Assoc. prof. Jadranka Šepić Ph.D. talks about HAZU’s award, environmental physics and few other interesting things…
• When did you get interested or realize you were going to be a scientist?
I wanted to understand the world around me and felt the need to solve various problems (in mathematics, physics, logics…) since childhood. Still, in high school, I could not decide between enrolling humanities (history or comparative literature) or physics. Physics prevailed, because at that age I was interested in space research… Then, while studying it at the Faculty of Science in Zagreb, I discovered geophysics that, among other things, deals with physics of the sea and atmosphere. Since I come from the coast, subjects related to the sea became natural quickly, so I wanted to explore the sea some more. For that, I am grateful to excellent professors from Geophysics Department at the Faculty of Science in Zagreb. While I was working on my dissertation, I realized that I wanted to pursue a career in science. I applied for several Ph.D. positions in Croatia and Europe and ended up choosing between one in Germany and the job in the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries in Split. My desire to return to Split at least for a while, where I was born, played a big part in deciding to stay in Croatia.
• What made you want to analyze extreme sea levels along the coasts of Europe?
Under the common name "extreme sea levels", my colleagues and I study various types of floods that affect the coasts of Adriatic and other European seas. These floods include storm surges - such as the hours-long floods of Venice, also known as the Acqua Alta (Italian for ‘high water’) and meteorological tsunamis - short-lived devastating waves that hit the Adriatic coast often, and that resemble tsunamis on parts of the coast they hit in every respect except their cause. That is to say, "ordinary" tsunamis are caused by earthquakes whose epicenter is below the seafloor, whereas meteorological tsunamis are caused by air pressure waves in the atmosphere. We cannot see these waves in the atmosphere, but we can certainly record them, and the sea feels and reacts to them very well.
All these floods are very interesting and worth exploring by themselves. What makes them especially relevant today is expected rise in sea level. It matters whether the sea, during an extreme event, will rise a few meters starting from the current level, or from the level that will be 40-80 cm higher by 2100. In fact, floods that today occur once every 100 years, due to rising sea level, are expected to occur once every three years!
My research of extreme sea levels is therefore related to studying floods as they occur today, but also to assessing risk of floods in the future.
• What does HAZU’s award mean to you?
Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts’ award is a great honor for me and sign of recognizing my research work dedicated to meteorological tsunamis. I would like to once again thank my colleagues who nominated me and to HAZU’s board for the award.
• Where do you see yourself in ten years?
I got the job at Faculty of Science, University of Split, a year ago, in the dynamic group of Environmental Physics at the Department of Physics. In last two years, our graduate study program in Environmental Physics improved significantly, primarily thanks to the efforts of previous head of studies, Darko Koračin, as well as the new one, Žarko Kovač. It was elaborated; new equipment procured to be used in teaching (or is being procured now); two assistant professors hired one Ph.D. student and soon two post-docs should be. Given all these changes, I expect that good part of my activities within next ten years will be related to developing and improving graduate study of Environmental Physics. We intend to develop a high quality study program where students, in addition to knowledge of physics, will also get basic and advanced knowledge of environmental physics, primarily oceanography and meteorology. Given the climate change, one of today’s burning issues, we want to educate young experts who can use their degrees in Physics as great starting points for the future. We certainly try to make our study stand out in the University, but also within the SEA-EU Alliance, in the framework of which we plan to exchange students and organize joint lectures with colleagues from other universities, starting from the next semester.
When it comes to research, I hope to successfully complete projects I am currently leading (one by the European Research Council and one by Croatian Science Foundation), and to continue my research in national and international competitive projects aimed at more experienced researchers.
Another activity I am involved in with colleagues from Croatian Hydrographic Institute and the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Natalija Dunić, Maja Karlović and Marko Mlinar, is organization of educational activities, primarily for children (from preschool to high school students). Given the fact that many of us come from islands, or have spent part of our lives on them, we want to organize these activities specifically for children who live on islands, because there are hardly any extra educational activities organized for them.