Žiga completed his undergraduate studies in Biochemistry at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, during which he was inspired to learn more about handling complex, high-dimensional data. This led him to pursue a Master’s degree in Applied Statistics at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, where he’s working on his master’s thesis. His main research interests include structural biology, protein design, and processing multiomics data. He earned practical experience working under dr. San Hadži, where he researched the effects of protein tagging on liquid-liquid phase separation. He later joined the NMR department at the National Institute of Chemistry, where he continued his work on phase separation, focusing on establishing RNA condensate systems.

As an ASEF Research Abroad Junior Fellow, he will expand on his research with prof. Boštjan Kobe from The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, where he plans to combine his practical experience in structural biology with his theoretical knowledge of predictive modelling. In his free time, he is a passionate member of the debate society at the University of Ljubljana, attending multiple international competitions per year. Besides debate, he is fond of playing piano, reading, practicing languages, traveling, and most of all, enjoying long walks with his dog.