Jiřina Vejnarová was born in Plzeň, Czech Republic, in 1962. She obtained the RNDr. degree (corresponding to M.Sc.) in Probability and Statistics from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague, in 1986, and the CSc. degree (corresponding to Ph.D.) in Theoretical Cybernetics from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in 1991. She has been with the Institute of Information Theory and Automation since 1986; since July 2009 as the deputy director for research. In May 2017 she was appointed the director.