Spomenka KOBE

Prof. Dr. Spomenka Kobe is a Scientific Advisor at the Department for Nanostructured materials and a full professor at the International “Jožef Stefan” Postgraduate School. Until 2018 she served 16 years as the Head of Department at the Jožef Stefan Institute and until 2017 was the Slovene director of The International Associated Laboratory “Push-Pull Alloys And Complex Compounds (PACS2): from bulk properties to surface functions” between CNRS, Nancy, France, and the Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia. She initiated rare-earth magnet research activities in Slovenia and was the coordinator of the (4 million euro) European project “Replacement and Original Magnet Engineering Option” - ROMEO (FP7-NMP). During her career, she was the principal investigator on many national and international projects. She also acts as a European Expert and Evaluator. Her research opus encompasses 701 bibliographic units, of which are 167 original scientific papers, 12 technical and popular articles, seven chapters in books, six patents (3 EP), one patent application, and 30 invited talks.

Nd-Fe-B magnets produced by innovative technology in-built in the motor of the electric car in the company Valeo. The electric motor test showed a 13 % higher performance than the benchmark motor, and the torque increased by 11 % at the ΔT of 95 K. Both parameters contribute to higher efficiency.

1991 PhD, University of Ljubljana

2003 Scientific Advisor at Jožef Stefan Institut

2002–2018 Head of department,

2003–2020 Leader of National Research Programme

2012 Full Professor at International Postgraduate School “Jožef Stefan”

2009 – 2017 Member of Scientific Board of Jožef Stefan Institute

2014 President SATENA

2016, 2020 Member of the Governing Board of the International Postgraduate School “Jožef Stefan”

2017 Associate Member IAS

Important Works

Invited talk: S. Kobe, Rare earth magnets in Europe: Trans-Atlantic Workshop on Rare Earth Elements and other Critical Materials for a Clean Energy Future, December 3, 2010, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2011.

M. Soderžnik, M. Korent, K. Žagar, M. Katter, K. Üstüner, S. Kobe (2016) Acta materialia 115:278-284.

B. Saje, S. Kobe, A.E. Platts, I.R. Harris (1996) EU Patent, No. 95907498.0- 2211.

Selected Awards

1987 državna nagrada za raziskovalno delo Vpliv sestave na proces formiranja mikrostrukture in njen vpliv na magnetne lastnosti mehko-magnetne keramike | The influence of composition and processing parameters on magnetic properties of soft magnetic ceramics

1987, 1989 Two innovation awards (Iskra Feriti) for the technology transfer to production

1992 State award for the research work, technology transfer of Sm-Co magnets to production