prof. dr. Irena Drevenšek Olenik

Irena DREVENŠEK OLENIK is professor of physics at University of Ljubljana and a Senior Research Fellow at J. Stefan Institute in Ljubljana. She obtained her Ph.D. in physics from University of Ljubljana in 1996. After this, in 1998-99 she was a post-doctoral fellow in the group of prof. Th. Rasing at Radboud University in Nijmegen in The Netherlands. In 1999 she returned back to Slovenia and became at first a teaching assistant and then in 2005 a lecturer in physics at University of Ljubljana. In the study year 2005-06 she was a visiting professor at University of Vienna in Austria, and in 2012-13 a visiting professor at Nankai University in Tianjin in China.

Her research work is focused on experimental investigations in the field of soft-condensed matter, in particular polymers, liquid crystals and biological molecules. These investigations base on various techniques resolving linear and nonlinear optical properties of the investigated materials. The results of her work were up to now published in more than 100 research articles in international journals and presented in more than 200 conference contributions. She is also coauthor of 7 scientific book chapters and author/coauthor of several professional and popular science articles. She is also involved in various activities for popularization of science in public.