Seveteen full professors inaugurated at UP

Dr. Igor Stubelj obtained his doctoral degree in finance from the University of Primorska, Faculty of Management in 2011. Before embarking on his academic journey, he served as the finance director of a small company. His commitment to academia led him to various leadership roles within the university, including department head, vice-dean, president of the university's board of directors, and member of the university senate.

As a professor at the University of Primorska, Faculty of Management, Dr. Stubelj imparts his expertise through a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses such as Corporate Finance, Personal Finance, Corporate Financing and Financial Risks, Financial Management, Corporate Valuation, and Project Finance. His dedication to research is evident in his extensive publication record, which includes significant contributions to the field of finance.

Recent publications authored by Dr. Stubelj include:

1. “Profitability drivers in European banks: analyzing internal and external factors in the post-2009 financial landscape” In Risks (2025).
2. Textbook “Corporate finance from theory to practice” FinKin (2023)
3. "Productivity change in the CEE commercial banks during a period of restricted bank regulation and stable economic growth" in Economies (2023).
4. "Productivity change in European banks in the post-crisis period" in Systems (2022).
5. "Ownership structure and firm performance - the case of Slovenia" in Ekonomska Istraživanja (2021).
6. "Risk and profitability of the Slovenian industries" in the International Journal of Sustainable Economy (2021).

Beyond his academic endeavours, Dr. Stubelj actively engages in enhancing the financial literacy and acumen of entrepreneurs through lectures and workshops tailored for groups of entrepreneurs. His knowledge in the realm of corporate finance empowers aspiring and established entrepreneurs alike. Through his multifaceted contributions, Dr. Stubelj continues to make a meaningful impact in both research, educational and practical spheres of finance.

Suzana Todorović was born in Koper in 1979. She graduated from the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana in 2005 and obtained the professional title of Professor of Italian and a degree in Cultural Sociology. She completed her doctorate at the same faculty in 2011 with the topic Lexicological-etymological analysis of selected Romanisms in the Šavrini subdialect speeches under the supervision of academician Goran Filipi and Martina Ožbot Currie.

After completing her studies, she worked for a school year at a grammar school with Italian as the language of instruction (Ginnasio Antonio Sema Pirano) and from 2006 to 2011 as a junior researcher under supervision of Goran Filipi at the Scientific Research Centre (then still under the auspices of the UP). At the same time, she also began to gain teaching experience at the UP FHŠ, where she initially qualified as an assistant professor in 2006. From 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2018, she headed the institute as a student advisor (student organisation of the University of Ljubljana). During this time, she was regularly promoted to teaching and academic titles and also worked at the UP FHŠ as the head of two courses in the Department of Italian Studies. Since 1 January 2019, she has been a full-time employee of UP PEF, where she works as a tutor for students belonging to the Italian minority in Slovenia and as a coordinator of two higher education programmes for institutions with Italian as the language of instruction.  She is the supervisor of thirty diploma theses, six master's theses and two doctoral theses. She has given numerous individual lectures at foreign universities and completed three one-month stays. For several years she taught two courses at the Faculty of Education in Pula. She has participated in several international projects. Since defending her doctorate, she has continuously researched the dialect and linguistic image of north-western Istria. She deals with the Istrian-Slovenian dialect, the Istrian-Venetian dialect, Romance etymology and linguistic geography, with a particular focus on contact dialectology or linguistics – at the interface between the Romance and Slavic language areas. Her research and publications have always been very well received by the public, as evidenced by the regular media coverage of her monographs; in the last ten years she has been a guest on 80 radio or television programmes; she has also given several interviews. In 2022, she was awarded the Prometej znanosti za odličnost v komuniciranju (Prometheus of Science for Outstanding Achievements in Communication) for the successful transfer of her research results into the promotion of modern dialect reality.

Dr. Janez Konc, born in 1978 in Ljubljana, graduated in 2004 with a degree in pharmacy from the University of Ljubljana and successfully completed two years of university studies at the Faculty of Computer and Information Science, University of Ljubljana. For his diploma thesis at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana, he received the Krka Award. In 2008, he obtained his PhD in pharmacy at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Pharmacy.

After completing his PhD, he continued his scientific work at the National Institute of Chemistry in Ljubljana and at the University of Primorska, Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies. He completed more than a year of postdoctoral training at the University of Warsaw, Faculty of Chemistry in Poland. In 2013, he spent five months as a Senior Fulbright Scholar at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA. 

He teaches at the University of Primorska, Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies, at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Pharmacy, Biotechnical Faculty, and Faculty of Medicine. He has supervised two doctoral students, nine master’s students, and nine undergraduate students. He has served on several thesis topic evaluation and doctoral dissertation evaluation committees at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ljubljana, at the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies at the University of Primorska, and at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the University of Maribor.

The core scientific research focus of Dr. Janez Konc lies in bioinformatics and pharmacy, specifically in the development of new ProBiS web tools for innovative drug design and discovery, which serve as powerful tools for computer-aided drug design. Through his long-term scientific and professional work in this field, he has earned a reputation among leading experts and scientists worldwide, as evidenced by his extensive involvement in both domestic and international projects and the high citation rate of his scientific works. Dr. Janez Konc has successfully applied these newly developed approaches in industrial projects in collaboration with the pharmaceutical company Lek d.d. in the development of new biopharmaceuticals for cancer treatment.

Dr. Konc presented an algorithm for predicting protein binding sites and found that the structural conservation of the protein surface is an important factor that distinguishes binding sites from the rest of the surface. His research, for the first time in the world, allows the consideration of all known crystallized protein structures from the entire PDB database, as well as all protein structures obtained with the help of artificial intelligence (AlphaFold, Meta-AI), namely for predicting protein binding sites and their suitable ligands.

The bibliography of Dr. Janez Konc includes nearly 220 units. He has co-authored 77 scientific articles in top-tier international journals with domestic and international collaborators, with a notably high citation count in recognized international scientific journals. His scientific papers are highly cited, with more than 2,000 citations, including over 1,200 independent citations, demonstrating a high h-index of 20. In addition, he has delivered numerous invited lectures and presentations at international conferences, universities, and institutes, drawing significant attention worldwide.

Tilen Žbona was born on August 31, 1976, in Koper. In 2001, he graduated in painting under Professor Carlo Di Raco at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. In 2007, he successfully defended his master’s thesis, Coding and Decoding in Video Art, before a committee composed of Full Professor Srečo Dragan, Professor Dr. Franc Solina, and Assistant Professor Dr. Janez Strehovec, earning the title of Master of Arts.

In 2011, the Senate of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design at the University of Ljubljana awarded him the Recognition of Significant Artistic Works in the field of video and new media. In 2017, he defended his doctoral dissertation titled The Use of New Media within Spatial Design at Elementary School at the Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, before a committee consisting of Associate Professor Dr. Beatriz Gabriele Tomšič Čerkez, Full Professor Dr. Borut Juvanec, Full Professor Mag. Srečo Dragan, Associate Professor Dr. Janez Vogrinc, and Full Professor Dr. Franc Solina, obtaining the title of Doctor of Science in Teacher Education and Educational Sciences.

Since 2015, he has been a member of the University Art Observatory of the Rector’s Conference of the Republic of Slovenia (UUO RKRS). In recent years, alongside his work with students and personal artistic production— for which he received an honorary award from the Coastal Galleries Piran in 2021— Žbona has achieved significant milestones, including the establishment of the first university-level undergraduate program in Visual Arts and Design and, in 2024, a graduate-level program, where he played the roles of initiator, content designer, and coordinator.

In 2024, on the occasion of the 21st Anniversary Celebration of the University of Primorska and in honor of the second term of Rector Professor Dr. Klavdija Kutnar, he designed the new Insignia of the University of Primorska.

Between 2019 and 2021, he was a member of the expert committee for intermedia arts at the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia. He is also a member of the Subject Curriculum Commission for the revision of art education syllabi and knowledge catalogs at the National Institute of Education of Slovenia. Additionally, he serves as an expert in the selection of artistic works for public investment projects within the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia. Žbona is recognized as an important mid-career artist in both painting and intermedia art, with a record of 80 exhibitions documented in the Modern Gallery of Ljubljana database.

Tatjana Horvat, PhD, is an expert in the field of accounting and financial auditing. She is Professor of Accounting and Auditing. With shorter interruptions, she has been working for the University of Primorska, the Faculty of Management since 2003. In all the fields mentioned, she is very active in terms of pedagogical, professional and scientific activities, acting in the local as well as in the international environment.

She received her doctoral degree from the University of Ljubljana, the Faculty of Economics in 2002. Subsequently, she pursued and completed her education for acquiring the titles (licences): State/National Internal Auditor, licenced by the Ministry of Finance, the Republic of Slovenia, and Certified Internal Auditor, licenced by the Slovenian Institute of Auditors. As National Internal Auditor, she is registered with the Committee on Budgetary Control. Additionally, she also holds the licence of the Certified Accountant. The licences are the background for her activities in audits for the public institutions and companies, specialising in the supervision of financial activities in educational  institutions.

At the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Slovenia, she is a member of the Examination Board, examining knowledge and professionalism, for judicial experts and judicial appraisers in the following areas: economy and finance, banking, valuation of companies, forensic investigation of economic operations, and bankruptcy.

As President/Chairwoman of the Annual Report Evaluation Committee, Slovenia, Tatjana Horvat has set standards for accurate and transparent business and financial reporting in the life of big companies, banks and insurance companies as well as public educational institutions. Many  educational institutions and companies as well as students at various educational institutions, follow her professional recommendations, which she publishes and also shares during her lectures.

In terms of financial operations/performance in a lawful and regular manner, and in terms of work programmes, she has audited many educational institutions, educated their leading executives in the field of public finances, designed many professional educational programmes in the field of taxes, accounting and finance for the businesses, solved public finance issues with municipalities and ministries, with governement and tax instititions.

With foreign experts, she wrote and conducted the valuations and appraisals of various assets of million values. Providing expert opinions/assessments, she has been active in various Slovene and foreign companies and institutions (in Austria, Russia, Hungary, Australia, Spain, Ukraine, Azerbaijan etc.).

She has published more than 600 items (recorded in Cobiss under number 26373), among them there are scientific papers, co-authored with experts from all over the world, professional articles, papers presented at conferences, records on mentoring, monographs, records on lectures given abroad etc.

Dr. Alenka Janko Spreizer graduated in 1993 and obtained her master’s degree in 1997 from the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana. She earned her doctorate in 2001 at the Institutum Studiorum Humanitatis (ISH) – Faculty for Postgraduate Humanities Studies in Ljubljana. She has been employed at the University of Primorska since December 2003, specifically at the Faculty of Humanities, where she is a lecturer and course coordinator for core and elective subjects in anthropology and cultural studies programs at the undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels, where she also served as a program coordinator. She is the author of several study materials. She was a co-organiser of the annual META Humanities summer schools. From 2014 to 2020, she was the Head of the Department of Anthropology and Cultural Studies and a member of the Senate of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Primorska. She served two terms on the Committee for Scientific Research Activities at the Faculty of Humanities. She was a committee member for the Bartol Award for university professors in 2016. She continues to serve on the Disciplinary Committee and the Senate.

Alenka Janko Spreizer has supervised or co-supervised 49 undergraduate theses and 8 master's theses. She has also mentored one doctoral dissertation and co-mentored two scientific master's theses. She has taught and conducted research at numerous universities abroad, including in Paris, Budapest, Plzeň, Prague, Belgrade, Klagenfurt, and Tampere. She has received several international research fellowships, including a 2002 fellowship from the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme Foundation and a six-month Fernand Braudel Fellowship in 2003/2004. OSI HESP ReSET awarded her a scholarship and a certificate of excellence for academic achievements in a program called Post-Colony And Post-Socialism Contexts In Social Scientific Writing And Teaching (OSI-HESP Regional Seminar For Excellence In Teaching Project).

From 2004 to 2007, she was part of the international research network Gypsies/Roma: The Dynamics of Marginality, Resistance, and Integration, funded by the British Academy. In 2007, she lectured at the SUN University summer school Multi-disciplinary Approaches to Romany Studies – A Model for Europe. She was also a board member of Romani Studies and is currently an editorial board member of Studia Ethnologica Pragensia. She is a member of the editorial board for the Slovenian Scientific Collection for Humanities at the University of Primorska Press. Her research activities include participation in the Slovenian national delegation at the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), within the Academic Working Group and the Committee on Genocide of the Roma (CGR), which she chaired in 2021.

She has published 27 original scientific articles (6 co-authored) and one review article; 9 were published in journals included in the SCI or Scopus base, and 12 in journals listed as other international bibliographical bases (MBP). Janko Spreizer also published 17 contributions/chapters in scientific monographs (2 co-authored). She is the author of one scientific monograph and co-author of three scientific monographs, two of which were published by international publishers. In 2018, she received the national ARRS Award for Excellence in Science for her book Fish on the Move.

Dr. Nives Kovač completed her secondary education at the Secondary Mathematics School in Koper, majoring in natural sciences. She then continued her education at the Academy of Pedagogy (Edvard Kardelj University in Ljubljana), where in 1987, after completing her post-secondary studies, she obtained the professional title of "subject teacher of biology and chemistry". She continued her studies at the same faculty, where she completed her higher education studies in the pedagogical field of biology - chemistry, at the department: Chemical Education and Informatics. She graduated in 1990 and obtained the professional title of "professor of chemistry - biology".

In September 1990, she began working as a young researcher at the Department of the National Institute of Biology, at the Marine Biological Station Piran (NIB MBP), while simultaneously enrolling in postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering, University of Ljubljana (Department: Chemistry and Chemical Engineering). She completed her studies in December 1994, earning the title of Master of Chemistry. She then enrolled in a doctoral program and in 1999 successfully defended her doctoral thesis titled “Photochemical transformations of selected polysaccharides and model substrates in aqueous media” at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Ljubljana.

From 1990 to January 2024, she actively participated in the research activities of the NIB MBP as a researcher, where she was involved in the "Coastal Sea Research" program (ARRS, now ARIS). In addition, she occasionally took on the role of leader or active collaborator in other domestic and international research and applied projects. She has over 33 years of experience in basic and applied marine research, with a particular focus on the cycling, composition, and transformation of organic matter in the sea, marine pollution, and the study of sediments and processes in hypersaline environments, such as the Sečovlje salt pans.

In addition to her research activities, she has also been actively involved in the field of education. She has taught at both primary and secondary schools, as well as in the framework of professional development for educators. From 2001 to 2011, she also participated in undergraduate teaching at the Faculty of Maritime Studies and Transport of the University of Ljubljana. Since 2011, she has been employed full-time at the Faculty of Education of the University of Primorska, where she leads and teaches various courses in the field of natural sciences. As a result, her research is also focused on the area of science education.

During her employment at the National Institute of Biology and the University of Primorska, she gained additional knowledge and experience abroad, which she successfully applies in her research and teaching work. As a mentor and co-mentor, she has supervised undergraduate, master's, and doctoral students. She has contributed to the development of numerous study programs, curricula, and educational materials. Occasionally, she has been involved in teaching processes at other universities and has actively participated in organizing various educational events, such as open days, professional training, summer schools, teacher development programs, and educational activities for members of the Third Age University. She regularly participates in both international and domestic conferences and symposia and also contributes to the organization of conferences and scientific meetings.

In her pedagogical work, she has co-authored a higher education textbook with a review and numerous teaching materials. In addition to teaching, she has also performed reviewing and editorial work. She received the Excellence in Science Award in 2018 and the Prometheus Award. The results of her research have been published in scientific journals, including those indexed in the Web of Science, as co-author.

Prof. dr. Maša Černelič Bizjak completed her undergraduate studies in psychology in 2000 at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana. At the same department, as part of her research work at the Chair of Clinical Psychology, she obtained a scientific master's degree and later earned a PhD in psychological sciences. Her scientific work focused on researching the socio-cognitive aspects of disordered eating and eating disorders.

After completing her studies, she worked as a counsellor at the Centre for Speech and Hearing Correction and at a private counselling centre for adolescents and parents. Her teaching career began at the Faculty of Education. in 2006, she took up a full-time position at the Faculty of Health Sciences, where she still works today. In 2024, she was appointed full professor and scientific advisor in the field of health psychology. In teaching, she has developed courses at all three levels of higher education and has been a senior lecturer for eight subjects, including psychology and communication, health psychology, eating disorders, mental health and clinical psychology and counselling techniques, in four degree programmes and at all three academic levels. As a mentor, she has supervised over 90 bachelor's, master's and doctoral students in various fields (dietetics, nursing, biopsychology), some of whom have received faculty awards for outstanding theses and have been nominated for exceptional research achievements.

Her research is interdisciplinary and examines psychological factors in various diseases and conditions. Her research interests cover a wide range of interdisciplinary topics and focus on the influence of emotions, cognitive processes and decision-making on health, behaviour and adjustment, as well as mental health and eating disorders. In her studies, she investigates how various psychological factors affect individual behaviours, ranging from eating habits to physical activity and coping mechanisms. She collaborates with renowned international institutions and researchers from over 16 countries. As a researcher, she has participated in numerous national and international research programmes and projects. Between 2016 and 2022, she led two international projects in partnership with Portugal, focusing on eating habits, the impact of nutritional interventions on mental health and understanding food neophobia.

She publishes her research findings in scientific journals and monographs in the field of psychology. She is (co-)author of numerous articles in renowned journals and chapters in scientific monographs, with over 900 citations of her scientific work. Her bibliography comprises 57 original scientific papers, numerous conference papers and monograph chapters. She is the editor of the first two handbooks on eating disorders in Slovenia.

She has lectured at renowned foreign institutions and universities, including in Crete and Spain. In 2018, she conducted research at the National Institute of Public Health in Croatia. She actively participates in the management of her faculty and university and is a member of programme and organising committees for national and international scientific conferences. She is a member of an international academic association, the European Association of Personality Psychology, a member of the internal research group of the University of Primorska (Synergy between Health, Work and Education) and a member of the UP Ethics Committee for Research with Human Participants.

Dr. Eva Podovšovnik graduated from the Faculty of Social Sciences (University of Ljubljana) in 1998 in the field of sociology, specializing in social informatics. She completed her master's studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences (University of Ljubljana) in 2002 in the field of communication sciences, specializing in theoretical-methodological studies. She obtained her Ph.D. from the Faculty of Social Sciences (University of Ljubljana) in 2007 in the field of sociology and methodology of technological education.

After completing her undergraduate studies, she was employed at the High School of Economics and Social Sciences in Koper as a computer science professor. In October 1998, she began collaborating with the College of Management in Koper, where she was granted habilitation as an assistant in the field of "Statistics and Informatics in Management" in December 1998. In January 2001, she joined the Science and Research Centre in Koper. In January 2002, she obtained the status of a young researcher at the same center for the duration of her master's studies. After completing her master's degree, her young researcher status was extended for her doctoral studies. In May 2003, she was elected to the academic research title of teacher assistant with a master's degree at the research center.

In October 2002, she started teaching at the Faculty of Humanities (University of Primorska) for the course "Epistemology and Research Methodology," where she was granted the status of teacher assistant. In May 2005, she joined the research agency Cati (now Valicon), where she worked as an SPSS analyst. In October 2008, she obtained the status of an independent researcher at the Slovenian Research Agency.

In January 2011, she was appointed assistant professor in the field of Methodology in Tourism. Later, she also obtained the research title of research associate. Since February 2011, she has been employed at the Faculty of Tourism Studies. In January 2016, she was reappointed as an assistant professor in the field of Methodology in Tourism. In August 2018, she was promoted to associate professor in the field of Methodology in Tourism and senior research associate. In September 2024, she was awarded the title of full professor in the field of Methodology in Tourism and scientific advisor.

In 2021, she took up a partial position as a statistician and senior research associate at the Valdoltra Orthopedic Hospital. She is also employed as a statistician at the Slovenian Endoprosthesis Register.

Since the beginning of her tenure at the Faculty of Tourism Studies, she has been actively involved in the tutoring process. Since 2011, she has been a tutor for postgraduate students at UP FTŠ - Turistica. From 2012 to 2014, she was the president of the tutoring commission at the Faculty of Tourism Studies and chair of the Faculty's Tutoring Committee. From 2013 to 2014, she was chair of the University of Primorska's Tutoring Committee. From 2013 to 2015, she was chair of the Student Affairs Committee at the Faculty of Tourism Studies. Since 2015, she has been a member of the Faculty's Quality Committee. From 2017 to 2021, she served as chair of the Faculty's Quality Committee and was a member of the University of Primorska's Quality Committee. Since December 2024, she has been the coordinator of the master's study program in Tourism.

In her research work, she has participated in numerous projects. Since January 1, 2022, she has been a member of the ARIS research and infrastructure program titled "Systemic Autoimmune Diseases" (code P3-0314). She is involved in the European HORIZON project “IHI IMPROVE - Framework to IMPROVE the Integration of Patient-Generated Health Data to Facilitate Value-Based Healthcare.” She is also part of the targeted research project ARIS titled "Healthy Local Community: Prevention of Risky Alcohol Consumption."

She is a member of the Statistical Society of the Republic of Slovenia and the "Sosveti" section, which operates within the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia.

To date, she has supervised 32 undergraduate theses, 3 undergraduate theses (Bologna study program), and 3 master's theses (Bologna study program). She has co-supervised 6 master's theses (Bologna study program), 1 doctoral dissertation, and 1 doctoral dissertation (Bologna study program).

She has published or participated in: 40 original scientific articles, 31 expert reports, preliminary studies, or studies, 23 guest lectures at foreign universities, 19 summaries of scientific contributions at international scientific conferences, 13 final research reports, 11 independent scientific essays or chapters in monographs, 13 scientific conference papers, 3 conference papers without publication, 3 scientific monographs, 2 other teaching materials, 2 invited scientific conference contributions, 1 book review, 1 book preface. She has a total of 300 citations.

Vita Poštuvan completed her studies in psychology at the University of Ljubljana in 2005 under the supervision of Prof Janez Bečaj and Prof Andrej Marušič and obtained her doctorate in October 2014 under the supervision of Prof Onja Grad.

In her research and intervention projects, she focuses on the study and prevention of suicidal behaviour, mental health promotion, bereavement processes and ethics. She is the deputy head of the Slovene Centre for Suicide Research, Andrej Marušič Institute, University of Primorska.

She teaches at various faculties and coordinates the doctoral programme in Suicidology and Mental Health at UP FAMNIT. She has supervised more than 70 students, mainly master students in psychology, co-supervised one PhD student in suicidology and mental health and two PhD students in medicine and nursing. At the University of Primorska, she heads the The Commission of the University of Primorska for Ethics in Human Subjects Research and is a member of other committees.

She regularly gives lectures at prestigious institutions and conferences in Slovenia and abroad. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP), convenor of the the Board of Ethics of the European Federation of Psychological Associations (EFPA) and has worked internationally in Austria, Japan, China and India. In September 2023, she co-hosted the IASP World Congress in Slovenia with Prof. De Leo and has been organising the international Triple I conference for over fifteen years.

She is the author of numerous publications: She has published 76 scientific articles - a large part of them in the most prestigious scientific journals, 50 chapters in scientific monographs, has more than 500 units in the SICRIS database and achieved an h-index of 30 in the SCOPUS database, which makes her one of the most cited Slovenian experts in the field of psychology and psychiatry. She is the editor-in-chief of the journal GeroPsych.

In 2021, she was honoured for her work with the Zois Recognition of the Republic of Slovenia for significant scientific achievements in the field of suicidology and mental health, the first such award for psychologists in Slovenia.

As a behavioral-cognitive therapist, she works in psychological counselling. As a member of the National Civil Protection Unit for Psychological Aid, she provides psychological support during crises and disasters. By supporting people directly, she combines her academic and scientific endeavours with professional psychological work.

Dr. Tina Štemberger was born on 5 January 1980 in Postojna. In 2003 she graduated from the Faculty of Education, University of Maribor, and obtained her Master's degree in Pedagogy from the Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor. She completed her doctoral studies at the University of Primorska, Faculty of Education in 2014, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Majda Cencič. She gained her first work experience teaching at the Dragomir Benčič Brkin Hrpelje Primary School and joined the University of Primorska in 2010.

At the University of Primorska, Faculty of Education, she is a lecturer and teacher of courses in the field of pedagogical methodology at all three levels of study. She has lectured abroad in Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Estonia, France, Serbia, Finland, Croatia, Denmark and the United Kingdom as part of study exchanges. She is the author or co-author of 3 higher education textbooks in the field of pedagogical methodology. She has been a mentor or co-mentor for over 60 students in the preparation of final theses in bachelor and master study programmes, and a mentor for one and three candidates who have successfully completed their doctoral studies at UP PEF. Since 2017, she has been the Vice-Dean for Scientific Research at the Faculty of Education, where she is the head of the Commission for Scientific Research and the Institute of Educational Sciences. Since 2022, she has also been the Vice-Rector of the University of Primorska for Academic Affairs and chairs a number of committees, including the UP Commission for Academic Affairs and the UP Quality Commission. She is also a member of the UP Senate.

The core of her research interest and involvement is the very issue of research and the search for appropriate data collection techniques in the field of education, with the aim of creating innovative and participatory ways that enable stakeholders in education to become not only objects but also subjects of research. He also publishes on current phenomena in research such as mass and secondary data and the use of artificial intelligence for data processing.  In relation to the content of the projects, he focuses on research on inclusive and entrepreneurial competences, professional development, initial teacher education, the role of research in initial teacher and teacher education, didactic use of digital technologies, digital competences, learning environments. For her research work, in 2020 she was awarded the Prize for Outstanding Achievements in the Field of Educational Research, awarded by the Pedagogical Institute in cooperation with the SLODRE (Slovenian Society of Educational Researchers), and in 2022 she was the recipient of the Primorska University Prize for Scientific Excellence.

In 2023, the article "Slovenian children's perceptions of and attitudes towards foreign languages", which she co-authored, was awarded the "Excellence in Science" label by ARIS. In 2021, together with her colleagues, she was awarded an ARIS Basic Research Project "Inclusion in pre-school education: a factor in ensuring equal opportunities for the individual and society and lifelong learning". Prior to that, she was awarded the ESF project Innovative and flexible forms of teaching and learning in pedagogical degree programmes. Otherwise, as a methodologist, she is involved in a number of projects funded by the NOO, the ESF and Erasmus+. She is author or co-author of at least 40 original and 6 review scientific articles, most of them published in SCOPUS or SCI databases, and author of 30 independent scientific papers. She is also the author of 5 scientific monographs, and her scientific monograph Introduction to Educational Research has been described by referees as a seminal work in the field. She has co-edited at least 10 scientific monographs and has been a member of at least 5 programme committees of international scientific conferences. She is a member of the editorial board of the scientific journal Revija za elementarno izobraževanje and a member of the editorial board of the leading Slovenian scientific journal in the field of pedagogy, Sodobne pedagogike (Contemporary Pedagogy), which was awarded the Order of Merit by the President of the Republic of Slovenia in 2023.

Dr Sonja Čotar Konrad graduated in 2004 from the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana. Her thesis was nominated for the Faculty Prešeren Prize of the University of Ljubljana. She obtained her PhD in 2012 from the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, under the supervision of Dr Matija Svetina, with her dissertation titled Expression of Emotions and Conflict in Family Relationships. Following her studies, she worked as a psychologist in secondary education, and since 2009, she has been employed at the University of Primorska. At the Faculty of Education, she is a lecturer and teaches undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral courses in the fields of developmental psychology, educational psychology, and family psychology. She has also worked as a lecturer at the UP Faculty of Health and the UP Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Engineering. She has been a guest lecturer at universities in Belgium, Estonia, Croatia, Finland, and Denmark as part of international exchanges, and is now actively collaborating with colleagues from Greece, Latvia, Germany, and the United States.

As part of her teaching work, she has contributed to two peer-reviewed higher education textbooks and various teaching materials. To date, she has mentored 47 students in bachelor’s and master’s study programmes and has served as a mentor for a PhD candidate at UP PEF.

She has been involved in various duties at the Faculty of Education since the beginning of her employment. Since 2009, she has been a member of the Student Affairs Committee for 14 years, serving as the coordinator of the Master’s and Doctoral programmes and practical training. She has also been the Head of the Department of Early Childhood Education and, for the last ten years, the coordinator of teacher tutors at UP PEF. Since 2023, she has been a member of the Research Commission at UP PEF. Additionally, she is actively involved in the work of the University, where she served for several years as a member of the Commission for Applications and Queries in the admissions procedure. Since 2023, she has been the coordinator of tutor teachers at UP and the chair of the Commission for Tutor Teachers at UP. In the past year, she has also been a member of the Commission for Research at UP. Since 2015, she has run a free psychological counselling service for students at UP PEF.

Her research interests include the role of psychological science in learning and teaching. More specifically, she is interested in the factors and ways in which teachers provide a stimulating and developmentally appropriate learning environment at all levels of education. In the most recent research period, she has focused particularly on two topical areas: socio-emotional education, and the integration of basic topics of computer science, as well as the use of digital technology in learning and teaching. To date, she has published 48 scientific works as an author or co-author, including 18 original scientific articles indexed in international databases such as Web of Science and Scopus, 19 chapters in scientific monographs published by renowned international publishers, and two scientific monographs. In recent years, her research activities have involved participation in two research groups, two basic research projects, and several international mobility projects. She is currently leading three projects at the University of Primorska, funded by the European Programme for Recovery and Resilience and the Ministry of Education, either as the leading partner or as the partner in a consortium.

Dr Sonja Čotar Konrad is a regular and active participant in international and national scientific and professional conferences. She serves as a member of editorial boards and as a reviewer for scientific and professional journals, both abroad and domestically. She is also a member of several expert working groups and the Programme Group for the Digitisation of Education at the Ministry of Education.

In 2017, she received a Certificate of Appreciation from the Faculty of Education at the University of Primorska for leading the renewal of the children’s and youth TV programme Little Grey Cells and for promoting the University of Primorska and its Faculty of Education. Following its renewal, the programme was awarded the Prometheus of Science Award in 2021. She was also awarded the Gold Plaque of the Faculty of Education at the University of Primorska. In 2022, she was a member of the UP PEF team in the Erasmus+ project Developing Skills in Teachers to Educate Pre-school Children with and through Digital Technologies (DigiChild), led by the University of Tartu, Estonia, with the participation of universities from Germany, Latvia, and Slovenia. The project was recognised by the OECD in 2022 as an example of good practice for the introduction of digital technology in learning and teaching at the pre-school level in Slovenia. It also received the Golden Apple Award in Estonia as the best example of integrating digital technology into pre-school education.

Tomaž Grušovnik, PhD, is a philosopher, educational scientis, and writer. His areas of research include philosophy of education, animal ethics, and agnotology (science of ignorance).

He co-edited Borders and Debordering (Rowman&Littlefield, 2017) and Environmental and Animal Abuse Denial (Rowman&Littlefield, 2020), as well as authored eight books in Slovenian.

He was a Fulbright visiting colleague at the University of New Mexico, USA (2009) and guest lecturer at the Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo (2011), and at the Faculty for Education and Culture in Tampere University, Finland (2022), as well as at the University of Haifa, Israel (2023), University of Namibia (2024), and Bhopal School of Social Sciences, India (2025).

He received several prizes, including the national Prometheus of Science prize (2021), nomination for Rožanc prize for the best national collection of essays (2022) and Zois prize for outstanding achievements in environmental and animal ethics (2024).

Between 2018 and 2020 he served as the president of Slovenian philosophical society. Currently he serves as a vice-dean for international cooperation at his home institution.

Since 2020 he is the president of the national baccalaureate commission for philosophy, and since 2022 he serves as the Slovenian Rectors’ Conference delegate to the Council of Europe Ethics and Integrity in Education platform. He also serves as the editor-in-chief of the Anthropos journal.

Marko Tkalčič is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Primorska, specializing in user modeling, recommender systems, and computational social science.

His research integrates affective computing, personality-aware systems by bridging cognitive models and AI-driven personalization.

He earned his PhD from the University of Ljubljana in 2011 and pursued postdoctoral research at Johannes Kepler University, Linz. He later held academic positions at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano and the University of Primorska, where he was promoted to Full Professor in 2024.

Marko Tkalčič has published extensively in top-tier journals and conferences, including UMUAI, Information Processing & Management, and IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing.

He has been an invited speaker at institutions such as Vienna University of Technology, Durham University and University of Bergen. Actively involved in academic service, he has chaired the oldest international conference for researchers and practitioners working on various kinds of user-adaptive computer systems ACM UMAP in 2021, served on editorial boards, and reviewed for leading journals and funding agencies.

He teaches adaptive systems and computational social science and supervises PhD students in AI and personalized systems.

Prof. Dr. Igor Rižnar graduated from the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana in 1988, and received his MA (in translation and anthologizing of modern American poetry) and PhD (in Business English in Slovenian higher education) from the same institution.

He has been working at the University of Primorska, Faculty of Management since 2005, where he is a lecturer of several Business English courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

His research interests include corpus linguistics, blended teaching and learning, and foreign language teaching and learning in higher education, translation studies, and more recently, on discourse analysis and language strategies in small and medium-sized enterprises.

He has presented his research work at numerous national and international conferences. Turkey: Anthologising American Poetry in Slovenia, 2003; Serbia: The Role of Business English Textbooks in Slovenian Tertiary Education, 2009; Malaysia: Combined Teaching and Learning of English in Slovenian Higher Education, 2010; Taiwan: Discourse Analysis of Paratext in Slovenian and Foreign English Textbooks, 2011; Portugal: Anthologising as a Form of Translation, 2012; Croatia: Moodle and Flipboard in the Learning and Teaching of Business English, Language Strategies and Slovenian SMEs, 2016, Flipboard in Foreign Language Learning, 2017; Slovenia: Frankfurt, Billig and Chomsky on pseudoteaching 2019; Italy: The Promises of microcredentials, 2023.

He spent three months as a researcher at the University of Graz, Austria, and lectured in Bulgaria, Austria, Macedonia and Portugal on Erasmus+ exchanges.

Prof. dr. Igor Rižnar is the author of four monographs, 30 scientific articles and independent scientific contributions in monographic publications and dozens of scientific papers published at conferences. He is a member of the European Society of Translation Studies and the Modern Language Association of America (MLA).

For his achievements in the field of education, he was awarded several prizes between 1994 and 2025 (in the academic year 2008-09, in 2013 and in 2016 at the Faculty of Management of the University of Primorska, and at the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Maribor).

From 2018-2022, he was vice dean for international collaboration at the Faculty of Management and a member of the Senate of FM UP. From 2018 to 2025 he has been a member of the University Senate.

Dr Matija Zorn graduated in Geography and History from the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana in 2001. He was awarded the Prešeren Prize of the University of Ljubljana for his undergraduate thesis. He obtained his doctorate in 2007 at the Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana. For his doctoral thesis, he received the ZRC Silver Award, which is awarded by the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts for outstanding doctorates in the humanities.

In 2001, he joined the Anton Melik Geographical Institute of the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences. From 2007 to 2018, he was Deputy Head of the Institute, from 2008 to 2022 he was Head of the Institute's Department of Physical Geography, and since 2018 he has been Head of the Institute. In 2018, he was elected Principal Research Associate at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

He has been employed at the University of Primorska every other year since 2015. At the Faculty of Humanities, he is a lecturer in the Geography of Natural Disasters and Natural Disasters and Sustainable Development, and a co-lecturer in Environmental Changes and Natural Disasters. He has lectured at various universities abroad in Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Algeria and the United States of America. He has co-authored several primary school textbooks and workbooks. At the University of Primorska, he was a supervisor for one doctoral thesis and a co-supervisor for two doctoral theses, and at his home institution he was a supervisor for two young researchers.

His research interests are mainly in the geography of natural disasters and physical geography, especially geomorphology, but he is also active in the fields of historical geography, environmental history, land degradation and geographic information systems. He has been involved in numerous national and international projects, several of which he has led. He is currently leading an ARIS basic research project entitled "Subglacial carbonate deposits - a new source for studying the presence of glaciers in a glaciokarstic environment". He regularly and actively participates in international and national conferences, and is also involved in their organization, for example the biennial conference Geographic Information Systems in Slovenia and the triennial conference Natural Hazards in Slovenia.

He is the Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal Geografski vestnik/Geographical Bulletin, which is included in Scopus, and the Chief Editor for Physical Geography of the scientific journal Acta geographica Slovenica, which is included in the Science Citation Index Expanded and Scopus. He is also co-editor of the scientific monographic series Geographic Information Systems in Slovenia and Natural Hazards. He has co-edited two monographs published by the international publisher Springer, The Geography of Slovenia: Small But Diverse and Environmental Histories of the Dinaric Karst. He is also a member of the editorial boards of several foreign scientific journals. As part of his international activities, he is currently Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Commission on Land Degradation and Desertification of the International Geographical Union.

Dr Matija Zorn has published 107 original scientific articles, 40 scientific review articles, 31 scientific conference papers, 102 scientific chapters in monographs and 9 scientific monographs as sole author or co-author. His entire bibliography comprises over 1300 items and he is currently the most frequently cited Slovenian geographer.

For the article "Soil organic carbon stock capacity in karst dolines under different land uses", which he co-authored and which was published in the Q1 journal Catena: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Soil Science, he was awarded the national ARIS Excellence in Science Award in 2023.

Metod Šuligoj is a first-generation graduate of the Faculty of Tourism Studies -Turistica. He earned his PhD from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ljubljana in September 2009 and defended his second PhD in Sociology in Zagreb in April 2021. 

His professional career began in 2000 in the business sector. In 2005, he became a hotel manager at HIT d.d. in Nova Gorica, the largest and most successful tourism company at the time. From autumn 2007, he worked as a project manager at the same company. In October 2010, he joined University of Primorska, Faculty of Tourism Studies - Turistica, initially as an teaching assistant with a PhD.  In 2012, he was appointed Assistant Professor and Research Fellow, followed by his promotion to Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow in Business and Organisational Sciences in Tourism in 2016 and 2022. At the beginning of 2025, he was elected Full Professor and Scientific Councillor in this field.

He has been actively involved in the management of the Faculty for several years, serving as Chair of the department, as a member of the Senate and various commissions, including the Quality and evaluation commission, Commission for election into academic titles, and the Disciplinary commission. He has also served as interim Vice-Dean for academic research. At the university level, he was a member of both the Quality and evaluation commission and the Disciplinary commission. He has also played an active role in the application and implementation of national and international projects.

In 2014, he received a grant from the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education, and Sport for a five-month postdoctoral research stay in Croatia. In September of the same year, he conducted research at the Institute of International Sociology in Gorizia, Italy. In 2015, he was awarded a S.U.N.B.E.A.M. fellowship for a one-month research visit at the Faculty of Economics, University of Banja Luka (Bosnia-Herzegovina). In 2020, he received a fellowship for a one-month research stay at the University of Rijeka, Croatia. In addition, he has lectured at several universities in the Western Balkans – the primary geographical focus of his academic research – through Erasmus and CEEPUS exchange programs. In May 2023, he delivered a webinar on Commemoration and traumatic pasts: between memory and consumerism in collaboration with the University of Surrey, one of the leading institutions in tourism studies.

At the Faculty, he was a member of the working teams responsible for the reform of the doctoral and master's degree programs and led the reform of the Tourism Enterprise Management program. He regularly publishes in indexed journals, including highly influential ones such as the Annals of Tourism Research and the Journal of Sustainable Tourism. More specifically, he has published 36 original research papers, 3 review papers, 8 conference papers, 9 independent research papers in monographs, 1 monograph, 1 collection of proceedings, and 3 studies. His work has received a total of 120 citations, despite focusing on niche topics. He is also the co-author of the concept of the dark event. In 2022, he was awarded the University of Primorska Award for scientific excellence. 

In his teaching, his contributions to the education of young researchers are particularly noteworthy. He has co-authored five papers with students in indexed journals. His commitment to quality mentoring is reflected in the awards his students have received for their final theses at all three levels of study. Additionally, he has guided students to achieve outstanding results in international business analysis competitions.