INSTITUT JOŽEF STEFAN
The focus of the multidisciplinary research activities of the Department of Environmental Sciences is on investigation of the interplay between the reciprocal physical, chemical and biological processes that are shaping our environment, and human activities. Therefore a tight collaboration of all three fields of research is inevitable: development, optimisation and validation of accurate analytical techniques, definition and quantification of biogeochemical processes that govern the transport and transformations of elements and their compounds in the environment, and environmental impact and health risk assessment. Development of advanced analytical methods includes both chemical and nuclear techniques, which are then applied to studies of the distribution of elements and their isotopes, ionic species and both inorganic and organic compounds in complex environmental samples, their fluxes between different environmental compartments, and their effects on human health. An important part of the basic and applied research of the Department is carried out by the Centre for Mass Spectrometry. The Department also has available the resources of the mobile unit of the Ecological Laboratory.
The role of the Department in the Centre is - beside coordination – the development of new analytical methods for determination of low levels of residues of pharmaceutical and personal care products, as well as furans and dioxines in the environment. The Department provides analytical support to other partners (determination of concentrations of metals and organic substances in different stages of technological processes and in the environment) and in tracing metabolic and degradation processes based on compound-specific isotope composition. Supported by the Centre of Excellence, the instrumental basis of the Department is constantly being upgraded.
e-pošta: milena.horvat@ijs.si
e-pošta: andrej.stergarsek@ijs.si
e-pošta: dusan.turk@ijs.si
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