Bugarin was born in 1978 in Bijelo Polje, where he completed primary school and secondary school. He graduated in 2003 from the Faculty of Science and Mathematics, Department of Biology and Ecology, in Podgorica. During his undergraduate studies, he received a scholarship from the Municipality of Bijelo Polje for talented students. He enrolled in postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Science and Mathematics, Department of Chemistry, in Novi Sad. He chose to research secondary plant metabolites and the possibilities for their application in pharmacy. As a recipient of a Government of Montenegro scholarship for doctoral studies in fields with a shortage of researchers, he defended his doctoral dissertation entitled “Antioxidant, antimicrobial and antimutagenic potential of the species Myrtus communis L.” in 2010, receiving a grade of 10.00 and earning a PhD in Biochemical Sciences.
He began his academic career in 2010 as a teaching assistant at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Montenegro, where he taught Pharmacognosy I and II and General Biochemistry. Since 2016, he has taught Pharmacognosy and Plant Biochemistry at the Biotechnical Faculty of the University of Montenegro. In 2024, he was appointed Assistant Professor at the same faculty.
In addition to his academic work, Dušan worked at the Environmental Protection Agency as an expert assessing environmental impact assessment studies in the fields of ecology and environmental protection. From 2021 to 2023, he served as Director General of the Directorate for Ecology at the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism. Since December 2022, he has also been President of the Council of the Natural History Museum of Montenegro.
He has actively participated in numerous national and international projects in ecology, biodiversity protection and biochemical research. He is the author or co-author of many scientific research papers published in national and international journals indexed in international databases (SCIE), and has presented at conferences.
Dušan speaks English.
