The Grand Miroslav Zei Award for life work in the field of activities of the National Institute of Biology for 2018 was given to Prof. Dr. Andrej Blejec, mathematician and biostatistician, the pioneer of interdisciplinary research.

Scientific research career of Prof. Blejec sailed into non-standard waters from the very beginning, since he was a pioneer of interdisciplinary research. His first job as a mathematician was at the Institute of Biology, which at that time was an exclusive club for biologists. He was also involved in the pedagogical process right from the start.

Prof. Blejec is a top scientist and researcher in the field of biostatistics with a highly respected bibliography, which is comprised of 64 original and coherent scientific papers, cited more than 1,600 times, and contribute to his high h-index of 22. He is a member of different editorial boards of biostatistics magazines. Every year, he organizes an international conference called Applied Statistics, which is always well visited. Throughout his research career, he brought together statistics and life sciences in an interdisciplinary way, working with research groups in the fields of ecology, agronomy, and cancer biology, connecting them at the level of systemic biology in the recent years. As already mentioned, Prof. Blejec is distinguished for his exceptional pedagogical career and outstanding popularity among students at all levels. He was selected as the best lecturer at the Biotechnical Faculty. He was also pedagogically established in the international arena as he was the president of the International Association for Statistical Education between 2013 and 2017.