Lovel Kukuljan

Speleology is one of the few human activities exploring the yet unexplored parts of the Earth – the karst underground. A deeper understanding of the karst and caves formation, the importance of the karst aquifiers for drinking water supply and the human impact on the sensitive underground ecosystems requires a comprehensive knowledge of the karst phenomena. That is why I have enrolled in the doctoral study programme Karstology at the University of Nova Gorica. The university offers me favourable study conditions, and here I also met the world-renowned experts in the field of karstology, who are also lecturers at our study programme, as well as the staff of the Karst Research Institute, located in Postojna.
The approach to karst research is multidisciplinary, which allows the students to gain a broad knowledge from various approaches (geology, surface, underground and water), but on the other hand, the students can choose between numerous elective subjects and thus focus on their areas of interest. The studies are practically oriented, Slovenia and the Slovenian karst actually enable a direct contact with the study field, and the opportunity to study the world-famous karst phenomena of the »classic« karst such as: the Postojna Cave, the Škocjan Caves, the Cerknica Polje and the Planina Polje…
Lovel Kukuljan, doctoral study programme »Karstology«, University of Nova Gorica