Željko Penava was born in 1964 in Imotski, Croatia. He is a full professor at the Faculty of Textile Technology, Department of Textile Technology, University of Zagreb. He graduated from the Faculty of Textile Technology in 1993 and obtained a Ph.D. degree in 2004 at the same faculty. His research areas are textile mechanical technology, textile mechanics, CAD/CAM regarding textiles, smart textiles, and fabric design. He is an author/co-author of 6 editorial books, 37 publications in journals, and more than 60 publications in conference proceedings. He has been involved in several grant projects and research tasks. Since 2014, he has been a member of the Croatian Academy of Engineering.