prof. dr. sc. Maša Malenica dr. med.

Education, work experience and scientific advancement

She finished elementary school and the Mathematical-Informatics Education Center (MIOC) in Zagreb by the third year with excellent results. She graduated from high school with honors in the United States (Blacksburg High School, Virginia). Having achieved academic success that ranked her among the top 1% of students in the United States, she was awarded the Academic Medal of then-US President George W. Bush, and as she won 4th place in the Federal Knowledge and General Culture Competition, she received an academic scholarship for the University of Notre Dame where in 1996 she graduated in molecular biology and clinical psychology with an excellent average and was awarded the summa cum laude for the top 1% of students in America.

During and after graduation she worked as a research fellow at Johns Hopkins Medical School and the National Institute of Health (NIH) and then returned to Croatia and in June 2002 graduated from the Medical Faculty of the University of Zagreb among the top 10% of students of the year.

She enrolled in the postgraduate study at the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, majoring in physiology / immunobiology, in 1998, and in 2006 she enrolled in the specialist postgraduate study in clinical pediatrics. Since 2005, she has been employed at the Sestre milosrdnice Clinical Hospital as a doctor specializing in pediatrics, and for two years she worked as a professor at the Secondary Medical School in the field of pediatrics. In 2002 she passed a course in toxicology and received a license to work with poisons, and in 2007 she passed the European course of advanced life support for children and newborns. In 2012, she completed a brain ultrasound course. In 2009, she earned a PhD in "CYP2C9 and 2C19 Gene Polymorphisms in Children with Epilepsy."

Since 2010 he has been a specialist pediatrician, and since 2013 a senior research associate at the Medical Faculty of the University of Zagreb and an assistant professor. In 2012, he began a subspecialization in pediatric neurology, and in the same year he became a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb, where he teaches Child Health. Since 2012, he has also been teaching at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Zagreb, as part of the course Fundamentals of Medical Skills, and at the Faculty of Law, as part of the postgraduate course Children's Rights. Since 2014, he has been a subspecialist in pediatric neurology. She is currently employed as the Head of the Department of Neuropediatrics of the Clinic for Pediatrics of the KBC Sestre milosrdnice and the Head of the Polyclinic of the Clinic of Pediatrics.

She is the head of the EpiCARE Center - the European Reference Center for Rare Childhood Epilepsy.

Participation in the work of societies

She is a member of the Croatian Medical Chamber, Croatian Pediatric Society, Croatian Society of Child Neurology, Academy for Developmental Rehabilitation, Association for Combating Epilepsy, Croatian Society for Rare Diseases, European Pediatric Neurology Society (EPNS) and American Epilepsy Society (AES). Since 2012, she has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Croatian League Against Epilepsy, a branch of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE). She also runs a counseling center for children with epilepsy. She completed intensive training in epileptology at the Cleveland Epilepsy Center in Ohio, USA.

Papers and participation in scientific conferences

She is a reviewer in the journal Paediatria Croatica and Acta Clinica Croatica. She is a mentor on twenty graduate theses and a doctoral dissertation. She is also a mentor to four physician interns. During her work at the Clinic for Pediatrics of the KBC Sestre milosrdnice, she actively participated in a number of scientific conferences in the country and abroad. She speaks English and speaks German and French.