Doctoral dissertation by Rok Šmerc awarded cum laude

On 7 July 2025, Rok Šmerc defended his doctoral dissertation, "Mechanisms of electroporation and physicochemical factors of importance to electroporation-based therapies", at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana. The dissertation was prepared under the supervision of Samo Mahnič.

At its session on 8 January 2026, the Senate of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering confirmed that the work represents a top achievement and a breakthrough in the scientific field, and assessed it as passed with honours (cum laude).

The work addresses the mechanisms of electroporation and the physicochemical factors of importance to electroporation-based therapies, ranging from numerical modelling of pulsed-field treatments and skeletal-muscle anisotropy to the electrochemical reactions, pH changes, and electro-osmosis that accompany electroporation pulses.

Rok continues his research at the Laboratory of Biocybernetics as a postdoctoral researcher.

The dissertation is available here.