Princeton University Athletics
Matej Sekulic
Studying The Jadar Project: Matej Sekulic
November 16, 2023 | Men's Water Polo
Matej Sekulic spent the previous summer as an associate researcher for the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy in Serbia. During that time, he was able to work on a paper titled "A Driver of Green Transition or a Colonial Tailing Dump; Political Discourse of the Jadar Project."
The Jadar Mine is in Serbia and has one of the largest lithium deposits in the world. The paper was published last month.
Sekulic's main responsibilities as a researcher were looking into foreign national and Serbian government documents to see agreements that were made regarding the mine. He also read through contracts between the Rio Tinto Group (the owner of the mine) and automobile companies like Mercedes and Audi.
"I found that the government shifted its view on the mine," said Sekulic. "There used to be positive feedback three or four years back. After COVID, people noticed how bad the environmental damage might be. There were huge protests that swept the country, and the pressure made the government close the mine for the time being. "
The senior got this internship through the politics department at Princeton. "I wanted to get into the area of lithium mining and mineral extraction, because I think the green energy transition happening in the West is crucial to how the economy will be shaped in the future years," said Sekulic.
Sekulic wants to also use the internship to prepare and collect data that could be useful for his senior thesis. He is planning on doing more research after winter break.
His plan for a senior thesis is a comparative study on the case of lithium mining in Serbia and Argentina. "These two cases are similar situations, but the results are vastly different on government acceptance of the public opinion," said Sekulic. "It's an interesting opportunity to study something I'm very passionate about. There's not a lot of research being done on this, because it's a very contemporary issue. The importance of lithium mining has increased due to the need for electric vehicles and reduction of fossil fuel usage in the economy. My senior thesis question is mostly oriented towards how successful lithium mining companies are in swaying the public opinion?"
Being at Princeton was helpful in preparing Sekulic for his research. "I think Princeton can be a very pressured environment at times, especially as a student athlete," said the senior. "It really helped me understand the value of time management and preparation. I think success is a result of your past preparation."
Being on a successful team like the water polo squad has also been beneficial for Sekulic. "Dustin's (Litvak) main theme has been we have talented players, but if we don't play cohesively, we're not going to succeed," said Sekulic.
Being a team player was vital for helping the paper get published. Luca Steric, the author of the paper, worked hand-and-hand with the interns to answer questions and help the group collect data and find documents.
"I think the world is ever changing," said Sekulic. "The climate change that can occur in the future can be detrimental to my children, my children's children. I think it's important to look at ways that we as a society can progress towards a more sustainable way of living, which I think is possible."
Sekulic's water polo team, the defending Northeast Water Polo Champions, look for its third straight conference title this weekend at Harvard.
The Jadar Mine is in Serbia and has one of the largest lithium deposits in the world. The paper was published last month.
Sekulic's main responsibilities as a researcher were looking into foreign national and Serbian government documents to see agreements that were made regarding the mine. He also read through contracts between the Rio Tinto Group (the owner of the mine) and automobile companies like Mercedes and Audi.
"I found that the government shifted its view on the mine," said Sekulic. "There used to be positive feedback three or four years back. After COVID, people noticed how bad the environmental damage might be. There were huge protests that swept the country, and the pressure made the government close the mine for the time being. "
The senior got this internship through the politics department at Princeton. "I wanted to get into the area of lithium mining and mineral extraction, because I think the green energy transition happening in the West is crucial to how the economy will be shaped in the future years," said Sekulic.
Sekulic wants to also use the internship to prepare and collect data that could be useful for his senior thesis. He is planning on doing more research after winter break.
His plan for a senior thesis is a comparative study on the case of lithium mining in Serbia and Argentina. "These two cases are similar situations, but the results are vastly different on government acceptance of the public opinion," said Sekulic. "It's an interesting opportunity to study something I'm very passionate about. There's not a lot of research being done on this, because it's a very contemporary issue. The importance of lithium mining has increased due to the need for electric vehicles and reduction of fossil fuel usage in the economy. My senior thesis question is mostly oriented towards how successful lithium mining companies are in swaying the public opinion?"
Being at Princeton was helpful in preparing Sekulic for his research. "I think Princeton can be a very pressured environment at times, especially as a student athlete," said the senior. "It really helped me understand the value of time management and preparation. I think success is a result of your past preparation."
Being on a successful team like the water polo squad has also been beneficial for Sekulic. "Dustin's (Litvak) main theme has been we have talented players, but if we don't play cohesively, we're not going to succeed," said Sekulic.
Being a team player was vital for helping the paper get published. Luca Steric, the author of the paper, worked hand-and-hand with the interns to answer questions and help the group collect data and find documents.
"I think the world is ever changing," said Sekulic. "The climate change that can occur in the future can be detrimental to my children, my children's children. I think it's important to look at ways that we as a society can progress towards a more sustainable way of living, which I think is possible."
Sekulic's water polo team, the defending Northeast Water Polo Champions, look for its third straight conference title this weekend at Harvard.
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