Alan Ivkovic

Dr. Ivković graduated from the School of Medicine in Zagreb in 1999. His residency in orthopaedic surgery started in 2002, and he passed specialist exam in 2007. He obtained PhD degree in biomedical sciences in 2009, and the topic of his thesis was application of gene therapy in articular cartilage repair. Currently he is a consultant orthopedic surgeon at the University Hospital Sveti Duh in Zagreb. He is also assistant professor at the Department of Biotechnology University of Rijeka where he teaches regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. He also has academic affiliations with School of Medicine University of Zagreb and with Faculty of Applied Health Sciences in Zagreb. He authored numerous scientific articles published in peer-reviewed journals, as well as numerous chapters in books and encyclopedias. As an International Fulbright Fellow he spent academic year 2007/2008 in the Center for Molecular Orthopaedics at Harvard University in Boston, USA. He is a recipient of numerous domestic and international fellowships and awards. During his career he visited numerous international teaching institutions and participated in various courses, including those in Boston, Chicago, Amsterdam, Freiburg, Munich, Barcelona, Milano and Basel. His professional focus is adult lower extremity reconstructive surgery (including joint replacement and soft tissue surgery), as well as bone and cartilage tissue engineering. He is a team leader of the Croatian partner in the international consortium within EU FP7 project BIO-COMET (Bioreactor-based, clinically oriented engineering of tissues) and HORIZON 2020 project BIO-CHIP (Bioengineered grafts for cartilage healing in patients). He is a board member of the Croatian Orthopaedic Society and the national EBOT (European Board of Orthopaedic Surgery) delegate. As an official physician of the Croatian Water Polo Federation he participated in 2012 London Olympic Games (gold medalist), European Championships in Zagreb 2010 (gold medalist) and World Championships in Melbourne 2007 (gold medalist).