's strategic development document that should be taken very seriously, he highlighted.

It makes no sense to pledge to become digital, green, advanced and innovative if we then fail to enable a sufficient number of youths to enrol in courses training for essential professions of the future, he noted.

Janša also posted on Twitter that the proposal envisaged the bulk of vacancies in liberal arts (39%), followed by science and technology (37%).

Responding to his statements, the chancellors said that the situation also depended on the available staff and the faculties' infrastructure, noting that it was hard to predict which professions would be essential in five years' time.

They also denied they could be responsible for any delays in the procedure.

At the briefing the prime minister said that he had instructed Education Minister Simona Kustec to look into the reasons for the proposal being submitted behind schedule and to sanction those responsible for this.

The Labour Ministry has been urged to present the staffing needs by the time the government is to discuss the proposal, he added.

The higher education trade union meanwhile addressed a letter to Kustec, voicing concern over the developments and highlighting it would oppose any potential attempts to destabilise public tertiary education institutions.

The trade union called on the minister to resolve the situation or step down.

The student councils of the Ljubljana, Maribor and Primorska universities are also condemning the fact that the government has not yet greenlit the proposal, warning about the ramifications of this. They think the government has thus indicated that education is no longer regarded as a public good.

The councils condemn any education-related restrictions and urge the government to include student university representatives in the discussion.

SVIZ, the main trade union of teachers, is also upset by the developments and expects the ministry to resolutely call for the government's immediate go-ahead for the proposal.

The Education Ministry meanwhile told the STA later that it submitted the proposal on 22 January. In line with regulations, the matter will be first discussed by both relevant government committees on Tuesday and then at a government session, it added.

The government discusses the proposal and relevant documents every year, "the only difference this year is that the documents were submitted to the government too late to wrap up the discussion by 1 February".

The opposition Left has announced it will request an emergency session of the parliamentary Education Committee to discuss the matter and other opposition parties intend to back this. The parties see the government's step as yet another reason for tabling the ouster motion against Kustec.

STA, 20 January 2021 - An international team of researchers headed by Marko Anderluh of the Ljubljana Faculty of Pharmacy and Nikola Minovski of the Chemistry Institute has synthesized molecules that could result in new treatments for super resistant bacteria.

The expert group demonstrated the mechanism of action of these new molecules for the first time, the Faculty of Pharmacy said.

This breakthrough will help develop new, more effective medicines to tackle one of the key global problems of the 21st century - anti-microbial resistance, which is one of the ten most dire threats to public health, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The occurrence and spread of pathogens resistant to medicines jeopardise effective treatment of common infections.

"The main achievement of the researchers is the development of bacterial type II topoisomerase inhibitors (NBTI) with the innovative segment of the molecule. The produced molecules, which have been patented, have an extraordinary potent antibacterial effect since they are even more efficient in inhibiting the proliferation of bacterial cells."

The new molecules could boost the treatment of bacterial infections by affecting resistant bacterial strains that hardly respond to the existent antimicrobials.

The breakthrough has also proved the existence of special halogen bonds in biological macromolecules, which has not yet been identified in a biological system.

Four Slovenian scientists and six from the UK worked on the study, which took four years. Its findings were presented in a peer-reviewed paper in Nature Communications on 8 January (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20405-8).

STA, 15 September 2020 - The Ljubljana Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the Guangdong University of Petrochemical Technology (GDUPT) have agreed to build an institute to research intelligent manufacturing methods of advanced materials in Guangdong Province, China.

According to the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, the Advanced Material Intelligent Manufacture Research Institute (AMIMRI) is to be set up by 2023 in a joint effort.

Last week, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of Ljubljana and the Guangdong University of Petrochemical Technology signed an annex to the cooperation agreement they signed in 2018.

They committed to transferring existing knowledge between Slovenian and Chinese academic and industrial environments, building an experimental laboratory on the site of AMIMRI, the establishment of a doctoral study of mineral wool technologies, the establishment of joint Slovenian-Chinese research projects and the publication of the new institute's research results in scientific articles and patents.

According to the faculty, they also plan to research the mineral wool market in China and establish networks with new companies, which will be able to achieve a significant improvement in technology development in cooperation with the AMIMRI.

The Chinese partner has committed to provide EUR 300,000 for the work of Slovenian researchers over a period of three years, as well as EUR 250,000 for the material costs of building the institute.

The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering added that representatives of two manufacturers of mineral wool insulation products were also present at the virtual signing of the annex last Wednesday, and they expressed great interest in cooperation.

The University of Ljubljana (Univerza v Ljubljani) has issued a warning that a number of individuals, the majority from India, have been sent fake letters of acceptance, along with a request for tuition to be paid.

If you did not apply to the University of Ljubljana, then any acceptance letter you receive is false. If you did apply but the letter you received seems suspicious, then you’re advised to look out for these four warning signs:

• Does the letter ask you to send money to certain account? The University never sends letters that ask this.
• Is the name of the faculty or academy correct? There’s a list of the official names here if you are not sure.
• Are any email addresses for the University correct? All official email addresses have the suffix @uni-lj.si.
• Is the letter signed by Vice-Dean Gabor Janos Vamos? The University has Vice-Rectors, and no Janos Vamos works there.

The University also provides two examples of false letters, PDF form (False letter 1; False letter 2).

STA, 15 July 2020 - One hundred years to the day the first ever doctorate was awarded at a Slovenian university. Ana Mayer received a doctorate in chemistry after completing at the newly-established University of Ljubljana her chemistry studies which she started in Vienna before the collapse of Austria-Hungary.

Mayer, born in 1895 in Lože near Vipava, south-western Slovenia, started studying chemistry and physics at the Vienna university in 1914.

She was forced to leave in 1918 when the university decided after the end of WWI that all Slavic students must leave it, according to the kvarkadabra.net website.

Mayer continued her studies after Ljubljana got the first university in 1919, earning the doctorate on 15 July 1920 as the first student and the first women.

Even before her doctorate, she started working at the university as an assistant at the Chemistry Institute, as the first woman to teach at the university.

Although she wanted to continue the academic career, she quit in 1922 for what could be a lack of funding at the institute, her marriage to Evgen Kansky, a professor of medicine, or because she was pregnant.

She thus went into business, setting up a company which became synonymous with quality chemical substances and pursued a successful business career.

She also established a factory of diethyl ether and solvents for varnishes in Podgrad near Ljubljana, laying the foundations for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries in Slovenia. The factory was first seized by the Nazis and then nationalised by the communist authorities in 1948.

Ana Mayer-Kansky had three children and died in 1962, whereas her husband, who was forced to retire in the autumn of 1945, died 15 years after her.

A painting of Ana Mayer-Kansky by Henrika Šantel,1932. Source: Wikipedia, publc domain

According to Slovenia's Statistics Office (SURS), almost 11,600 students have earned their doctorates in Slovenia since the country became independent in 1991.

There were over 3,300 doctoral students in the 2019/2020 academic year and in 2019 there were almost 13,200 persons with a PhD in Slovenia - a mere 0.6% of the population.

There was at least one person with a PhD in all but five Slovenian municipalities, while 18 municipalities had more than 100.

Ljubljana as the largest city and home to the oldest and largest Slovenian university had more than 5,530 doctors of science, which was 42% of all doctors in Slovenia.

The number of residents with a PhD in Slovenia is increasing, having risen by 585 a year over the past five years, according to SURS.

STA, 21 April 2020 - Slovenia's leading telecommunication providers are all opening shop again this week to join a number of retailers and other services providers that reopened on Monday after five weeks of coronavirus lockdown.

Telemach already started reopening its shops on Monday, AI Slovenija opened all of them today, T-2 plans a gradual reopening starting Wednesday, while Telekom Slovenije is to start welcoming customers at its major centres on Thursday after it has already opened some of its smaller branch offices.

All the providers stressed they would implement protective measures, including by reserving the first and final business hours for vulnerable groups.

In a major sign of the easing of the coronavirus epidemic and the lockdown restrictions associated with it, DIY stores, car showrooms, stores selling bicycles, technical goods and furniture, dry cleaners and some repair shops, including tyre replacement shops, are resuming their operations this week.

As a growing number of businesses reopen, passenger transport organised by business subjects or local communities to bring employees to work and back has been allowed too.

However, protective measures remain in force for all stores, including the obligatory wearing of masks or some other face coverings, hand sanitising, airing of premises and allowing 20 square metres per customer.

The government imposed a temporary ban on most retail establishments in mid March to contain the coronavirus epidemic.

Only grocery stores, pharmacies, banks, post offices, petrol stations, news stands and stores selling agricultural products remained open until pet food shops were added to the exemptions from 21 March and florist shops and nurseries from 3 April, along with construction works not involving contacts with customers.

Yet more services will be available from 4 May, with the reopening of hair salons, beauty parlours, dog and cat grooming salons and shops of up to 400 m2 sales space, except for those in shopping centres.

Ljubljana University planning exit strategy, lowering credit points threshold

STA, 21 April 2020 - The senate of the University of Ljubljana has called on its members to adjust the conditions required for students to advance to their next year of studies given that the teaching process has been disrupted despite a successful switch to remote learning. While the plan is to continue with remote classes, an exit strategy is in the making.

University of Ljubljana Chancellor Igor Papič told the STA on Tuesday that along with enabling students to advance normally by lowering the credit points threshold, it was equally important that students do not lose the chance to enrol again in the same year, as the loss of student status would affect their social situation.

He explained that the plan was to continue with remote classes also after 3 May where only possible, so that students are not exposed to risk unnecessarily.

Laboratory classes present an issue that will be hard to solve until restrictions are lifted, while another pending problem are the approaching summer exams that are taken by over 100 students simultaneously.

The faculties that are part of Slovenia's largest and oldest university have however been urged to prepare for a gradual lifting of restrictions, and Papič announced an exit strategy would be drawn up.

He meanwhile assessed the remote learning system that has been set up as successful, allowing around 85% of the programme to be covered. Also running successfully are oral defences of dissertations, with over 130 conducted remotely so far.

The other week we presented a review of recent scientific research and discoveries that were made in Slovenia, so this week we thought we’d point to some of the work on the humanities that you can find online.

The Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana (Filozofska fakulteta Univerze v Ljubljani) currently publishes 15 academic journals, and makes each edition freely available as a PDF. These include Acta Neophilologica (promoting scholarly articles on English and American literature, on other literatures written in English as well as on German and Romance literatures), Documenta Praehistorica (a yearly journal of archaeological interdisciplinary scientific research), Keria (covering all fields of Greek and Latin studies), The Musicological Annual (with publishing papers from various fields of musicology and ethnomusicology), Slovenščina 2.0: empirical, applied and interdisciplinary research (presenting theoretical and interdisciplinary research on the Slovene language, and perhaps most interesting to readers of TSN) and Verba Hispanica (on linguistics and literature in Spanish). The full list is here, and although not every article is published in English there’s plenty to explore if you’re looking for some insight into what’s happening at this part of the University.

Publishing in English at the University of Ljubljana

Beyond journals the Faculty also publishes books. Again, not everything is in English – this is the University of Ljubljana – but there’s plenty to browse and PDF versions are available for free.

To give some taste of the variety, there’s 101 ENGLISH TIPS: A Quick Guide to Avoiding “Slovenglish” (plus volume 2) in the English Language & Literature section, Sounds of Attraction: Yugoslav and Post-Yugoslav Popular Music in Ethnology & Cultural Anthropology, and Dictionary of Modern Slovene: Problems and Solutions in Translation Studies, Among the Slavs in Slavistics, with the full list of publications here.

STA, 9 December 2019 – The British business newspaper the Financial Times has ranked the University of Ljubljana's School of Economics and Business among the 95 best business schools in Europe for the second consecutive time [at 89]. The faculty sees this achievement as a recognition of its quality in the international arena.

The Financial Times has thus put Slovenia on the map of top-quality business education, said the Ljubljana-based faculty when it first made the cut.

The ranking requires having at least one of the top international accreditations - the AACSB and EQUIS-accredited Ljubljana school has both as well as the AMBA accreditation, while its International Master in Business programme has been ranked as one of the best business programmes.

The faculty pointed out that its students had at their disposal exchange programmes at five foreign business schools which had also made the grade, including French KEDGE, Norwegian BI, French Audencia, Portuguese ISCTE and French ESSCA.

The Ljubljana School of Economics and Business also hosts a PhD summer school programme along with the Swiss St. Gallen University business school, which traditionally ranks among top four schools according to the Financial Times. It also takes part in the EUTOPIA partnership of six European universities.

All our stories about the University of Ljubljana are here, while the full FT rankings can be found here