New Year, New Faces at the Euro-Mediterranean University

The Euro-Mediterranean University (EMUNI) is delighted to welcome three new collaborators to its fold: Prof. Dr. Jaka Vadnjal, Prof. Dr. Mounir Ghribi and Diana Rico.

Prof. Dr. Jaka Vadnjal is now the new Head of Academic Affairs at EMUNI. His topics of teaching and research are entrepreneurship, family business management, managing growing business, business environment and business and managerial economics. He has presented at prominent research conferences, including Babson, Kaufmann, ISBE, ISPIM and Rent worldwide. Having published over forty papers in scientific journals and four chapters in scientific books, Prof. Dr. Vadnjal is also co-author of several textbooks on entrepreneurship. As well as heading Academic Affairs at EMUNI, Prof. Dr. Vadnjal will also be the Managing Editor of the International Journal of Euro-Mediterranean Studies

Prof Dr. Mounir Ghribi is the new Director of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Blue Economy at EMUNI. He holds a PhD in methods for monitoring environmental change from the University of Trieste; a Masters in Open Innovation and Knowledge Transfer from the Politecnico di Milano; a MSc in Environmental Management from the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania, Crete; and an Engineering degree from the ESAM School of Engineering, Tunisia. Prof. Dr. Ghribi is the Director of International Cooperation and Research Promotion (ICAP) at Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS) in Trieste, Italy, with whom EMUNI has previously cooperated with on projects, including the BLUES Summer School in 2019 and 2021.

Diana Rico is EMUNI’s new Junior Researcher. A biologist, Diana is completing a Master of Sciences degree in Marine Ecosystems and Fisheries Sciences at the University of Hamburg, Germany. She was born in Colombia, where she gained a Bachelor degree in Biology, her thesis focusing on coral reef ecology. Diana moved from Colombia to Germany in 2019, where she started her Master’s programme, holding a Merit Scholarship for International Students. At the same time, she worked as a Research Assistant in sustainability in the maritime sector. Diana has experience in citizen science projects, teaching, field and lab work in marine biology, and assisting research projects related to marine biology and science education. She has also been very active, participating as a volunteer in various projects related to marine biology in Germany and organising conferences for marine researchers.