Chemistry

The faculty offers PhD study programs in various branches of Chemistry being focused on the research interests as given below. The standard duration for the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree is four years in its internal form (full-time) and five years in its external form (part time). Funding for students in the internal form should be provided via a scholarship from the University or from an alternative source. Students in this form are (usually) obliged to be involved in the education process at level I (Bc study), e. g. by supervising laboratory training courses or conducting basic exercises/seminars.

Those interested in any of the PhD programs/research below should contact the person in charge to obtain information on the actual doctoral opportunities. The applicant has to choose from the announced topics that are usually published at the end of March of the current year. Hence, it is recommended to contact the potential supervisor earlier. Applications for the PhD study program use to be submitted in May and the interview takes place in June.

Analytical Chemistry

Prof. Milan Hutta, milan.huttauniba.sk

Students acquire advanced knowledge mainly in the fields of combined separation methods of liquid chromatography, gas chromatography; capillary, planar and chip-based electrophoresis; spectral methods of atomic and molecular spectrometry, Raman spectrometry and mass spectrometry; electro-analytical methods in all aspects of analytical procedures for multi-component trace and ultra-trace analysis. Research is oriented towards development of alternative methods/methodologies, instrumentation and/or strategies for using the above methods in applied analytical chemistry, e.g. in the fields of environment monitoring, bio-analysis, chiral analysis of pharmaceuticals, medical diagnostics, biomacromolecules analysis and characterization.

Biochemistry

prof. Jozef Nosek  jozef.nosek@uniba.sk

PhD students are involved in the ongoing research at the Department of Biochemistry with the following main directions: analysis of the molecular architecture and dynamics of mitochondrial chromosomes; molecular mechanisms implicated in the control of mitochondrial integrity and role of mitochondria in the programmed cell death and autophagy; evolutionary aspects of apoptosis; mitochondrial interactions in evolution and evolutionary paradoxes of mitochondria and their genomes; biogenesis of mycobacterial cell envelope; metabolic pathways associated with oxidative phosphorylation in trypanosomatids and euglenas; enzymes of nucleic acid metabolism and thioredoxin system in Streptomyces. Biochemical, analytical, physicochemical, molecular biological, genetic and bioinformatics approaches are exploited in the extensive experimental work employed during the study.

Chemical Physics

prof. Jozef Noga, jozef.nogauniba.sk

Students acquire advanced knowledge in the theoretical background of ab-initio quantum chemistry, mainly oriented towards the impact of electron correlation and relativistic effects on the molecular energies, reaction energetics, thermochemistry and molecular properties. Theory of chemical bonding in solid state is an integral part of the PhD courses, too. Students are involved in the development of novel methods and computer codes in the aforementioned fields and/or in the research leading to interpretation of diverse experimental data related to the structure and bonding. Research in the solid state is oriented towards theoretical aspects of the superconductivity.

Inorganic Chemistry

prof. Gustáv Plesch, gustav.pleschuniba.sk

Students are involved in the ongoing research at Department of Inorganic Chemistry focused mainly to Coordination Chemistry and Material Chemistry. The former field of interest includes synthesis and characterization of new oxido and oxido peroxido complexes of vanadium with special emphasis to chiral complexes. The following phenomena are studied: stereoselectivity of formation, chirality transfer by introducing chiral ligands and reactions in the presence of chiral templates. Theoretical investigation of the chemical bonding in these complexes together with determination of their structure represent an integral part of the pertinent research. Material chemistry research is devoted to investigations on semiconducting oxides and their application as photocatalytic and sensoric materials. Oxides are studied in form of nanocrystalline powders and films on various substrates. The PhD study involves investigation of their structure and microsture by various methods (e.g. XRD, SEM, AFM) and study of their activity as photocatalysts and gas sensors.

Nuclear Chemistry

prof. Josef Jampílek  josef.jampilekuniba.sk

PhD students are involved in the ongoing research at the Department of Nuclear Chemistry with the following main directions: i) separation of radionuclides using two phase separation techniques; ii) determination of radionuclides in environmental samples and in nuclear wastes; iii) application of radio tracers in chemistry, biology and nuclear medicine. Students acquire advanced knowledge related to those topics and to general Nuclear Chemistry together with experimental skills with radionuclides. Department is equipped with new instruments necessary for radioactivity measurements including gamma, alpha spectrometry, low background beta counter, liquid scintillation counter.

Organic Chemistry

prof. Mgr. Radovan Šebesta, DrSc. radovan.sebestauniba.sk

This program covers all the main aspects of advanced organic and bioorganic chemistry, with the emphasis to the relationship between the structure, reactivity and/or the physico-chemical properties. Up-to-date research infrastructure is available for this purpose. PhD students are involved in the following research areas: i) asymmetric catalysis using chiral organometallic and coordination compounds catalysts,  and organocatalysts; ii)  application of the ultrasound, microwaves, and ionic liquid solvents in organic synthesis. iii) development and study of novel binaphthyl-based opto-electronic materials and catalysts; iv) studies of the structure-activity correlation based on molecular modelling together with synthesis of diverse heterocyclic compounds for application in opto-electronics; v) synthesis and property investigations of nucleoside analogues and oligonucleotides - application of solid support for oligonucleotide synthesis; vi) development and synthesis of novel anti-cancer and anti-angiogenic organic compounds - relations between structure and activity; vii) advanced IR and electron spectroscopy as well as coumarine types of fluorescent sensors for dactyloscopy.

Physical Chemistry

prof. Juraj Bujdák juraj.bujdakuniba.sk

Main focus of this program is related to the ongoing research conducted in the Department of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry whose major areas cover: i) experimental and theoretical study of nonlinear dynamic phenomena in chemistry and biology; ii) modelling and simulations of physiological processes - reaction-diffusion, electrodiffusion and stochastic phenomena. Experimental study of interactions between proteins and nucleic acids; iii) solid surfaces, nanostructures and their ultrafast dynamics by means of femtosecond spectroscopy - fluorescence infrared and terahertz, laser enhanced secondary ion mass spectrometry and scanning probe microscopy; iv) formation of supramolecular systems of organic dyes in their hybrid materials with layered inorganics, and their physicochemical properties, such as fluorescence, photoactivity, optical properties, etc.  

Theoretical and Computational Chemistry

prof. Ivan Černušák  ivan.cernusakuniba.sk

This program provides advanced training in theoretical chemistry methods and sophisticated programming skills for scientific computing (including parallel techniques). Students are lead to creative mastering of theoretical methods and development of computer codes. The program is focused on theoretical analysis of chemical problems, effective choice of appropriate computational methods and interpretation of molecular (spectroscopic, electric, magnetic, etc) data obtained from the computation. Both the gas-phase and the condensed-phase models  (including theoretical biochemistry and molecular biology) can be studied. The graduates are trained to combine the theoretical and experimental knowledge in chemistry and to cooperate with experimentalists from the related fields (e.g. physical chemistry, chemical physics, biochemistry etc.).