Croatian History

Vladimir Jurko Glaser (1924-1984), theoretical physicist in the field of quantum fields theory, published one of the first monographs on Quantum Electrodynamics in the world (Kovarijantna kvantna elektrodinamika, Zagreb 1955, written in Croatian), at the age of 31. On p. 8 of the book he mentioned that the existence of positronium has been theoretically predicted by Stjepan Mohorovicic in 1934. He was head of the Department of Theoretical Physics at the Rudjer Boskovic Institute in Zagreb. In 1957 he found…

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One of our best theoretical physicists was Gaja Alaga (1924-1988), member of the Croatian Nobility from Backa and Bunjevci Croat. Professor Gaja Alaga on the left, a member of Croatian Nobility. Source www.knjiznica.phy.hr He worked not only in Zagreb, but also at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Berkeley, Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich etc. In 1955, in cooperation with K. Alder from Switzerland, A. Bohr from Denmark and B. Mottelson from the USA, he discovered the so called K-selection rules…

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Nikola Cindro (1931-2001) was a Croatian physicist, descendant of very old Croatian Nobility from 8th century, from Croatian south (Split, Poljica). He was lecturing in Zagreb, Frankfurt, Paris and Strasbourg, and occupied the position of vice president of European Physical Society. His high quality work was recognized also abroad: he was a member of Italian physical society and Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques, Paris, 1997.

Zvonimir Janko (born in 1932 in Croatia), studied mathematics and earned his PhD at the University of Zagreb. He is professor of mathematics at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and his name is well known among experts in the theory of finite groups. Professor Janko discovered sporadic groups named J1, J2, J3, and J4 in his honour. They are called Janko groups. Zvonimir Janko in 2007, at the age of 75 (photo by dr. Mario Pavcevic, Zagreb) The discovery of…

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Eduard Prugovecki (1937-2003), outstanding Croatian theoretical physicist, was born in Craiova, Romania (his mother was Romanian of Polish descent, and his father was Croatian). Having completed his primary and secondary education in Bucharest, he moved with his family to Zagreb, where he studied physics and started his early scientific career. In 1961 he was sent to Princeton where he received his Ph.D. in 1964. The next year he emigrated to Canada, and since then worked at the University of Toronto….

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Milan Randić, distinguished international expert in Mathematical Chemistry and a founder of The International Academy of Mathematical Chemistry, is best known for his connectivity index, now known as the Randić index. He studied Theoretical Physics in Zagreb and founded Theretical Chemistry group at the Rudjer Boskovic Insitute in Zagreb. He is distinguished professor at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, USA.

Ivan Hrvoić (1937) is Croatian scientist,  inventor and entrepreneur, born and educated in Croatia, since 1972 living in Canada.   Ivan Hrvoić In 1980 he incorporated his own company GEM systems, Inc. in Toronto, developing and producing magnetometers for surveys of the Earth magnetic field for magnetic observatories, searching for minerals, diamonds, oil, studies of volcanoes, earthquaqes, archaeological research, meteorolgy, etc. Today GEM System is the World leader in its special field and Ivan Hrvoić is one of the leading experts…

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Ivan Gutman, born in the city of Sombor, is distinguished Croatian expert in Mathematical Chemistry, prolific author of more than 1200 scientific articles, a member of editorial boards of numerous professional journals, professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Kragujevac. He has two PhD’s: in Chemistry (from the University of Zagreb) and in Mathematics (from the University of Belgrade). Among his monographs we mention    A. Groavac, I, Gutman, N. Trinajstic: Topological Approach to the Chemistry of Conjugated Moleculs,  Xueliang…

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Mario Puretic (1917-1993, born in Croatia in the town of Sumartin on the island of Brac; his true name was Mario Puratic), revolutionarized the technology of pulling out fishing nets from the sea by his construction of what is now known as the Puretic Power Block in 1950s. Until then fishing nets had to be manually drawn by eight to ten people, which was an extremely difficult job. The Marco Seattle company developed Puretic’s idea, and it soon became a…

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Tefko Saracevic, Professor at the University of Rutgers, USA, was born in Croatia’s capital Zagreb where he completed his studies of Electrical Engineering. He is distinguished international expert in Information Sciences.