BRITISH SCHOLARSHIP TRUST

Cathie Carmichael is Professor of European History at the University of East Anglia.  She was a student in Ljubljana from 1989-91 and has tried to visit ex-Yugoslavia every year since then.  She has taught European history since 1992 and supervised more than 10 Ph.D. theses on Yugoslav topics.  She has published several books on subjects such as language, nationalism and genocide as well as histories of Bosnia and Slovenia.  She is currently writing a microhistory of Trebinje, a city in Hercegovina. She joined the board of Trustees in 2019.

Sanja Bosak is currently working in the Cabinet Office as Head of Organisational HR Policy in the Government People Group. She is a chartered member of the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development and holds a postgraduate diploma in Management and Accountancy from Birkbeck College, University of London; and a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Sarajevo. After several years of working in different roles in the media, Sanja started her career in HR. She joined the Civil Service in 2004, working in HR roles in various departments, joining the Cabinet Office in 2016. She is delighted to be able to help the BST in supporting young academics and fostering international cooperation. She became a trustee in 2024 and she has been Treasurer since 2025.

Celia Hawkesworth was appointed to the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at the University of London in 1971 as lecturer in Serbo-Croat Language and Literature. She retired as Reader in Serbian and Croatian in 2002 and has since been engaged, among other things, in translating fiction from Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian. She was appointed as a Trustee of the British Scholarship Trust in 1975 and served first as Secretary  and then Chair from the retirement of Voya Kondic in 1996 . Celia stepped down as the Chair in 2025.

Dr Radmila Mileusnic, Professor in Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Belgrade, Serbia; Alexander Von Humboldt Fellow, 1984; Reader in Neurobiology (retired), The Open University. In Belgrade she worked on molecular mechanisms regulating the early stages of brain development and ageing. In 1978 she moved to the School of Medicine where her career included research and teaching. In 1993 she left former Yugoslavia to join the Brain Research Group at the Open University. In the UK her research activity was focused on memory and cellular processes that lead to neurodegenerative changes in the brain. For her work on memory she was awarded the Lilly BI Award for Best Innovation in Mental Health, Medical Future Innovation Award (2003). She retired from the OU in December of 2010. She was appointed as a Trustee in 1997.

Mia Marzouk has worked on and in the Western Balkans for over 20 years, currently in the FCDO in London as senior policy advisor to the UK’s Special Envoy on the Western Balkans and deputy head of the Berlin Process Delivery Unit. Previously, she spent three years in Tirana as Deputy Ambassador for the UK, and three in Sarajevo as regional conflict adviser. Mia worked as an external consultant on security-related issues especially in the Western Balkans, including living in Pristina for two years; the INGO Saferworld, where she ran the Balkans programme; and Jane’s Information Group as the European Security editor. Her focus has been security, migration and serious and organised crime, consistently trying to absorb some of the wisdom of Balkan NGOs, politicians and think tanks.

Kenneth Morrison is a Professor of Modern Southeast European History at De Montfort University, Leicester. He is the author of five books and numerous articles and book chapters focusing on the modern history and politics of Montenegro, Serbia, and Bosnia & Herzegovina. In 2017/18, he was the Specialist Adviser to the House of Lords International Relations Committee for their ‘UK and the Future of the Western Balkans’ inquiry and has also provided consultancy for UK government agencies and several international organisations. Kenneth is also the Co-Director of the Hotel History Foundation, which is based in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina. 

Dr Tanja Radu is a Senior Lecturer in Water Engineering at Loughborough University’s School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, with 15 years’ international water and environmental engineering experience, specializing in wastewater treatment, renewable energy from waste and supplying energy to rural communities in developing countries. Her current focus is AD biogas generation from waste, particularly utilising novel feedstocks, and system optimisation. She was appointed as a trustee in 2023.

Dr Alun Thomas has a background in civil engineering with a specialism in tunnelling. Having worked all around the world on major tunnelling projects, he is now working as the Carbon Manager for the Copenhagen Metro. He maintains links with academic research as well as participating in industry organisations such as the International Tunnelling Association. He is also a writer and actor. Inspired by a long-standing connection with the Balkans, he has been a trustee since 2004.

Mark Thompson .