Dr. Zorica Popović

She received her PhD in Biology from the University of Belgrade in 2008. Her research interests are broad and include many aspects of plant ecology and ecophysiology in different environments as well as ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation. She has participated in a number of national and international projects, gaining experience ranging from fundamental understanding of physiological processes to synthesizing ecological determinants crucial for maintaining ecosystem resilience. Her current research focuses on analyzing plant traits and quantifying plant structure-function relationships by studying different plant species and functional types in various ecological settings, with the aim of identifying key traits relevant to plant response to multiple climate-environment changes across biomes. She was awarded a postgraduate scholarship for talented students by the Ministry of Education and Science. As a researcher, she was awarded a prestigious N. E. Borlaug Scholarship as a Visiting Scholar at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA (topic: Monitoring and Modeling of Plant Growth and Productivity) and an Erasmus Mundus Scholarship as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Life Sciences and Natural Resources, Vienna, Austria (course: Soil and Plant Ecology). She is MC member and member of working groups of several COST Actions, where she contributes to interdisciplinary networking on a pan-European level. She is a long-time collaborator of the Regional Center for Talents and a member of the Regional Biology Committee. She is also a collaborator of the Center for Science Promotion and works on developing methods to educate target groups and the general public about ecology and climate change.