On 2 September 2026, Nikolina Račić, a staff member of the Department of Environmental Hygiene, successfully defended her doctoral dissertation entitled “Spatio-temporal Analysis and Source Apportionment of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Metals in Airborne Particulate Matter and Soil Using Machine Learning” at the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering. The dissertation was completed as part of the EnvironPollutHealth project. Her supervisors were Professor Stanko Ružičić, PhD, from the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, and Assistant Professor Mario Lovrić, PhD, from the Institute for Anthropological Research.
The research investigated the spatial and temporal variations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in airborne particulate matter and soil in the Zagreb area. Statistical and machine learning methods were used to analyse the effects of meteorological conditions, traffic, and heating, as well as to identify potential sources of pollution. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the sources and spatio-temporal dynamics of pollutants in urban environments and provide a valuable contribution to the fields of environmental and urban geochemistry.
