This year’s Dr Uroš Seljak prizes and commendations are awarded at the University of Ljubljana for the third year: 10,000 US dollars for the best academic papers by students in Slovenia

Dr Uroš Seljak, professor in the Department of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley, University of Ljubljana alumnus and ASEF mentor, received a prestigious Gruber Prize in 2021, awarded by the Gruber Foundation at Yale University, for his important contributions to cosmology research. Using his prize money of 150,000 US dollars, Dr Seljak established a charitable prize fund for first- and second-cycle students. The prizes, worth 10,000 US dollars in total, are awarded every year to the best academic papers by Slovenian students from any educational institution in the country. 

This year the prizes went to Manca Lunder from the Ljubljana Faculty of Health Sciences for her paper ‘Cold atmospheric plasma for surface disinfection: a promising weapon against deleterious meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus biofilms’ (supervised by Associate Professor Rok Fink), Jer Pelhan from the Ljubljana Faculty of Computer and Information Science (‘DAVE – A Detect-and-Verify Paradigm for Low-Shot Counting’, supervised by Dr Matej Kristan) and Zala Korenjak from the Jožef Stefan Institute (‘Smectic and Soap Bubble Optofluidic Lasers’, supervised by Assistant Professor Matjaž Humar).

Commendations were awarded to Marta Leban from the Ljubljana Faculty of Pharmacy (‘Determination of linearized pDNA template in mRNA production process using HPLC, supervised by Assistant Professor Jurij Trontelj), Ema Mlinar from the Ljubljana Faculty of Mathematics and Physics (‘Determining cosmological growth parameter for stellar-mass black hole’, supervised by Professor Tomaž Zwitter), Anja Neža Šmid from the Biotechnical Faculty in Ljubljana (‘Effects of Oral Iron Supplementation on Blood Iron Status in Athletes: A Systematic Review, Meta‑Analysis and Meta‑Regression of Randomized Controlled Trials’, supervised by Dr Petra Golja) and Valentin Vogrinčič, also from the Biotechnical Faculty (‘Phytosulfokine alpha enhances regeneration of transformed and untransformed protoplasts of Brassica oleracea’, supervised by Associate Professor Jana Murovec).

Dr Seljak attended the prize-giving ceremony in person for the first time this year, saying: ‘I’m delighted that word of these prizes has spread and that we are receiving more and more high-quality papers every year. This does, however, cause a certain amount of headache, as we can only award them to three students. We have resolved this dilemma somewhat in the manner of King Solomon – by giving out commendations as well. I congratulate all prizewinners and commendation recipients, and wish them every success in the future.’ Dr Seljak also stressed the important role played by supervisors, who usually nominate the best papers, in encouraging research work by students.

Professor Gregor Majdič, University of Ljubljana Rector, pointed out that the Dr Uroš Seljak Fund plays an extremely important role in strengthening the scientific and academic potentials of young people in Slovenia and emboldening them to resolve contemporary challenges. ‘The challenges we face as individuals, as nations and as a global community are not inconsiderable, but we will only overcome them with large amounts of knowledge and the transfer of that knowledge to the whole of society. To build a better world, we must truly become a knowledge society, and the leaders of that new society can only be well-educated young people who understand the problems and know how to solve them, how to create new knowledge and, also, know how that knowledge can and should be used for the benefit of all humanity.’

The members of the Dr Uroš Seljak Prize expert committee – Professor Simon Horvat from the Ljubljana Biotechnical Faculty (chair), Dr Uroš Seljak, Dr Klementina Fon Tacer from Texas Tech University, Dr Veronika Fikfak from University College London, Dr Andrej Košmrlj from Princeton University, Professor Marta Verginella from the Ljubljana Faculty of Arts, Professor Maruša Bradač from the Ljubljana Faculty of Mathematics and Physics – represent a variety of different academic disciplines, including the natural sciences, technical sciences and biotechnology, human and veterinary medicine, the social sciences and the humanities. This year they were tasked with choosing from among 22 papers submitted.

Chair of the committee Professor Horvat said that their work had been extremely difficult this year because of the number of very high-quality entries on a range of interesting subjects, and encouraged all young researchers who were not successful this time round to take part again next year. ‘These prizes should serve as a symbol of the power of science and a reminder to all of us that we can build a future together with its help,’ he pointed out in his closing remarks at the ceremony. ‘We are going to need even more ambitious and committed future scientists and scholars with bold ideas and the kind of ethical and moral approach that has been displayed by these Dr Uroš Seljak Prize candidates – especially in a world that appears more and more uncertain about the importance of science when it comes to the welfare of humanity and the planet generally.’

The Dr Uroš Seljak Prizes for the best student papers were first awarded in 2022.

Manca Lunder from the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Health Sciences, who is supervised by Associate Professor Rok Fink, received a Dr Uroš Seljak Prize for her paper titled ‘Cold atmospheric plasma for surface disinfection: a promising weapon against deleterious meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus biofilms’. 

Manca’s research work focuses on MRSA biofilms and the antibiotic-resistant variant of the Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) bacteria, which causes between 25% and 50% of hospital infections worldwide. MRSA was confirmed in 9.8% of the 711 reported cases of S. aureus infection in Slovenia in 2020.

Her research represents a breakthrough in tackling multidrug-resistant bacteria in hospital settings in a way that is both effective and safe for the patient as well as the environment. Given the public health challenges we face today, the current ongoing research in the field of cold atmospheric plasma is highly likely to play an important role in human health in the future.

 

Jer Pelhan from the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Computer and Information Science, who is supervised by Professor Matej Kristan, received a Dr Uroš Seljak Prize for his paper titled ‘DAVE – A Detect-and-Verify Paradigm for Low-Shot Counting’.

Jer’s research focuses on the problem of detecting and counting objects based on only a very small number of exemplars. The classic methods of detecting objects require training on extremely large datasets that are expensive to access. In many new cases, this makes object detection impossible without existing datasets. Such cases are common in microbiological cell-counting research, on production lines or in more general cases, when new objects or vehicles in traffic have to be counted, for example.

Jer has proposed a new counting method, DAVE, based on the original architecture of a neural network. It recently excited considerable interest at the most prestigious international computer vision conference in the US. He presented the preliminary results at the Slovenian ERK 2023 conference, receiving a prize for the best paper in the Pattern Recognition category.

 

Zala Korenjak from the Jožef Stefan Institute received a Dr Uroš Seljak Prize for a paper titled ‘Smectic and Soap Bubble Optofluidic Lasers’. Her supervisor is Assistant Professor Matjaž Humar.

Zala’s research paper is the first to show, characterise and put to practical use the emission of laser light from soap bubbles and smectic liquid crystals. In order to get them to emit laser light, soap bubbles are doped with a fluorescent dye and pumped with an external laser. The light generated is caught in the wall of the bubble, where it circulates near the surface. This makes the bubble work as a laser cavity on the principle of the ‘whispering gallery mode’ of optical resonance. This light is visible as a bright ring around the bubble.

In the future, this unique system could also be used to accurately measure other quantities that can change the shape of the bubble, such as air flow or magnetic field, or used as an extremely sensitive microphone, or for the study of new optical and mechanical phenomena in thin films and cavity optomechanics.

 

Marta Leban, who studies at the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Pharmacy and is supervised by Assistant Professor Jurij Trontelj, received a Dr Uroš Seljak Commendation for a paper titled ‘Determination of linearized pDNA template in mRNA production process using HPLC’.

Marta’s research work has focused on developing analytical methods for quantifying DNA impurities in mRNA products. She has developed a simpler method, which is at the same time selective, accurate, precise and sensitive, and is capable of detecting quantities of less than 1 ng of residual plasmid DNA, thereby meeting the regulatory requirements for determining the presence of DNA in mRNA products. By using the method on samples from real mRNA purification processes, Marta has been able to ascertain which currently established mRNA purification processes do not remove DNA to a sufficient degree and which do.

The method she has developed has put her at the heart of the ‘mRNA revolution’ and contributed to a better understanding of mRNA production processes. This will lead to higher-quality products for use in the future in medicines and vaccines.

 

Ema Mlinar from the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, who is supervised by Professor Tomaž Zwitter, received a Dr Uroš Seljak Commendation for a paper titled ‘Determining cosmological growth parameter for stellar-mass black holes’.

The most important property of black holes is their mass, which is sufficiently great that we are unable to describe such non-radiation-emitting phenomena in any other way – for example, as normal stars. We usually assume that the mass of a black hole does not change (obviously unless it draws substances in from its surroundings). 

In her research, Ema refers to the hypothesis that states that black hole mass changes over time; in concrete terms, this would mean that they increase in mass in proportion to the increase in space resulting from the cosmological expansion of the universe, which is also a function of dark energy in the universe. The hypothesis was tested on 22 stellar-mass black holes in binary stars.

Ema’s paper has been welcomed internationally, and follows the basic principle of science: that proposed explanations are subjected to constant testing, thereby highlighting any inconsistencies in the measurements or observations. It has also been published in the prestigious Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

 

Anja Neža Šmid has been awarded a Dr Uroš Seljak Commendation for her paper titled ‘Effects of Oral Iron Supplementation on Blood Iron Status in Athletes: A Systematic Review, Meta‑Analysis and Meta‑Regression of Randomized Controlled Trials’. Anja studies at the Biotechnical Faculty in Ljubljana and is supervised by Professor Petra Golja.

Anja’s research focuses on iron deficiency in athletes. Owing to the strenuous effort required in training, it is vital for athletes to maintain iron levels in their daily diet. They therefore frequently reach for dietary supplements, although there is still no consensus within the profession regarding their use and, above all, effectiveness.

By drawing a precise comparison between the characteristics and results of previous studies, Anja has been able to examine the extent to which the use of oral iron supplementation affects blood iron parameters and physical performance in healthy adult athletes. In doing so, she attempted to highlight as many of the variables that could affect the results of previous studies as possible.

The findings are internationally important, as they offer valuable guidance to doctors, clinical sports dieticians and athletes around the world when formulating appropriate strategies for overcoming iron deficiency and attempting to improve health and physical performance.

 

Valentin Vogrinčič, who also studies at the Biotechnical Faculty and is supervised by Associate Professor Jana Murovec, received a Dr Uroš Seljak Commendation for a paper titled ‘Phytosulfokine alpha enhances regeneration of transformed and untransformed protoplasts of Brassica oleracea’.

The rise in the global population coupled with the reduction in the amount of space given over to food and feed cultivation calls for new and improved crop varieties adapted to the changing agro-climatic conditions.

Valentin’s paper makes an important contribution to our understanding of the mechanisms of plant regeneration from protoplasts and the potential use of PSK-α in plant biotechnology. The stimulatory effects of PSK-α increase the success of plant regeneration from protoplasts, which could in future promote the development of plant genome editing methods with the help of the introduction of RNP complexes into protoplasts.

The research, which is multi-faceted in scope, establishes new foundations for further international research.