Research summary
Matija's research focus is in the cross-disciplinary field of heritage science, particularly development of new scientific tools and methods to study heritage materials and collections, and their interactions with the environment. Among the pioneering contributions are the development of the concepts of collections demography, of degradomics, use of Near Infrared Spectrometry with chemometric data analysis in heritage science, use of chemiluminometry for studies of degradation of organic heritage materials, and studies of volatile degradation products in heritage collections, including the smell of heritage. His current research interests include development and use of damage functions and integrated modelling of heritage collections. Matija is also interested in the field of heritage science itself, and has been involved in a research project examining the attitudes of heritage scientists to collaborative research.