Morten Peter Meldal, Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry (2022), is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen and head of the Center of Evolutionary Chemical Biology. He is best known for his distinctive role in the development of click chemistry and methods used in peptide and combinatorial chemistry.
Prof. Meldal has published over 300 publications, holds 21 patents, and is the founder and CSO of Betamab, a company that conducts biotechnology and pharmacological research, diagnostics and pharmaceutical development. His primary fields of research include medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, organic chemistry, polymer science, combinatorial chemistry, enzymology and nanomaterials.
He is a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, and recipient of numerous international awards, including those from the American Chemical Society and the American Peptide Society.
Dominik Cinčić is an Associate Professor at the Chemistry Department of the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb. He has authored over 80 scientific publications and over 250 oral and poster presentations at national and international conferences. He is experienced in crystallization of molecular solids, polymorphism, cocrystal, and salt screening of pharmaceuticals, mechanochemical and solvent-free synthesis of diverse organic and metal-organic materials, as well as in crystallography. Current research in his group is focused on the study of halogen bonding synthons as well as crystal engineering of halogen-bonded cocrystals containing organic and metal-organic acceptors. As a lecturer, he teaches inorganic and supramolecular chemistry courses at undergraduate, graduate, and PhD levels of study. He has also been active in science popularization since 2007, participating in the annual "Chemistry Magic" (cro. Čarolije u kemiji) and "Open Day of the Chemistry Department at the Faculty of Science" events.
Tomislav Begušić completed his bachelor’s in chemistry in 2015 at the University of Zagreb before moving to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, where he obtained his master’s (2017) and PhD (2021) degrees in chemistry. There, he focused on developing efficient semiclassical methods for computing steady-state and time-resolved electronic spectroscopy. He then moved to California to work with Thomas Miller and Geoffrey Blake at Caltech, with whom he proposed new tools for simulating two-dimensional vibrational spectra beyond conventional classical molecular dynamics methods. In 2023, he joined the group of Garnet Chan, Caltech, where he worked on topics related to quantum computing and quantum spin dynamics. Tomislav will join the University of Würzburg as a professor in September 2025.
Sanja Belić is an Associate Professor at the University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Environmental Protection where she teaches several courses at all levels of study. In addition to her home faculty, she also teaches at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad within the master's program in Conservation and Restoration, and teaches chemistry to exceptionally gifted students at the "Jovan Jovanović Zmaj" Gymnasium in Novi Sad. She is the author of two university textbooks and two high school textbooks. Alongside her teaching activities, she is actively engaged in scientific research, with over 40 scientific papers published in leading journals. Her research focuses on the synthesis, characterization, toxicity testing, and application of ionic liquids in analytical techniques and separation methods.
Ivan Ilić studied chemistry in Zagreb and Berlin. He did his Ph.D. at Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in the department of Prof. Markus Antonietti researching sustainable cathodes for lithium-ion batteries derived from biowaste. Upon finishing his studies in 2020, he continued working in the same department developing anodes for sodium-ion batteries based on hard carbon materials in the project led by Prof. Martin Oschatz. In the group of Dr. Mario Caironi at the Italian Institute of Technology he developed the first edible rechargeable battery, listed by TIME Magazine: The Best Inventions of 2023. Since 2023, he is working in Electrochaea, a leading provider of biomethanation technology, as a team leader in bioelectrochemistry.
Tanja Poljak, PhD is a Senior Chemistry Director at Selvita d.o.o., with over two decades in medicinal chemistry. Holding a Ph.D. in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from the University of Zagreb, she has a proven track record of leading drug discovery projects from hit-to-lead to preclinical candidate selection at companies like Fidelta, Galapagos, and GlaxoSmithKline.
Her expertise spans synthetic and medicinal chemistry, focusing on designing drug-like compounds across various therapeutic areas, with multiple patent applications to her name. Dr. Poljak is also a skilled team leader and adept at managing client relationships and strategic initiatives within the CRO environment.
