Milena Žic Fuchs - Biography#

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 Philosophy, 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 Philosophy, 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. At graduate level for PhD students in Linguistics, Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies, Milena Žic Fuchs teaches Semantics, Cognitive Linguistics and American Linguistics.

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

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 in Cognitive Linguistics written in Croatian and is one of the most quoted books in Croatian linguistics. In 2007 she authored a dictionary of acronyms together with Stjepan Babić (20000 items), and her latest book Cognitive Linguistics and Language Structures: the English Present Perfect came out in 2009, for which she received the National Award for Science for 2011.

From 2005 is a member of the Standing Committee for the Humanities of the European Science Foundation, while from January 1, 2009 until the end of 2012 was Chair of the Standing Committee for the Humanities of the ESF. Milena Žic Fuchs is also a member of numerous bodies dealing with various aspects of science policy and science evaluation in Europe, particularly she is a member of ERC Advance Grant Panel "The Human Mind and Its Complexity". Also, 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.

From January 1st, 2020 she is member of the ERC Scientific Council.