''An Unusual Path Through the World to Study the Sky'' - Vernesa Smolčić

Critical thinking is the key for understanding the world we live in, and developing the ability to dismiss fake information. By learning, we broaden our minds and we grow.
 
Born in Croatia, Vernesa Smolčić spent a significant portion of her childhood in Germany, and returned there for a PhD in astronomy. She continued her education in the United States, where she spent two years as a postdoctoral scholar, and eventually she returned to Croatia as a University (astrophysics) professor.
 
Professor Smolčić will use  examples from her career to show how learning can be fun in and outside of the classroom (or office), and how we sometimes learn without even knowing we are learning. The talk is intended to leave a lot of space for discussion, and we are looking forward to (hopefully) many questions.

The program is organized by American Corner Zagreb as part of ''Student Mobility: U.S. Perspective'', a series of monthly sessions by American Corner Zagreb supported by U.S. Embassy Zagreb.

This event will take place at Knjižnica Augusta Cesarca, Šubićeva 40/2, and over Zoom. Registration is required, please register at  https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUvd-GgrjMqGNxzQNHF_gZ0crdOzr3qeh4e.

About the Speaker

Prof. dr. sc. Vernesa Smolčić is a world-renowned astrophysicist and full professor at the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb. She continued her studies in the USA, Germany and Australia, and after nine years of work and training at the best universities in the world, she returned to Croatia.

Her research focuses on the formation and development of galaxies, she studies active galactic nuclei, radio galaxies and extragalactic star formation. She is a member of numerous international collaborations, and in some of them she holds leadership positions, such as in the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) and The Ultimate XMM Extragalactic Survey.

She has published over 140 scientific papers and received numerous awards for her work, such as the Ernst Patzer Award, Zagreb Woman of the Year 2014, Recognition of the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Science for significant scientific achievement and contribution to the reputation of the Faculty of Science, COSMO Scientist of the Year 2015, State Award for Science for 2017, Award of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts for the highest scientific and artistic achievements in the Republic of Croatia for 2019 in the field of mathematical, physical and chemical sciences, and was included in the list of most successful people of generation 2013 by Forbes magazine.

In addition to the prestigious ERC Starting Grant for the project “Constraining Stellar Mass and Supermassive Black Hole Growth through Cosmic Times: Paving the Way for the Next Generation Sky Surveys”, she has led numerous scientific projects. Professor Smolčić is very active in popularizing science and runs a project called Astroučionica, a web platform intended for the popularization of astronomy. Astroučionica was created during the implementation of the ERC project in 2018 and has continued to grow since then. Professor Smolčić participated in the creation of the picture book for children “Psi u svemiru” (“Dogs in space”) and she is the co-author of the cookbook for children “Astrokuharica” (“Astro cookbook"). 

Bibliography:
https://www.bib.irb.hr/pregled/profil/31747?page=6

Biography:
https://cuc.carnet.hr/2022/programski-odbor/vernesa-smolcic/

Interview with Vernesa Smolčić