Minister of science, technological development and innovation, Republic of Serbia
Jelena Begović was born in Belgrade, in what was then the Socialist Republic of Serbia in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. After studying for a time at the University of British Columbia in Canada, she graduated from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Biology (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), earning a bachelor’s degree in 1998, a master’s degree in 2002, and a Ph.D. in 2008. She has published widely in her field.
She became the chair of the University of Belgrade’s Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering in 2014. During the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic in Serbia, she oversaw the opening of the “Fire Eye” lab, which tested numerous samples. In late 2021, she opened the Centre for Sequencing and Bioinformatics.
She was appointed as the minister of science, technological development and innovation on 26 October 2022.
