The awards were conferred as part of the 24th Days of Jožef Stefan.

Ljupka Stojčevska Malbašić received the institute's Golden Emblem for proving the existence of a yet unknown state of materials in the PhD she presented at the institute's postgraduate school in June 2013.

Thus she laid the foundations for research of the transitions in related materials and pointed to the existence of materials with yet unknown functional features.

Miha Grilc discovered a new method of transforming of biomass as a complementary energy source, using different catalysts allowing for a more efficient use of energy.

He conducted the research using cost-efficient chemicals so as to allow for the possibility of using the method for commercial purposes. The discovery is pending an international patent.

Dejan Dovžan wrote his award-winning PhD on the identification of a process based on real-time data stream. He used his method of observation of a process and possible changes in it on a system for detecting glitches of sensors in a sewage plant.

Dovžan's discovery also earned him first place at a competition at the World Congress on Computational Intelligence in Brisbane in 2012 organised by the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society and an award of the Ljubljana Faculty of Electrical Engineering in 2013.

"The awards for the most notable PhD theses highlight achievements that have brought concrete results and achievements that are applicable both in science and development," the institute's head Jadran Lenarčič said in his address of tonight's ceremony on the eve of the birth of physicist and mathematician Jožef Stefan.

The event was also addressed by Prime Minister Miro Cerar, who said he was happy to see young and ambitious researchers who work to change the society for the better despite the many obstacles.

He said he was convinced that the award-winning discoveries would significantly contribute to finding answers to modern and future challenges.