Vanja Tadić (born Bulatović) was born on July 14, 1966, in Bijelo Polje. She completed her primary and secondary education in her hometown. In 1985, she enrolled at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Belgrade, where she graduated in 1990 with an impressive average grade of 9.82, earning the title of Student of the Generation. During her studies, she was awarded a scholarship from the Foundation for Young Talents. She continued her academic journey in 1990 by enrolling in postgraduate studies in pharmacognosy at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Belgrade, completing them in 1994 with a master’s thesis titled Flavonoids of Breberine, Anemone nemorosa L., Ranunculaceae. In 1998, she earned her doctorate at the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Belgrade, defending her dissertation, Comparative Study of the Chemical Composition of Anthemis carpatica and Anthemis montana.
Since 1995, she has been working at the Institute for Medicinal Plant Research Dr. Josif Pančić in the Department of Pharmaceutical Research and Development. She spent two years at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, USA, working in the laboratory for biochemistry and molecular biology, where she specialized in isolating and characterizing functional proteins from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In 1998, she was promoted to research associate, then to senior research associate in 2003, and finally achieved the rank of scientific advisor in 2008.
She has contributed to 13 ministry-funded projects, leading one that resulted in three patents, each awarded the prestigious Nikola Tesla Gold Medal, the Gold Medal and Diploma for Best Innovation from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the Gold Medal and Special Award at the XIV Moscow International Salon of Inventions and Innovation Technologies, "Archimedes – 2011." She also participated in the international EUREKA project E!9906-COMPLANT, the NIH-funded study Mechanisms of Resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis to Isoniazid due to the S315T Mutation in the Catalase/Peroxidase Enzyme (KatG) (grant AI47142), as well as several bilateral projects. In addition, she is actively involved in the Institute's efforts to develop new phytopreparations for the market.
Dr. Tadić has published over 100 scientific papers and holds six patents. Her h-index, as recorded by Scopus, is 15. She regularly reviews for various international and domestic scientific journals and has mentored or served as a committee member on numerous doctoral dissertations. She is a member of the Society for Medicinal Plants Research (GA), in Germany, and the Pharmaceutical Society of Serbia.
Her primary research interests include the chemical characterization of wild medicinal and aromatic plants, the isolation and structural analysis of plant secondary metabolites, the development of analytical methods for both qualitative and quantitative assessment of active components in biologically rich plant extracts (including methods such as supercritical carbon dioxide extraction), pharmacognostic studies of medicinal plants in Serbia and Montenegro, and the development of standards for ensuring the quality of tinctures, liquid and dry extracts, medicinal creams and gels, and other pharmaceutical products. She is fluent in English and proficient in French.