CV

Milena Žic Fuchs was born in 1954 in Zagreb, Croatia. From 1958 to 1969 lived in London, New York, and Sydney. In 1977 graduated from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb having majored in English language and literature, and Ethnology. In 1982 received M.A. in Linguistics (Semantics) and in 1989 Ph.D. in Linguistics (Cognitive Linguistics).

From 1978 teaches various courses in Linguistics in the English Department, and at present holds position of Full Professor.

From 1996 to 1998 was Head of the Department of English, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. From 2002 to 2011 Chair of Linguistics in the English Department, University of Zagreb, where she teaches Semantics and Cognitive Linguistics as well as seminars in semantics, discourse analysis and sociolinguistics. From 2001 to 2004 she taught courses in Cognitive Linguistics for Anthropology students at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences as well as courses in Cognitive Science for students of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb.

Milena Žic Fuchs teaches Semantics, Cognitive Linguistics and American Linguistics and Pragmatics at doctoral level for PhD students in Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Translation Studies, and Croatian Philology in Intercultural Context.

In 1995/96 she taught a course (European Structuralism vs. Cognitive Linguistics) at graduate level at New York State University at Buffalo (SUNY) as Fulbright guest professor.

Milena Žic Fuchs was the first scholar to introduce Cognitive Linguistics into Croatian linguistic circles. Her book entitled Knowledge of Language and Knowledge of the World (1991) was the first book on Cognitive Linguistics written in Croatian, and is one of the most quoted books in Croatian linguistics. In 2007 she published a dictionary of acronyms together with Stjepan Babić (20,000 items). In 2009 she published the book Cognitive Linguistics and Language Structures: the English Present Perfect (2009), for which she received the National Award for Science for 2011, awarded by the Croatian Parliament (see detailed bibliography).

In 2005 Milena Žic Fuchs became a member of the Standing Committee for the Humanities of the European Science Foundation. In 2006 she was elected member of the Core Group, and subsequently in 2009 she became the Chair of the Standing Committee for the Humanities of the European Science Foundation (2009 – 2012). From 2013 to 2015 she chaired the Scientific Review Group for the Humanities of the ESF. She is also a member of numerous Scientific Advisory Boards, as well as other European level bodies. Milena Žic Fuchs has also acted as an expert for the European Commission, with specific focus on research infrastructures, for instance ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures).

From 2008 Milena Žic Fuchs was member of the ERC Advanced Grant Panel SH4 “The Human Mind and Its Complexity” and chaired this Panel from 2014 to 2015.

In 2010 Milena Žic Fuchs was elected Full Member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. In 2013 was elected member of Academia Europaea, and from 2014 she is an active member of the HERCULES Group (Higher Education Research and Culture in European Society) within Academia Europaea.

In 2016 she was appointed member of the EC High Level Group on Maximising Impact of EU Research and Innovation Programmes, chaired by Professor Emeritus Pascal Lamy.

In 2018 she was appointed a member of the JRC (Joint Research Centre) High-Level Peer Group of the European Commission, the European Commission’s science and knowledge service, which supports EU policies with independent scientific evidence throughout the whole policy cycle.

In 2019 Milena Žic Fuchs was elected as member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council. From January 1st, 2020 she began her mandate in the Scientific Council. In 2022 she was elected member of the Board of Academia Europaea, as well as Chair of the International Advisory Board of the University of Helsinki. The year 2022 also marks the beginning of her new mandate on the Governing Board of EASSH (European Alliance for the Social Science and Humanities).