From 14 to 21 June 2026, the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, University of Zagreb, hosted a group of selected students from five U.S. universities as part of the four-year U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) project IRES: Assessing Dust Landscapes Across Time.
The project is led by Professor Michael Soreghan and Professor Gerilyn Soreghan from the University of Oklahoma (Norman Campus). The Croatian collaborators are Professor Goran Durn and Senior Teaching and Research Assistant Dr. Ivor Perković from the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, University of Zagreb. Professor Vedran Rubinić from the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb, also participated in the field component of the program.
The academic program began at the Faculty with lectures on the genesis of terra rossa soils in Croatia, soil micromorphology, and the geology of Croatia, delivered by Professor Goran Durn, Dr. Ivor Perković, and Professor Igor Vlahović. The students acquired the theoretical background that they subsequently applied during several days of field investigations.
The field program included research in Karlovac and Zadar counties. In the Bosiljevo area, the students investigated relict terra rossa-like soils developed from highly weathered loess, while in the Radovin area they studied thick sequences of pedogenically altered loess. The fieldwork involved detailed profile descriptions, soil and sediment sampling, and discussions on soil genesis, palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, and landscape evolution. Special attention was devoted to the interpretation of mineralogical analyses of samples collected during last year's field campaign, presented by Dr. Ivor Perković.
The visit of the American students represents a continuation of the successful scientific collaboration between the University of Oklahoma and the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering.. The project provides students with valuable international research experience by combining classroom instruction, field investigations, and laboratory analyses, while the results obtained form the basis for future joint scientific publications by Croatian and American researchers.
