Interview „A working environment in which I can thrive“

Interview series "Introducing People@BAM"
Dr Tomislav Stolar, Adolf Martens Fellow at BAM's Structure Analysis Division

Tomislav, please tell us a little bit about yourself. What did you do before you came to BAM?

I was born and raised in Croatia. I started my scientific career in 2013. by volunteering at the largest scientific institute in Croatia, Ruđer Bošković Institute (RBI), and volunteered for five years. That was during my bachelor’s and master’s degrees. I got employed at RBI as a research associate (PhD student) in 2018. I obtained my doctoral degree in 2022. from the University of Zagreb under the supervision of Dr Krunoslav Užarević. I then stayed for one more year as a postdoc at the same research group at RBI before coming to BAM.

It is worth noting that besides working in academia, I have short working experience in the pharmaceutical industry and have co-founded a successful startup called SeaCras. I call SeaCras successful because it still exists after three years and currently employs four people. Anyone familiar to the startup world knows how rare that is. Besides scientific career, I had quite a successful sport career in parallel until 2019. I was multiple times Croatian National Karate Champion and participated in European Championships, World Championships, and World Beach Games as a National Team member. My best sport result is winning a bronze medal at the European Senior Karate Championship in Montpellier in 2016 and 32nd place on a WKF World Ranking list in 2018. But my most important achievement is being a proud husband to Jasna and a father to six-month-old Tara.

You received an Adolf Martens Postdoctoral fellowship and chose BAM’s Structure Analysis Division as your host – how did it come?

That is because of PD Dr Franziska Emmerling, Head of the Structure Analysis Division and Department of Materials Chemistry. Being a researcher in mechanochemistry for more than 10 years, I have known Dr Emmerling for a long time. She is a world-renowned scientist in mechanochemistry, especially in situ monitoring of mechanochemical reactions. I also have one joint publication with her from 2017. The second thing is that my wife Jasna Alić (Stolar) and I wanted to go somewhere where there would be opportunities for the both of us. Jasna also holds a PhD in chemistry, she is an expert in mechanochemistry, and in my opinion she is a more talented chemist than I am. She is currently on maternity leave but would be very interested in continuing her career at BAM as well.

What is your research project about and what excites you most about this topic?

My research project aims to develop a sustainable and economically viable technology for chemical recycling of plastic waste to monomers. It is highly topical. Right now, we are facing a "plastic crisis" because plastic waste in the environment is a risk to ecosystems, and the presence of -micro and nano-plastics in humans raises alarming health concerns. Plastics are produced from fossil fuel feedstocks and more than 70% of plastic waste is being landfilled or dumped in the environment. The EU has committed to recycling 100% of all plastic packaging by 2030, which is far from the current 14%. To accomplish this, existing technologies are insufficient, and innovative solutions are vital. The technology developed in my project will be a significant advancement towards achieving a circular plastics economy, in line with EU priorities.

What do you particularly like about your research work at BAM?

To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised about the level of collaboration within BAM. Another thing that I was unaware of before coming to BAM is the engineering workshop. I have to say that I am impressed about their capabilities. Also, my research group is full of bright researchers from diverse backgrounds and expertise. And my supervisor, Dr Emmerling, has been truly supporting my progress. So overall, I think that BAM offers a working environment in which I can thrive.

What’s your future plans or what's next for you?

That is always hard to predict. I have already applied for 3rd party funding (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)) to prolong my stay at BAM and will try to achieve that. I want to stay at BAM for at least couple of years and then see where that takes me. Of course, by then we will enable the circular plastics economy. That is why I came here…