Science, Art & Community

This connected community aims for the transdisciplinary exploration of topical global challenges as well as of high interest issues in research & education. Focus relies on the multidisciplinary scientific exploration of these, whereas the transdisciplinary approach is ensured by using art as a communication tool of scientific finds towards wider communities & society.
More information coming soon.

Lead: Raluca Anca Mereu (BBU). E-mail: raluca.mereu@ubbcluj.ro

Dr. Raluca Anca Mereu is a university lecturer at the Department for Chemical Engineering of the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj - Napoca, Romania. She obtained her MSc at the Babeș-Bolyai University and her PhD at the Technical University, located both in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. She is a professional with multidisciplinary educational background and work experience (both Academia and Industry). She worked in different EU-Programs as research assistant for 3 years, among which she also collaborated with Dr. Maurizio ACCIARI from the University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy. She worked for 4 years in different industry fields (Automation and Automotive) in various strategic points, fact which led to her expertise in validation process in the R&D and Serial Projects, as well as customer care. She is a recurring visiting researcher at University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy), Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Hungary) and RSE SpA - Research on Energy System of Milan (Italy). Her main research areas of interest are: thermal analysis, oxidic materials; transparent conductive oxides; nano-powder synthesis; composites; thins films; solar cells; batteries; critical raw materials; optimization of processes and products; development of engineering tools for cost and workload reduction; product and device development. She is interested in student focused activities. Hence, she was active in different Human Capital Operational Program (POCU) projects dedicated to 3rd year students in chemical engineering, for specialized internships, by accompanying them and ensuring the implementation of the targeted activities. She is also involved in Romanian Secondary Education Projects (ROSE) programs as teaching staff. In 2022 she accompanied the targeted group of students to perform their interdisciplinary specialized internship abroad, in Vannes, France.

Partner: Ligia Smarandache (BBU). E-mail: ligia.smarandache@ubbcluj.ro

Associate professor, PhD, Faculty of Theatre and Film, Babeș-Bolyai University
Teaching disciplines: Editing, Motion graphics, Set design, Experimental techniques in short-films, Practice as research.
She graduates the University of Art and Design, in Cluj-Napoca, completing her Ph.D. thesis in 2012 with the title The role of Video Essay in the Postmodern Visual Communication.
Worked in the field of graphic-design, broadcast motion-graphics and set design for television. As independent artist, she begins as a fine art printmaker, later exploring the field of video-art, experimental and documentary films from editing to directing.
Films as author:
2023 Passage …to nowhere -a short docu-fiction which reveals art's therapeutically, cognitive and often spiritual role by interviewing a group of Romanian and German artists from the twin cities Cluj-Napoca and Köln.
2016 Video-installation Meditation was shown in group exhibitions in Cluj-Napoca such as: 2016 Dialogue in Agora- Contemporary Archeology / 2019 The night of the galleries / 2021 Antisistem integrat.
2012 short experimental animation-essay named "Confessions" which participates at 2012 Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival / 2013 Dublin International Short Film and Music Festival, Ireland.
In the field of documentary film, 2006 she was selected to the International workshop Aristoteles Workshop, working at editing and sound. Directed by Adina Pintilie, in 2007 the film “…Don’t get me wrong…” won the Golden Dove prize at DOK Leipzig, Germany and it was selected to numerously international film festivals in Europe.
As printmaker she participates to international and national art exhibitions as member of the Romanian Artist Union or independent: Finland, New York, Japan, Timișoara, Bucharest, Malaesia.
In 1994 Arts Link residency grant for artists and art managers from Eastern Europe- at Lower East Side PrintShop, New York, USA. Her prints were selected to be published in the “New Art” edited by Roxana Marcoci, Diana Murphy, Eve Sinaiko, Harry N Abrams, Inc., New-York, 1997, a book featuring work by over one hundred contemporary artists around the world.

Partner: Emese Sofalvi; (BBU). E-mail: emese.sofalvi@ubbcluj.ro

Emese Sófalvi (1984, Cluj-Napoca, Romania) is a violinist and musicologist. As a performing artist she promotes communication and mediation of arts via chamber music and in unusual concert venues. Her main field of research is 19th century Transylvanian musical culture. Her publications include the monography of the first Hungarian music school, prominent musicians (Georg Ruzitska, Rozália Schodel-Klein), local musical theatre and the reception of the Wiennese Triad’s works in Transylvania at the beginning of the 19th century. Emese Sófalvi was curator to exhibitions presenting music related documents in Cluj-Napoca, with topics like: repertoire of the Hungarian theatre groups,the first century of the Conservatorium in Kolozsvár, children on the opera stage and letters to the Hungarian State Opera in Cluj etc. She currently edits a data-base of 19th century musical manuscripts found in Transylvanian Archives. Emese Sófalvi works as a lecturer at the Faculty of Reformat Theology and Music at the Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca.
web: https://ubbcluj.academia.edu/EmeseS%C3%B3falvi
https://rt.ubbcluj.ro/sofalvi-emese/

Partner: Renata Soukand (UNIVE). E-mail: renata.soukand@unive.it

Renata Sõuknad is Associate Professor of ethnobotany at Ca’ Foscari University in Italy and she has recently successfully concluded an ERC Starting Grant “DiGe”. She has received a PhD in Semiotics and Cultural Theory (2010) from the University of Tartu and has an educational background in pharmacy (BSc) and environmental sciences (MSc). Her main research interests include current and historical ethnobotany of the post-Soviet region, especially Eastern Europe, biocultural diversity, environmental history and ecosemiotics (with the focus on relations between humans and nature). Her ethnobotanical and anthropological field experience in all three Baltic States, Finland, Ukraine, Belarus, Romania, Caucasus, Balkans, Iraq, Tajikistan, Slovakia, Greece, Cyprus and Corsica have given her the possibility to observe, compare and reflect upon the inextricable link between sustainability and all aspects of bicultural diversity. She has co-authored of over 100 publications (current h-index=31, over 3000 citations) including both her field experience and historical research on representation of plant use within the folklore collections as well as various other sources influencing the evolution of the plant use.

Partner: Camilla Audia (UW). E-mail: Camilla.Audia@warwick.ac.uk

Dr. Camilla Audia is an Assistant Professor in Global Sustainable Development in the School for Cross-Faculty studies at the University of Warwick. As an interdisciplinary social scientist, her foundational aim is to bring together people from different institutions, disciplines and backgrounds to research transdisciplinary solutions to complex global challenges. Her core research focus is the examination of relations between climate change, populations and sustainable development through the co-production of knowledge. She was the PI of a NERC Innovation Placement grant on knowledge hierarchies and systems around climate and weather information in Burkina Faso, bridging a gap between climate information users (vulnerable local farmers) and producers, mainly Met Office scientists. She has experience working on several other international grants funded by DFID, NERC, Wellcome Trust and ESRC. Her work is transdisciplinary and grounded in responsible co-production methodologies, approaches for community-led research and arts-based techniques and methods.

Partner: Marijke Huysmans (VUB). E-mail: Marijke.Huysmans@vub.be

Marijke Huysmans is Associate Professor in Groundwater Hydrology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels in Belgium since 2012 (Department of Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering, Water&Climate Research Group). She holds a degree in Mining Engineering and a PhD in Geology. Her research focuses on groundwater modelling, geostatistics, drought, groundwater-surface water interaction, climate adaptation measures and sustainable groundwater management. Her research group combines field work, groundwater modelling, model development and geostatistics for assessing groundwater reserves, groundwater recharge, interaction between surface water and groundwater, sustainable groundwater management and potential for shallow geothermal energy. She has been President of IAH-Belgium “the Belgian chapter of the International Association of Hydrogeologists” from 2016 to 2020. She is also very active in science communication and outreach on groundwater and drought to the general public. She is co-author of a children’s book of water that has been translated into seven languages. She is also active as a policy advisor and was named by the non-profit organisation InspiringFifty Belgium as one of the 50 top female role models in the technology sector in 2022.

Partner: Hubert Rahier (VUB). E-mail: Hubert.Rahier@vub.be

H. Rahier obtained his PhD in 1995 on the synthesis and characterization of inorganic polymers (now known as geopolymers). After the PhD, the research topic is broadened to phosphate cements. In 2001 be became assistant professor at Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

As of 2017 he is head of the research unit ‘Physical Chemistry and Polymer Science’ (FYSC), part of the Department ‘Materials and Chemistry’ (MACH) of the Faculty of Engineering. The research activities of FYSC are focused on '(molecular and supra-molecular) structure - processing - property' relations in polymers for developing materials with improved performance.

H. Rahier is leading the development of new inorganic materials, striving to develop construction materials with a minimal environmental impact. This is done via the use of residuals or waste as raw materials. In 2011 the research on the production of a cementitious material purely based on residuals started with the use of biomass ashes as activator for residuals such as blast furnace slag. In 2017 the research on the complete recycling of concrete started. The main issue being the recycling of the hydrated (Portland) cement. Several researchers from all over the world visited his lab or collaborate on research on inorganic polymers.