Ever since Dr Andreja Kutnar was little, she enjoyed helping her father in the carpentry workshop and creating wood products. After finishing high school, she chose to study wood science and undertake a career path in this profession. She learned a lot and gathered knowledge and experiences abroad and at home. One major turning point in her life was a visit to the USA, to Oregon State University, where she first spent half a year for PhD study and later returned for a postdoc position. She met many experts in the USA with whom she is collaborating in business still today, and she decided that, in the long run, she wanted to find challenges and opportunities in Slovenia. Therefore, she returned to her home country with the wish to contribute her part to its development through her excellent knowledge and hard work.

She is achieving this with numerous successes. Today, Dr Kutnar is director of the InnoRenew CoE research institute, which means she is leading the biggest European research project  in Slovenia. She is also head of the Department of Applied Natural Sciences at the University of Primorska and an assistant professor, just to name a few more of her accomplishments.

Her noticeable results and efforts for development of Slovenia were recognized by the editors of the magazine Zarja. Its readers vote yearly for the Slovenian women who made an important mark for Slovenia, whether with her work or personality. Among 100 candidates, they selected 11 successful women, including Dr Kutnar, to compete for the title Slovenian of the Year 2019. This year’s nominees hail from various fields – sports, culture, medicine, entrepreneurship, journalism and science.

You can vote for Dr Kutnar on this link every 24 hours by completing the online form or by using the ballot included in the print edition of Zarja, which is published each Tuesday. Voting will take place until the Christmas edition of the magazine is out, and the winner will be announced at the beginning of January 2020 during an official ceremony at the Opera in Ljubljana.

Learn more about Dr Kutnar by reading her interview Z leseno gradnjo do boljšega zdravja, which was published in Zarja and available on this link.