Durn Goran, F.C.A.
Date of birth:
- 05/25/1962
Place of birth:
- Zagreb
Addresses:
- Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, University of Zagreb Pierottijeva 6, 10000 Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb
Phones:
- +385 01 5535 793
- +385 01 4895 171
Emails:
Durn Goran, F.C.A.
Academic titles:
- Fellow of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
- Doctor of Science
Institutions:
- Professor with tenure – Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, University of Zagreb
- dean – Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, University of Zagreb (2005. – 2009.)
Functions in Academy:
- secretary – Department of Natural Sciences ( 1/1/2023 – …)
- member of the Presidency – Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (1/1/2023 – …)
- deputy secretary – Department of Natural Sciences (01/01/2019 – 12/31/2022)
- chair – National INQUA Committee (03/27/2019 – 03/28/2023)
- chair – Scientific Council for Nature and Environmental Protection (09/25/2019 – …)
- secretary – Scientific Council for Nature and Environmental Protection (2015 – 2019)
Membership in Academy:
- full member – Department of Natural Sciences (05/12/2016 – …)
- associate member – Department of Natural Sciences (05/15/2014 – 05/12/2016)
Curriculum Vitae
Goran Durn was born in Zagreb in 1962 and earned his PhD in geology in 1996. He is a Full Professor with a permanent appointment at the University of Zagreb, where he teaches in master’s and doctoral programmes at the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering and in the master’s programme at the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology.
He has supervised numerous diploma theses, one master’s thesis and seven doctoral dissertations. He has also served on thesis and dissertation defence committees at the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of Science and Faculty of Agriculture, as well as at Freie Universität Berlin in Germany and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, Austria. He undertook further professional training at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest and Comenius University in Bratislava, and has made research visits to universities and institutes in Europe and elsewhere.
He is best known internationally for his contributions to understanding the genesis, mineralogy, geochemistry and polygenetic evolution of terra rossa (red soils) and related palaeosols developed on carbonate rocks. His research integrates mineralogical, geochemical and micromorphological evidence, with particular attention to clay minerals and iron oxides as indicators of weathering, pedogenesis, long-term soil evolution and past environmental and climatic conditions. Initially focused on Istria, his studies subsequently expanded along the eastern Adriatic coast. They have helped clarify the relative roles of residual and allochthonous materials, including aeolian and other siliciclastic inputs, in terra rossa formation. More recently, his work has incorporated provenance analysis and quantitative modelling of contributions from different mineral sources.
His papers on terra rossa genesis are among the most frequently cited publications devoted specifically to this subject and continue to have an international scientific impact. Building on this research, he leads the Croatian research team participating in the US National Science Foundation (NSF) project IRES: Assessing Dust Landscapes Across Time, led by Michael and Gerilyn Soreghan at the University of Oklahoma. The project brings together research on atmospheric dust, soil and palaeosol formation, and landscape evolution through geological time. A major milestone in his long-standing work on terra rossa is his role as editor of the international scholarly volume Terra Rossa Soils: Genesis, Function, and Global Relevance, currently being prepared for publication by Elsevier.
His wider research includes the formation and evolution of loess-derived soils, particularly pseudogley soils in the Pannonian region, as well as palaeosols and karst bauxites associated with regional unconformities of the Adriatic Carbonate Platform. These studies address mineral transformations, geochemical evolution and the reconstruction of past environmental and climatic conditions. He has also investigated the mineralogy and geochemistry of sediments from the Adriatic Sea, and of deep-sea sediments and manganese nodules from the Peru Basin. Together with Manfred Frechen, he was guest editor of Quaternary of Croatia, a special issue of Quaternary International (vol. 494, 2018) comprising 22 scientific papers on multidisciplinary Quaternary research in Croatia.
In environmental mineralogy and geochemistry, he studies the distribution, mobility and forms of binding of potentially toxic elements in soils and sediments, as well as the environmental effects of mining, industry and urbanisation. His research has also addressed the treatment and stabilisation of industrial waste. He participates in interdisciplinary studies of the occurrence and persistence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the environment.
He has authored or co-authored more than 100 scientific papers. As a project leader or collaborator, he has contributed to ten international or bilateral research projects, one project under the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), seven national research projects and three completed projects funded by the Croatian Science Foundation. He is currently a researcher on a further project funded by the Foundation. He has chaired or served on the scientific committees of nine international conferences and on the organising committees of two. He has delivered approximately ten invited lectures at scientific meetings in Croatia and abroad.
He serves on the editorial board of Geologia Croatica and has reviewed manuscripts for Geoderma, Catena, Clay Science, Applied Clay Science, Chemical Geology, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Quaternary International, Quaternary Science Journal, Journal of the Geological Society, International Journal of Speleology, Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, Geologia Carpatica and Environmental Geology.
He served as Vice-Dean for Teaching and Student Affairs (2001–2005) and Dean (2005–2009) of the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering; President of the Croatian Clay Group (2004–2007); representative of the Croatian Clay Group in the European Clay Groups Association (2005–2007); Chair of the National Committee for the Scientific Field of Geology (2017–2023); President of the Croatian National INQUA Committee (2019–2024); and representative of the Croatian Geological Society in the European Federation of Geologists through the Euroages project (2007–2011). Since 2019, he has chaired the Scientific Council for Nature and Environmental Protection of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He is also an expert evaluator of geoscience and environmental research projects for the European Commission.
He received the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Award for outstanding scientific and artistic achievements in the field of Natural Sciences and Mathematics for 2011 and the City of Zagreb Award in 2019. He was elected an Associate Member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2014 and a Full Member of its Department of Natural Sciences in 2016. During the Croatian War of Independence, in 1991 and 1992, he worked with the Croatian Office attached to the European Community Monitoring Mission (ECMM) as an interpreter accompanying monitoring teams, travelling with them to nearly all areas of Croatia affected by the aggression.