Željka Modrić Surina

Self portrait of a person standing outside and looking directly at the camera.

Željka Modrić Surina was born in Rijeka, Croatia in 1979. She graduated, mastered and received a PhD in Biology, Ecology from the University of Zagreb, her main research interests being flora, vegetation, ecology and hydrology of mires and other freshwater habitats. She has been working at the Natural History Museum Rijeka since 2003 as a curator/senior curator in charge of botanical collections as well as a museum educator. She enjoys all aspect of her job, especially creating exhibitions and audience development projects as well as communicating with the audience. Since 2013 she works as a director of the Museum.

The Natural History Museum Rijeka is a regional specialized museum founded in 1876 and opened to the public in 1946. The museum staff continuously researches and systematically collects the natural heritage of wider region. The museum currently holds around 90.000 specimens organized in minerals, rocks, fossils, plants and animal collections, some of which with international importance. The museum, operating on two locations, in Rijeka and in Brod na Kupi, takes special care in communicating and bonding with its audiences through exhibitions and rich educational programme, always trying to find new and innovative ways and viewpoints in doing so.

At NEMO’s European Museum Conference 2020, Željka Modrić Surina will present the Natural History Museum Rijeka in the special panel “Spotlight on Rijeka museums!” on 17 November.