undergraduate

• Fundamentals of chemical and biochemical engineering (32099) - Lecturer in charge

graduate

• Environmental engineering project (63421) - Lecturer in charge

Assistant Professor Nevena Milčić, PhD, started working at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology in January 2019 as a research assistant at the Department of Reaction Engineering and Catalysis, where she worked until March 2023. During this period, she participated in five research projects (Horizon 2020 project, a Croatian Science Foundation research project, and bilateral projects with China, Austria, and Slovenia) and spent three months as a visiting researcher at international institutions (Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Maribor, Slovenia – 1 month; TU Graz, Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, Graz, Austria – 2 months). In 2023, she obtained her PhD under the Scandinavian model with the dissertation "Mathematical modelling and optimization of biocatalytic synthesis of fluorinated chiral building blocks", supervised by Prof. Zvjezdana Findrik Blažević, PhD, and Maja Majerić Elenkov, PhD, a senior research scientist at the Ruđer Bošković Institute. In March 2023, she took on the role of Head of the International Relations Office at the Faculty, and since December 2024, she has been employed as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Reaction Engineering and Catalysis. In 2025, she spent one month at Institute for Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC-CSIC) in Barcelona, Spain, as a visiting researcher. From October 1st 2025, she is the Head of the Department of Reaction Engineering and Catalysis at her home faculty. She has presented her work at 35 scientific conferences through oral and poster presentations, including two invited lectures at an international conference. She is a co-author of 17 scientific papers, with eight as the first author.  On behalf of the Faculty,  she was a coordinator of the Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programmes „Basics & Application of Computational Chemistry in Action – BACCA“ (2022-1-PL01-KA131-HED-000053247-4) and „Computational Chemistry in Action  – CCiA“ (2024-1-PL01-KA131-HED-000200091-3), organized by the University of Łódź (Poland) as the main coordinator. She is the coordinator of Erasmus Mundus Design Measures project „PaInts and coatinGs: Material Engineering, desigN and innovative Technologies for Sustainability – PIGMENTS“ (ERASMUS-EDU-2025-EMJM-DESIGN, 101241110). She is one of the editors of the Faculty's publications "Catalogue of Scientific and Research Equipment", "Research Projects 2017–2022", and "Istraživačko-razvojni projekti 2017–2022."

More information about publications

Kolman, R. J.; Milčić, Nevena; Leščić Ašler, I.; Štefanić, Z.; Švaco, P.; Stepanić, V.; Brkljača, Z.; Dokli, I; Findrik Blažević, Z.; Majerić Elenkov, M. Biocatalytic synthesis of fluorine-containing chiral azido compounds in a two-phase system // Tetrahedron letters, 178 (2026), 155982, 6. doi: 10.1016/j.tetlet.2026.155982

Minofar, B.; Milčić, N.; Maroušek, J., Gavurová, B.; Maroušková, A., Understanding the molecular mechanisms of interactions between biochar and denitrifiers in N₂O emissions reduction: Pathway to more economical and sustainable fertilizers, Soil & tillage research, 248 (2025), 106405, 6. doi: 10.1016/j.still.2024.106405

Çakar, M. M.; Milčić, N.; Andreadaki, T.; Charnock, S.; Fessner, W. D. ; Findrik Blažević, Z., Kinetic characterization of two neuraminic acid synthases and evaluation of their application potential, Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol., 108 (2024), 1; 446, 18. doi: 10.1007/s00253-024-13277-1

Sudar, M.; Milčić, N.; Česnik Katulić, M.; Szekrenyi, A.; Hernández, K.; Fekete, M. Wardenga, R.; Majerić Elenkov, M.; Qi, Yuyin; C., Simon et al. Cascade enzymatic synthesis of a statin side chain precursor – the role of reaction engineering in process optimization, RSC Advances, 14 (2024), 29; 21158-21173. doi: 10.1039/D4RA01633E

Milčić, N.; Sudar, M.; Marić, A.-K.; Kos, K.; Majerić Elenkov, M.; Findrik Blažević, Z., HHDH-Catalyzed Synthesis of Enantioenriched Fluorinated β-Hydroxy Nitrile – Process Advances through Reaction Engineering Approach, Ind. eng. chem. res.,  (2024), doi: 10.1021/acs.iecr.4c00477

Švaco, P.; Milčić, N.; Findrik Blažević, Z.; Majerić Elenkov, M., Positive effect of lyophilization on the stability of halohydrin dehalogenase, Process biochemistry, 136 (2024), 324-329, doi: 10.1016/j.procbio.2023.12.006

Milčić, N.; Švaco, P.; Sudar, M. Tang, L.; Findrik Blažević, Z.; Majerić Elenkov, M., Impact of organic solvents on the catalytic performance of halohydrin dehalogenase, Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol., 107 (2023) 2351–2361, doi:10.1007/s00253-023-12450-2

Milčić, N.; Stepanić, V.; Crnolatac, I.; Findrik Blažević, Z.; Brkljača, Z.; Majerić Elenkov, M., Inhibitory effect of DMSO on halohydrin dehalogenase: Experimental and computational insights into the influence of an organic co-solvent on the structural and catalytic properties of a biocatalyst, Chem. Eur. J., 28 (2022) 56, 11 doi:10.1002/chem.202201923.

Milčić, N.; Sudar, M.; Dokli, I.; Majerić Elenkov, M.; Findrik Blažević, Z., Halohydrin dehalogenase-catalysed synthesis of enantiopure fluorinated building blocks: bottlenecks found and explained by applying reaction engineering approach, React. Chem. Eng., (2022) doi:10.1039/D2RE00461E.

Findrik Blažević, Z., Milčić, N., Sudar, M., Majerić Elenkov, M., Halohydrin dehalogenases and their potential in industrial application – a viewpoint of enzyme reaction engineering, Adv. Synth. Catal. 363 (2) (2021) 388-410, doi:10.1002/adsc.202000984.

Dokli, I., Milčić, N., Marin, P., Svetec Miklenić, M., Sudar, M., Tang, L., Findrik Blažević, Z., Majerić Elenkov, M., Halohydrin dehalogenase-catalysed synthesis of fluorinated aromatic chiral building blocks, Catal. Commun., 152 (2021), 106285, 5 doi:10.1016/j.catcom.2021.106285.

Basics & Application of Computational Chemistry in Action – BACCA (Erasmus+ blended intensive programme, 2022-1-PL01-KA131-HED-000053247-4)

EnzyFlour: Enzymatic synthesis of fluorinated chiral building blocks (Project financed by the Croatian Science Foundation, IP-2018-01-4493)

CARBAZYMES: Sustainable industrial processes based on a C-C bond-forming enzyme platform (Horizon 2020, H2020-LEIT-BIO-2014-1, 635595)

Enzyme engineering and process engineering for the synthesis of fragrance compounds from
renewable resources (Croatian-Austrian bilateral project in cooperation with the Institute for Molecular Biotechnology, Graz University of Technology, Austria)

Stabilization of halohydrin dehalogenases for use in non-conventional media (Croatian-Slovenian bilateral project in cooperation with the Faculty of Chemistry and ChemicalEngineering, Maribor, Slovenia)