Jasminka Ćus-Rukonić was born in Split in 1950, but immediately after her birth, she and her mother moved to Zagreb; Jasminka attended elementary school and then the 2nd High School in Zagreb. In 1977 she took her degree in archaeology and history at the Faculty of Philosophy of Zagreb University. As trainee archaeologist, she was employed in 1978 in the Cres Museum and the Osor Archaeological Collection, where she worked for twenty three years, and ran all the museum’s collections and sub-collections. In 1979 she obtained the rank of curator, in 1989 of senior curator, and in 1994 was promoted to the grade of museum adviser. From 2001 she was the manager of Cres Museum, the Osor Archaeological Collection, and the Lošinj Museum in the Mali Lošinj Adult Education Centre. As of 2008 she has worked as archaeologist and museum adviser, half her time in Cres Museum, in the Adult Education Centre in Mali Lošinj, and the other half in the Lošinj Museum, mainly in the Osor Archaeological Collection.
From her student days, she was a participant in many archaeological investigations, head of archaeological excavations in Podravina (Đelekovac) and Slavonia (Novigrad Posavski and Vinkovci).
She also took part in archaeological investigations and field walking of sites in Osor (the structure of St Mary at the cemetery in Osor, the prehistoric forts of Skulka, Pelginja, Pernata, Lubenica and many others), in rescue archaeological investigations in Cres, Veli Lošinj and in the archaeological investigation of the Arsan Palace. Since for many years she worked alone, apart from her field work, she made an expert study of the collections in Cres Museum, the Osor Archaeological Collection, the Mali Lošinj Art Collection and the Kula Museum-Gallery Space in Veli Lošinj. She has authored or co-authored numerous exhibition projects and permanent displays on the Cres and Lošinj archipelago, was the author of the scenario for the new permanent display of the Osor Archaeological Collection, and with colleagues from the Regional Institute for the Protection of Monuments of Culture in Rijeka excavated numerous archaeological sites. Her biography contains a considerable number of writings, and her papers have been published in various specialised and scholarly journals at home and abroad. For two terms of office she was a member of the Executive Committee of the Croatian Museum Association.

NB. Data taken from the questionnaire, material taken from the Personnel Archives of the MDC, and from an interview recorded on October 1, 2008.