Biography
Marko Galjak is a demographer and computational social scientist at the Institute of Social Sciences in Belgrade. He joined the Institute in 2018 and has held the rank of Senior Research Associate since 2026.
He received his PhD in Demography from the University of Belgrade in 2022, with a dissertation on premature mortality in Serbia. He also holds master’s degrees in Demography (2014) and Social Sciences and Computing (2017). His training connects population research with programming, social network analysis and the development of research tools.
Alongside his academic career, he worked at Catalyst Balkans from 2017 to 2025, serving as Chief Data Scientist (2018–2022) and Director of Technology (2022–2025). He led data and technology teams and helped develop Giving Balkans, a regional philanthropy database, and CiviCatalyst, a CRM platform for nonprofit organisations. This work brought him into sustained collaboration with civil-society organisations across the Western Balkans. He also designed data-collection projects supporting Duke University’s DevLab and Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
His public-facing work includes Predupredimo.rs, an interactive resource on premature mortality and air pollution in Serbian municipalities, and the interactive charts for the Institute’s virtual exhibition Demographic Challenges in Serbia. His engagement with civil society began in Smederevo, where he co-founded the youth organisation EIDOS while still at school.
The year of receiving the highest degree of professional qualification
PhD in Demography, 2022, Faculty of Geography, University of Belgrade. Dissertation: Premature Mortality in Serbia.
Scholarships, fellowships, grants
- 2024–2025 — Trust and Usage of LLMs in the BCMS Language Sphere. Open Society Foundations—Western Balkans. Research on AI use and perceptions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. Project.
- 2024–2025 — Social Sciences Advancement Initiative (SSAI). Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation of the Republic of Serbia, through SAIGE. The project investigates researcher training and mentoring with research on AI adoption in academia. Project.
- 2022–2023 — Alternative Energy in Serbia? ‘Yes, but Not in My Backyard!’ Open Society Foundation Serbia. Research on public attitudes towards energy sources and local acceptance; outputs include an Energy Policy article and a policy report. Project.
- 2021–2022 — Predupredimo.rs. Open Society Foundation Serbia. Individual research grant on premature mortality, COVID-19 and air pollution, with scholarly and policy publications and an interactive municipal platform. Project.
Work in education
- 2014–2015 — Demonstrator, Faculty of Geography, University of Belgrade; practical classes in Business Statistics and Computing.
Fields of research
Demography; premature and avoidable mortality; population health and spatial inequalities; mortality-data quality; computational social science; public attitudes towards artificial intelligence and energy technologies; philanthropy and civil society.
Current research projects
His research focuses on premature and avoidable mortality in Serbia and Europe, geographical inequalities in survival, and the quality and comparability of mortality statistics. He combines vital statistics, spatial and comparative analysis, and reproducible computation to examine population health and its implications for public policy.
A second strand examines trust in and adoption of artificial intelligence, including its use in academic work and differences across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. Across these areas, he uses demographic methods, survey research, statistical modelling and data visualisation, releasing data, code and materials for selected publications.
Membership of professional organisations
- Association of Demographers of Serbia (since 2018); Secretary and member of the Presidium, 2018–2024.
- European Research Network on Philanthropy.
Major publications
Galjak, M., & Budić, M. (2025). Generational divide in AI adoption for academic writing: Evidence from Serbian social scientists. Social Science Computer Review. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393251413796
Galjak, M., & Budić, M. (2026). Trust over creepiness: AI chatbot perceptions in Balkan countries. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2026.2638548
Galjak, M., & Marinković, I. (2023). Discrepancies between preliminary and final COVID-19 mortality data—the case of Serbia. Annals of Epidemiology, 84, 41–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annepidem.2023.05.006
Galjak, M., & Budić, M. (2024). Public perceptions of fossil and alternative energy in Serbia: Between NIMBYism and nationalism. Energy Policy, 190, 114137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2024.114137
Rašević, M., & Galjak, M. (2024). Serbia: Policy Response to Demographic Challenges. In K. N. Zafeiris, B. Kotzamanis, & C. Skiadas (Eds.), Population Studies in the Western Balkans (Vol. 26, pp. 153–178). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-53088-3_7
Complete bibliography of papers
Publications in the Institute’s repository.
Publication list, full texts and open research materials.
Personal pages