After receiving a degree in medicine in 1967 at the University of Zagreb, he worked in the Institute for Anatomy Drago Perović at the School of Medicine, where he founded and headed the Department of Neuroanatomy in 1987.
He also founded the Croatian Institute for Brain Research in 1990, where he established the Department of Neuroscience.
[1] He is a professor of the Zagreb School of Medicine, also serving as the dean of faculty in the period 1992–93.
He has published a number of discoveries in the field of neurobiology and developmental neuroanatomy of the cerebral cortex.
In 1995–98 he served as the Minister of Science and Technology, and in 1998–2000 he was the Head the Office of the President.