Catalysis, Ziegler – Natta Catalysts, Polymerization, CW EPR spectroscopy, HYSCORE, ENDOR

Mrs. Leonora Podvorica is from Kosovo and was born in Mainz in Germany. She has finished her bachelor studies at the University of Prishtina “Hasan Prishtina” in the Faculty of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, Department of Chemistry, Engineering Chemistry in the year 2012-2015. In her bachelor studies she focused on the synthesis and characterization of some new Schiff Bases which contain benzothiazoles, benzimidazoles and pyrazoles, and the evaluation of antibacterial activity in vitro. She continued her Master studies at the same department in the field of Analytical and Environmental Chemistry in the year of 2015-2017. During her master studies she participated in the Erasmus + program to complete the fourth semester at Umeå University in Sweden, where she worked on her Master Thesis in collaboration with Diduco AB company (16/01/2017 – 04/06/2017). During this time her research was focused on method development for through characterization of surface modified polymeric particles used in anion exchange chromatography.  She continued her PhD Studies within the European ITN PARACAT Project (under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 813209), participating in a Joint PhD program in Chemical and Material Science between the University of Turin in Italy and the University of Antwerp in Belgium starting from 2019. Her PhD research is focused on the characterization of paramagnetic active sites in Ziegler-Natta catalysts, used in olefin polymerization, by employing electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy.