Ita Gruić Sovulj was born in Zagreb, Croatia. She earned her PhD in Chemistry/Biochemistry from the University of Zagreb Faculty of Science. She was a NATO-NSF postdoctoral fellow in a group of Prof. Perona at the University of California at Santa Barbara, US. Since 2023, she has been a tenured professor at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Science. In 2014, the Republic of Croatia granted her the Annual National Science Award for her significant scientific discoveries in the field of protein synthesis. She was elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in 2024.