Stela Jokić, PhD, associate professor at Faculty of Food technology in Osijek was born on 31st July 1982. She graduated in 2006 and started working at the Faculty of Food Technology in.
Since May 2007 she has been an employee of the Department of Process Engineering at the Faculty of Food Technology in Osijek, and since the academic year 2010/2011 she has also been teaching at the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Technology (University of Mostar).
She enrolled in a Postgraduate University Study Program of Food Engineering in 2008, and in 2011 she received her PhD at the Faculty of Food Technology in Osijek (title of dissertation: “Mathematical modelling of supercritical CO2 extraction of oil from soybean seeds”). While studying, she worked at several institutions around the world. She gained excellent English skills during her stay in the USA in 2004, 2005 and 2006 as part of CCUSA Program “Work Experience USA” – United States Government designated Exchange Visitor Program (few month work / travel program). She also worked for two months at the Institute for Food Process Engineering in Freising – Weihenstephan in Germany through an IAESTE scholarship.
In 2007, she participated twice in seminars organized by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in Parma. In 2009, as part of a CEEPUS scholarship she spent one month at the Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology in Bratislava. In 2010 she spent three months at the Faculty of Technology in Novi Sad. In the same year, as part of the program “Scholarships for PhD Students”, funded by the National Foundation for Science, Higher Education and Technological Development of the Republic of Croatia, she spent four months at the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering (Budapest University of Technology and Economics) in Hungary. In 2011, as part of a CEEPUS scholarship she spent two months at the Faculty of Technology in Novi Sad and in 2014 as part of the ERASMUS program scholarship she was at the Biotechnical Faculty in Ljubljana. In the period from July 1st until July 18th, 2012, she successfully completed a lifelong learning intensive program called Process Intensification by High Pressure Technologies, organized by the University of Maribor and Graz University of Technology. In 2016 as a winner of Danubius Young Scientific Award for Republic of Croatia she was few days in Joint Research Centre – DR JRC Ispra, Italy. In 2017, as part of a ERASMUS program scholarship she was at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at University in Maribor.
She has received a lot of prestigious awards for her work: Annual Award of the Faculty of Food Technology Osijek for achievements in the field of research, teaching and professional work in 2016 and 2015; National Science Award for 2015 (Republic Croatia) in the field of Biotechnical sciences in 2015; Danubius Young Scientist Award 2015 for Croatia; Annual Award of the Faculty of Food Technology Osijek for achievements in the field of research, teaching and professional work in 2013; Award of the Croatian Academy of Engineering for young scientist “Vera Johanides” in 2013, Annual Science Award for the year 2012 from Osijek-Baranja County, Award for achievement in the field of science from the Town of Đurđenovac (2013) National Science Award for 2011 (Republic of Croatia), AXON award for the best communication at 11th European Nutrition Conference FENS, Madrid, Spain, 2011; Rectorate award for academic year 2004/2005; University scholarship for academic year 2001/2002: State scholarship category “A” for academic year 2001/2002.
She has taken part in the realization of many scientific and professional projects. She was a project leader in five projects: “Application of high pressure technologies in the extraction of plant material/ Croatia – Serbia international bilateral project”, “Development of high valued products based on medicinal plant extracts”, “Extraction of active substances from plant material using supercritical CO2”, “Optimization of the production of high quality hemp oil”, “The risk assessment on the safety of fresh and semi-hard cheeses at the markets of the Republic of Croatia”.
She participated in the founding of the Centre of Excellence for Marine Bioprospecting from the area of biotechnical sciences (in the category: Identification, extraction, optimisation, and purification of biomolecules). She designed and constructed the first pilot supercritical CO2 extraction device in the Republic of Croatia.
Until now she has published more then 100 scientific papers and 4 book chapters.
Supervised: 3 PhD theses and 30 undergraduate and graduate theses.