Ambassador of Japan Visited the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

Ambassador of Japan to BiH Hideyuki Sakamoto visited the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics of the University of Banja Luka on 19 November 2019.

At the meeting with the faculty delegation led by the dean Professor Goran Trbic, PhD, they talked about expanding their cooperation especially in the field of environmental education and climatology, areas in which Japan is the world leader. 

As said during the meeting, the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics can offer a lot of results on the possibilities of using natural resources such as alumosilicates, or even mining sludge in new technologies of advanced materials. 

During the meeting it was also pointed out that this faculty has scientific cooperation with three Japanese universities: the Shinshu University of Nagano, the University of Tokyo and Kyushu University in Fukuoka.

In the past couple of years, this cooperation was carried out through four joint scientific papers published in international journals, several participations at international conferences, visiting of professors and exchange of professors between the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and Japanese universities. It is important to emphasize that as a result of this cooperation, Professor Katsumi Kaneko from Shinshu University visited the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics of the University of Banja Luka, and Assistant Professor Suzana Gotovac Atlagic, PhD, was a visiting lecturer in Navago. In 2018, a six-month professional training was conducted at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics for the PhD candidate Hironori Sugiyama from the Shinshu University. Currently, the Head of Chemistry, Professor Milica Balaban, PhD, is doing a three-month research at the University of Tokyo as part of the Macuma scholarship.

During the meeting, the Ambassador motivated the representatives of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics to apply for support programs for future exchanges through funds such as the Japan Foundation, and to motivate students to take advantage of Japanese Government scholarships to support MEHT postgraduate studies.

The meeting was also attended by First Secretary of the Embassy of Japan Kyotoaka Tanaka, as well as professors of the chemistry study program: Assistant Professor Suzana Gotovac Atlagic, PhD, and Professor Sasa Zeljković, PhD. Professor Gotovac Atlagic is a former scholar of the Government of Japan, and Professor Zeljkovic is a former scholar of the Macuma Foundation.