In this episode, we host three guests related to the entrepreneurial landscape in Slovenia:

• Charlotte Taft, Education Coordinator at the US Embassy in Ljubljana
• Danijela Pavlica, Head of Educational Content at POPRI, from Primorska Technology Park
• Jakob Gajšek, director of LUI, Ljubljana University Incubator

We talk about youth entrepreneurship in Slovenia and the world. What is the state of youth entrepreneurship in Slovenia? What is being done in Slovenia and the region? We discuss best practices worldwide and their vision for developing and improving youth entrepreneurship in Slovenia.  We discuss creativity, the entrepreneur mindset, and traits: passion, ambition, experimentation, risk, learning, market fit, and many others.

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In this episode, we host Mr. Boštjan Gorjup, ex-president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia and Managing Director at BSH Adriatic East, the largest manufacturer of small home appliances in Europe, one of the largest companies in Slovenia and also one of the most important companies in BSH. We talked with Mr. Gorjup to gain insights about the company's growth, the role of artificial intelligence in smart manufacturing, and recent challenges related to the floods in Slovenia. In addition, we get to know Slovenia's main competitive advantages and how the Slovenian business environment can be improved.

If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend, learn more about ASEF on our website and consider donating to support the ASEF's mission and programs!

In this episode, we host Teja Tegelj, an accomplished Slovenian artist. Teja Tegelj earned her bachelor's degree at the Faculty of Education, Program Art Pedagogy at the University of Ljubljana. She later pursued a Master of Science in Art Pedagogy. During her studies, she took part in a student exchange in Germany. She also researched aboriginal art in Australia, which greatly influenced her art expression development. She was awarded the Grand Prix of the International Visual Art Award Ex-Tempore Ptuj and the Golden Osten Award at the Osten Biennial of Drawing Skopje. Since 2015, she has been a Slovenian Association of Fine Arts Societies member.

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In Episode 20, we talk with Dr. Tamara Trošt, Associate Professor at the School of Economics and Business at the University of Ljubljana, and Dr. Manja Klemenčič, Associate Senior Lecturer on Sociology offering higher education courses at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University and in General Education at Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Listen as they discuss the field of sociology.

• Dr. Tamara Trošt is an ASEF Tutor and Associate Professor at the University of Ljubljana School of Economics and Business. She received a Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University and an M.A. in Political Science from Syracuse University. She has published about stereotypes, identity, populism, history education, collective memory, sports, and nationalism and specializes in qualitative research methods.
• Dr. Manja Klemenčič is an Associate Senior Lecturer on Sociology offering higher education courses at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, and General Education at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Klemenčič is a local affiliate at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University. Klemenčič is an external associate researcher at the Centre for Educational Policy Studies, Faculty of Education at the University of Ljubljana and collaborates with the research group at CMEPIUS, Centre of the Republic of Slovenia for Mobility and European Educational and Training Programmes, in particular as a member of the global academic network APIKS - Academic Profession in Knowledge Societies. She researches, teaches, advises, and acts as a consultant in the area of sociology and politics of higher education, European and international comparative higher education.

The ASEF Podcast host is Tanja Janko, a Master's Student of Chemistry at the University of Zurich. She was an ASEF Fellow 2019 with Dr. Dimitri Krainc at Northwestern University.

If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend, learn more about ASEF on our website and consider donating to support the ASEF's mission and programs!

In this episode, we host Mr. Tone Stanovnik, Founder and CEO of Špica International, a regional leader in Time Management and Access Control focusing on Workforce Management, Supply Chain Management, Sales Force Automation, and Asset Management. We talk with Mr. Stanovnik about the start of his entrepreneurial career and its development. He shares his insights into his company's growth, his views about efficiency and how it can be enhanced, and the many challenges they faced, such as adapting to changes such as migrating from on-premise to cloud models and licensing business models to subscriptions. In addition, we get to know his vision for the field of time management solutions, how he compares the business environment in Slovenia to other countries, the main competitive advantages of Slovenia, and how the Slovenian business environment can be improved.

If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend, learn more about ASEF on our website and consider donating to support the ASEF's mission and programs!

In this episode, we host Polona Kunaver Ličen (Lona Verlich), a Slovenian painter, illustrator, graphic designer, exhibition creator, and musician. Polona Kunaver Ličen earned her bachelor's and master's degree at the Academy of Fine Arts, Ljubljana. During her master's degree, she spent a year in Helsinki, Finland, studying illustration and graphics. In 2006, she won the first prize in Austria for her illustrated book "The Secret of Old Man Bertold" at the author's book competition. She is a member of the Society of Fine Artists of Northern Primorska. Since September 2003, she and her husband have been running the art and design center Lična hiša in Ajdovščina, Slovenia.

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In Episode 17, we talk with Dr. Vita Godec, Managing Director at Lenis farmacevtika d.o.o. and ASEF professor Dr. David Sarlah, Associate Professor at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Listen as they discuss the field of chemistry.

• Dr. Vita Godec is an ASEF Mentor who received her BSc in Biochemistry and her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Later she received her MBA from IEDC-Bled School of Management. Currently, she is a Managing Director at Lenis farmacevtika d.o.o., a Slovenian pharma wholesaler specializing in imports of niche and unlicensed medicines, where she focuses on digitalization in business process management.
• Dr. David Sarlah is an ASEF Professor who received his BSc in Chemistry from the University of Ljubljana in 2006 and his Ph.D. from the Scripps Research Institute in 2011. Following a postdoctoral stay at ETH Zürich, he joined the faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2014, where he holds the position of Associate Professor at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology.

The ASEF Podcast host is Tanja Janko, a Master's Student of Chemistry at the University of Zurich. She was an ASEF Fellow 2019 with Dr. Dimitri Krainc at Northwestern University.

If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend, learn more about ASEF on our website and consider donating to support the ASEF's mission and programs!

In this episode, we host Mr. Marko Bitenc, Founder and CEO of GenePlanet, one of the most prominent and innovative personal genetics companies, and Co-Founder of Universal Diagnostics, which is developing primary prevention methods for cancer through the use of blood tests. We talk with Mr. Bitenc about the start of his entrepreneurial career and its incredible development. He shares with us his insights into the growth of his companies, the products they offer, and the motivation behind them. We get to know his vision for the field of personal genetics and its increasingly tighter cooperation with clinical medicine in the future, as well as his thoughts on the potential for similar future life science companies in Slovenia.

If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend, learn more about ASEF on our website and consider donating to support the ASEF's mission and programs!

In this episode, we host Slovenian academic painter Matej Metlikovič. Matej Metlikovič earned his bachelor's degree in 1978 at the Academy of Fine Arts, Ljubljana, under professors Štefan Planinc and Milan Butina, and completed his master’s degree under Kiar Meško and Janez Bernik in 1981. Since he completed his studies, Matej has continually worked, exhibited, and participated in national and international exhibitions, art workshops, and symposiums. His artworks are kept in numerous collections around Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and Canada. He has been a freelance artist since 1992.

If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend, learn more about ASEF on our website and consider donating to support the ASEF's mission and programs!

Why is it important to research mathematics? Do we discover maths, or do we invent it? What is the research purpose in the fields of topology and graphs? In which fields of mathematics does Slovenia have strong research groups? How does the research environment in Slovenia differ from other countries?

In Episode 14, we talk with ASEF professors Bojan Mohar, Sara Kališnik, and Andrej Bauer. Listen as they discuss the field of mathematics.

• Bojan Mohar is a world-recognized mathematician in the field of graph theory. He is a Canada Research Chair in Graph Theory at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada, and a Full Professor at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana. He obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Ljubljana, was a post-doctoral fellow at Simon Fraser University, and was a Fullbright Visiting Scholar at the Ohio State University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the American Mathematical Society, and the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He received the John L. Synge Award and the prestigious Euler Medal. The Republic of Slovenia awarded him the Ambassador of Science Award.
• Sara Kališnik is a Senior Scientist in the Department of Mathematics at ETH Zurich. Her research focuses on using methods from pure mathematics to study data. She is the co-director of the Applied Algebraic Topology Research Network, which hosts a popular weekly Online Seminar. She obtained her Ph.D. at Stanford University and performed post-doctoral research at Brown University and the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences. In the academic year 2020/2021, she was an Assistant Professor at Bentley University. Her research focuses on applied algebraic topology.
• Andrej Bauer is a professor at the University of Ljubljana. He obtained his Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University and received the School of Computer Science Distinguished Dissertation Award for his Ph.D. thesis. He was the main coordinator for the 47th International Mathematical Olympiad held in Slovenia. In 2022 he received the American Mathematical Society Levi L. Conant Prize for the article “Five stages of accepting constructive mathematics.”

The ASEF Podcast host is Tanja Janko, a Master's Student of Chemistry at the University of Zurich. She was an ASEF Fellow in 2019 with Dr. Dimitri Krainc at Northwestern University.

If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend, learn more about ASEF on our website and consider donating to support the ASEF's mission and programs!