Along the Sava River

Barbara Kalebić (ESR7)

Hi, I’m Barbara, another Barbara in the NOWELTIES project, and from Zagreb too! However, I’m an environmental engineer, and ESR #7.

As a child I had doubts about my future: I didn’t know whether to become a chemist or an artist.

I wanted to contribute to my society and improve it, so I decided to combine my imagination with technical skills that would give me concrete tools to change things: they would not be just traces on canvas.

This thought led me to study environmental engineering in my hometown at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology. For both of my two theses (bachelor and master) I worked with the removal of pharmaceutical products from water through advanced oxidation processes. I explored photocatalytic processes with modified synthetic zeolite as a carrier for photocatalysts and various types of advanced and catalytic ozonation methods.

After my graduation, I wanted to learn even more and improve my knowledge and my skills in this field.

While many of the NOWELTIES’ ESRs had to go very far from their homeland, I was fortunate to stay close to home.

I just had to follow the Sava River, and downstream I reached Belgrade, the city where I started my new scientific adventure.

Apart from the Sava River, in my opinion, Zagreb and Belgrade are linked by a strong interest and a great ambition to change the environment, and to be one of those people who will contribute to this goal is a source of great pride for me.

So, instead of studying colors and contrasts, today I am striving to contribute to solving water problems, and creating a brighter future for water purification processes.

In this way, I hope to make a mark that can be, not only contemplated or observed but used by those who need it the most.