Stability Pact South-East-European Counties

- Summer Schools -

Logo

Figure 33: Logo of the center of applied spectroscopy

Initial situation

In autumn 1991 and spring 2002, the Balkan region was shaken by the wars in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Kosovo war of 1999 and the 3- months NATO war in this region led to an entire breakdown not only of Milosevic's regime but also of the educational and research establishments. Approximately 250,000 young Yugoslavians left the country, thus dispossessing the universities and their scientists of their means of existence. The scientists in Serbia were mainly engaged in the question how to feed their families and how to survive. Therefore the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has launched a program called "Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe" to improve the situation for the students and academic staff in the region.

Solution / Results

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has sponsored the founding of the Centre for Applied Spectroscopy within the program "Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe". The aim of this center is to bring together existing activities in the field of applied spectroscopy at the universities in Novi Sad, Sofia and Skopje. The project is coordinated by the Institute of Environmental Research (INFU) at the University of Dortmund.

The objective of the summer schools is to give advanced students in chemistry and technology practical instructions to conduct instrumental analysis according to the current state of art. In order to improve the quality of education and research activities, a series of lectures and corresponding experimental work for students from South-Eastern Europe universities will be organized.
Three summer schools every year each a week long, will be held at different Universities with different subjects of applied spectroscopy:

GC/MS application in the area of soil and water contamination with hydrocarbons and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, as well as identification of the fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) at the Faculty of Technology, University of Novi Sad, Serbia (Fig. 34 and 35)

Within the course sampling, in situ measurements, sample preparation with SPE and the analytical determination of hydrocarbons and PAHs in soil and water will be discussed and praticized. In addition FAMEs identification in vegetable oil will be performed together with method evaluation.

GC and UV-VIS application for analysis of grapes and wine at the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, University "St Cyril and Methodius", Skopje, R. Macedonia

During the course, terpenes and pesticides in grapes and wine were analyzed by GC application. UV-VIS technique was used for determination of the coloured components, i.e. anthocyanins in grapes and wine.

X-ray, IR and Raman spectroscopy application

at the Bulgarian Academy of Science, Sofia, and University of Plovdiv, Bulgaria (Fig. 37)

During the summer school students got training in synthesis of biological active compounds, and to characterize these by IR-techniques, and quantum-chemical calculations of vibrational modes of the compound synthesized. Participants got basic knowledge on X-Ray analysis.

According to the Bologna declaration 3 credit points will be granted for each summer school. Detailed information about the summer school are available on the following homepage: www.summerschool-cas.org. The working language of the summer school is English.

Figure 34: Campus Novi Sad