Sanja Selaković

Sanja Selaković
PhD Programme Coordinator

Email: sanja.selakovic@wur.nl
Tel: +31 681028759 

About me
I am an ecologist with a passion for interdisciplinary science. In past, I worked towards mastering the definition of ecology, by looking at 1) negative and positive interactions between species in nature (through my PhD), 2) the interactions between species and their environment (through my first Postdoc), 3) the effect of humans on species in the environment and vice versa (through my master's and one year of PhD in Serbia, my interdisciplinary working groups and my second postdoc). 

I started as a field and lab ecologist working on carnivores (mainly jackals, wolves and foxes) in Serbia. I came to NL in 2011 to do a PhD at Utrecht University. My PhD was about understanding how different types of infectious agents affect food-web stability and it was part of the NWO Complexity programme. I slowly started becoming a theoretical ecologist and also developed an interest in interdisciplinary science. As a complex systems scientist, I was trained to communicate and had an opportunity to work with people from different research fields (mathematicians, physicists, computational scientists, economists, linguists and psychologists). My first postdoc was again at Utrecht University. I was understanding the effects of different functional groups of sediment-stabilising (vegetation) and -destabilising (macrobenthic) species on planform shape in river and estuary systems. After that, I decided to come to Wageningen University and work as a research coordinator for One Health. That brought me to the PE&RC graduate school where I am now.

I was part of different theatre groups for years and have a diploma from an Academy for Performing Arts, I am a singer in a band and I love yoga, hiking and dancing.  

One of my favourite parts of the job as a researcher was giving support to my colleagues (bachelor, master students and PhDs). I hope to be able to continue supporting new generations of PhDs to come!