The Head of the Department:
Assoc. Prof. Marta Mileusnić, PhD

Scientific interests of Department's staff are closely connected to mineral raw materials, mineralogy, petrology of magmatic, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks, sedimentology, geochemistry and biogeochemistry, technical petrography, geoarchaeology, archaeometry and environmental protection.
Scientific activities in the academic year 2016/2017 were performed in the frame of: (1) the Croatian science foundation's project entitled "Nanominerals in sediments and soils: formation, properties and their role in biogeochemical processes"; (2) two financial supports provided by the University of Zagreb: "Mineralogical and Surface Physico-Chemical Properties of Red Palesols from Istria and Susak island" and "Geological Evolution of Volcanic, Volcanoclastic and Sedimentary Facies of the Dinarides in the Early/Middle Triassic"; as well as Croatian- Austrian bilateral project “ Clay mineralogy in landslide hazard assessment“. The Department's staff also participate in two scientific projects founded by Croatian Science Foundation which coordinators ara employed at other institutions: "Natural habitat of clinically important acinetobacter Baumannii" (Faculty of Science) and „Iron production along the Drava River in the Roman period and the Middle Ages: Creation and transfer of knowledge, technologies and goods“ (Institute of Archaeology). In the frame of mentioned projects, following topics are beeing investigating: the formation, properties and the role of nanominerals in biogeochemical processes in sediments and soils; Quarternary Aeolian deposits of the northern Adriatic area with the goal of modeling global climatic changes; reasons for the Permo-Triasic mass extinction; mineralogical properties of marls and flysch prone to sliding; soils favorable for bacteria supstrate; and provenance of iron ore used in Antiquity and Middle Ages. This activity resulted in the participation of the Department's staff at numerous domestic and international scientific meetings and in the publishing of papers in scientific magazines (7 articles in Web o Science base). The Department's employees are active in the editorial boards of international and domestic scientific journals. Department's employees closely cooperate with scientists from other institutions such as Faculty of Science, The Ruđer Bošković Institute, The Jožef Stefan Institute, Croatian Geological Survey, University for Natural Resources and Life Sciences from Vienna, Institute of Archaeology and other scientific institutions.

Apart from the regular teaching obligations, the Institute also participates in the educational project of the European Institute of Technology and Innovation „Dubrovnik International ESEE Mining school“.

Department owns Laboratory for analysis of geological materials (LaGema) which offers chemical and mineralogical analyses of the soil's, sediment's, rock's, ore's and water's samples. In the academic year 2016/2017, the Department's employees cooperated with the following institutions and organizations: National Park Plitvice Lake, TPA d.o.o. – Zagreb, Croatian Geological Survey, University of Zagreb – Faculty of Agriculture, Cemtra d.o.o., CSS d.o.o., and Oikon Zelena infrastruktura d.o.o.