Dr Emilija Stojmenova Duh was born on 25 December 1985 in Macedonia. She moved to Maribor in 2002, when she received a scholarship from the Ad Futura agency to study in the International Baccalaureate programme run by II. Gimnazija Maribor. She completed her undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Informatics of the University of Maribor.

After graduation, she worked as a young business researcher at Iskratel. After gaining her doctoral degree, she was employed by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Ljubljana, where she is an Associate Professor in the Department of Information and Communication Technologies and where she managed the 4PDIH Digital Innovation Hub. 4PDIH is a partnership between the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and the Association of Municipalities of Slovenia that raises awareness of the importance of digitalisation, provides support in the development of digital knowledge and skills, and helps decision makers design appropriate digitalisation policies.

From February 2018 to October 2019, she was the Executive Director of the Digital Innovation Hub Slovenia. Between 2014 and 2016, she was the Director of RAZ:UM, which implemented the Demola Slovenia project as part of the international Demola network, which has been recognised by the OECD and the World Bank as a best practice example for innovation policymakers.

She has coordinated several national and international research and development projects on the use of new digital technologies for innovation in and the development of cities, villages and communities. She has worked in several thematic groups of the European Commission on the topic of digital innovation hubs and rural development. She participates in an international team of researchers that has developed the SEROI+ methodology for measuring and monitoring the societal, economic and environmental return on investment of digital products and services.

She has authored and co-authored a number of scientific and professional publications concerning digital transformation. She was the first President of IEEE’s “Women in Engineering Slovenia”.

She is strongly committed to increasing the number of young people studying engineering – especially women – who will later remain active in their sectors and dare to take up leadership positions in science and engineering. As such, she was one of 50 women in ICT leadership positions selected to participate in the #HiddenNoMore multi-regional programme funded by the US State Department for empowering women in STEM fields.

She was a finalist for the “2018 Woman Engineer of the Year” in Slovenia and a nominee for Slovenian Woman of the Year 2021.

She is also the first Slovenian woman representative at the Global Young Academy and a member of the European Research Area Working Group within ALLEA – All European Academies. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Slovenian Research Agency, a member of the Expert Council of the Employment Service of Slovenia and a board member of the international organisation Forum Synergies.