Borut Božič
Pharmacist, laboratory medicine specialist, professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana, autoimmunity researcher and medical laboratory assessor. Professor Božič received his doctorate in clinical immunology from the Faculty of Medicine in Ljubljana.
He has gained experience in a variety of settings at home and abroad, including at the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade, as a pharmacist in Zadar, as an industrial technologist in Ljubljana and Stans (Austria), as an EULAR scholarship award-holder at the University of Nijmegen, at Euroimmun in Lübeck and at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. He has worked as a visiting researcher or professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry in Zagreb, at King’s College, London (as the holder of a Slovenian Science Foundation grant), at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Rijeka, at the Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Aviv University, Tel-Hashomer, and at the North-Caucasus Federal University in Stavropol.
Since his doctorate he has worked at the laboratory of the Rheumatology Clinic at Ljubljana University Medical Centre, where he is employed as an associate. During this time, he served for ten years as chair of the Slovenian Chamber of Laboratory Medicine; this was followed by ten years as vice-dean and dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy. He also led the healthcare working group at the Slovenian Rectors Conference. He has published over 150 scientific and academic articles and more than 15 book chapters. He is also co-holder of a patent. The main topic of his research is the study of mechanisms of the occurrence of autoimmune disorders, with an emphasis on antigenic recognition and inter-molecular interactions within the immune system.
Today, Professor Božič is chair of the University of Ljubljana Governing Board, a member of the Extended Collegium for Laboratory Medicine, a member of several working groups at the Ministry of Health, a professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy, and an active member of several associations and societies. He has received four special awards in the course of his career: a Liberation Front Award for work with young people (1984), a Slovenian Clinical Chemistry Association award (2011), an award from Lekarna Ljubljana (2017) and a Faculty of Pharmacy award (2017).