Jelena Bujan

Jelena is an ecologist who likes using ants to answer ecological questions across various habitats and scales.  Jelena conducted research all over the world, from tropical rainforests and temperate deserts to Mediterranean islands, uncovering how insects respond to heat, drought, and other environmental stressors. Doing field work is the favorite part of her job.
Jelena attained her Master’s in Biology and Chemistry Education at the University of Zagreb.

She acquired her PhD at the University of Oklahoma, USA during which she studied tropical ant communities. She continued working on tropical ants but focused on the canopy ants and their physiological adaptations, during her Postdoc at the University of Louisville. After this she worked on invasive ants and their ability to invade new climates during her postdoc at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, before starting her Research Associate position at the Ruđer Bošković Institute.

Jelena leads IGNITE project, funded by the ERC Starting grant, that explores how insects such as ants, survive extreme heat caused by global warming. IGNITE will use 3D thermal imaging and climate models together with field and lab experiments to study how ants adapt to extreme temperatures. To do so Jelena and her team will use islands as natural laboratories of climate change.