Clarkson president lauded in Slovenia

POTSDAM — Clarkson University President Anthony G. Collins has been named an honorary senator by the University of Ljubljana in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Mr. Collins was presented with the honor, which is the equivalent of being named a trustee at an American college, during the university's 90th anniversary celebration two weeks ago.

During his recent visit, Mr. Collins met with Slovenian President Danilo Turk and was hosted at a reception with the mayor of Ljubljana (pronounced loob-YA-na), Zoran Jankovic.

"We've been engaged with the university, as we are with a lot of international universities, because we've got to create opportunities for not only students but faculty to reach around the world and interact," Mr. Collins said. "As one of the first nations to emerge from the Eastern Bloc, Slovenia is now looking to adopt the practices of U.S. universities."

The University of Ljubljana previously bestowed the title of honorary senator on the Dalai Lama and Vaclav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic.

Located in Slovenia's capital city, the University of Ljubljana is the country's largest and oldest college. With 63,000 students, the university educates about 80 percent of Slovenian students, Mr. Collins said.

"It is a very large university in a small nation, so what they do is very influential on anything, including the economy," he said.

Mr. Collins was recognized for his efforts to teach administrators, professors and students about commercializing technology created in college laboratories. He also taught them about ways to develop and maintain alumni and corporate connections.

The university "is in the process of building business incubators and high-tech parks. They're really trying to get things to grow out of the research of faculty," Mr. Collins said. "It's very similar to what we're trying to do at Clarkson. In many ways, they sort of emulate Clarkson."

Mr. Collins was introduced to the university by Egon Matijevic, the Victor K. LaMer professor of colloid and surface science at Clarkson.

Mr. Matijevic was born in the former Yugoslavia and graduated from the University of Zagreb, has connections to colleges in both Croatia and Slovenia and travels to both countries frequently. He is widely recognized as one of the pre-eminent chemists in colloidal science.

The two Clarkson colleagues traveled to Ljubljana together in 2004, when Mr. Collins signed memorandums of understanding with the University of Ljubljana and the Jozef Stefan International Postgraduate School in Slovenia and with the University of Zagreb in Croatia.

Mr. Collins and Mr. Matijevic returned to Ljubljana in 2006 for a symposium on collaboration between industry and academia.

Clarkson hopes to facilitate more partnerships between its faculty and professors at the Slovenian university. Mr. Collins said he hopes to develop more study-abroad opportunities for Clarkson students at the University of Ljubljana.

Gasper Sekelj, an instructor in Clarkson's School of Business, traveled to Slovenia with students this year and will return in 2010.