25 Facts About Dragan Primorac

Dragan Primorac served as Minister of Science, Education and Sports in the 9th and 10th government of Croatia under HDZ's Ivo Sanader, and was a presidential candidate in the 2009 and 2024 elections.

Dragan Primorac's family is originally from the region between Ljubuski and Vrgorac.

Soon they moved to Split, where Dragan Primorac spent his childhood, graduated from elementary and high school.

Dragan Primorac graduated from the University of Zagreb, Split Medical School, in 1991.

Dragan Primorac defended his doctoral dissertation, entitled "Osteogenesis Imperfecta as a Result of Faulty Processing of Messenger RNA", in 1997 at the University of Zagreb, Medical School.

Dragan Primorac became a politician as a member of the Croatian Government, serving as the Minister of Science, Education and Sports between 2003 and 2009.

Dragan Primorac completed his first term without any party affiliation.

Dragan Primorac was at first not a member of a political party, before he joined the Croatian Democratic Union in September 2007.

On November 9,2009, Dragan Primorac formally announced his candidacy in the Croatian presidential election, 2009.

Dragan Primorac entered the first government of Ivo Sanader in December 2003.

Dragan Primorac completed one of the most important projects during his term: Implementation of two foreign languages in Croatian primary schools.

Dragan Primorac proposed the National Programme of Measures for the Implementation of Compulsory Secondary Education to Croatian Parliament, based on Article 80 Constitution of the Republic of Croatia.

In 2006, Minister Dragan Primorac introduced the concept of free textbooks and announced that all pupils of elementary schools and pupils of the first class of secondary schools will have their schoolbooks funded by the Government.

On May 12,2009, Dragan Primorac announced that the Ministry reached a deal with the publishers of schoolbooks in Croatia so that the Government would pay for the schoolbooks of all classes, for the sum of 440 million kunas, the same prices as the year before.

Dragan Primorac gave back his Parliament seat to the party, and was replaced by Goran Maric.

Dragan Primorac is a fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Science, a member of the American Society of Human Genetics, Honorary member of International Crime Analysis Association and the Croatian Society for Osteogenesis Imperfecta.

Dragan Primorac was a long-time member of the Government Office for Detained and Missing Persons and served as a member of the Council for Technology at the previous Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of Croatia before 2003 when he became a government minister.

Dragan Primorac is the founder of the American-European School for Clinical and Forensic Genetics which is being held bi-annually in Croatia and co-founder of the International Society of Applied Biological Sciences.

Dragan Primorac authored close to 250 scientific papers and abstracts in clinical and molecular medicine, genetics, forensic science, population genetics, genetic legacy of Homo sapiens and education, science and technology policy.

Dragan Primorac is the author of the original results on the genetic origins of the Europeans with a special focus on the South-Eastern European population.

Dragan Primorac worked at the Clinic for Pediatrics and served for several years as the head of the Laboratory for Clinical and Forensic Genetics, both at Split Clinical Hospital.

Dragan Primorac was director of the Polyclinic " Holy Spirit II " in Zagreb while currently, he is President of the Board of Trustees of the St Catherine Hospital.

Dragan Primorac played a role in the founding process of the initially private Media university in Split, that subsequently relocated to the inland city of Koprivnica.

Dragan Primorac visited the newly formed University North, stating that the study conditions at the university are at the level of some of the best universities in the world.

Dragan Primorac is an inductee of the Taekwondo Hall of Fame, based in the United States.