Croatian History

Fran Bosnjakovic (or Franjo Bosnjakovic, 1902-1993), born in Zagreb, was one of world’s leading experts in technical thermodynamics. Educated in Zagreb, where his scientific career started in 1926, he moved to Dresden, Germany, in 1928. In 1931 he became university teacher at Dresden High Mechanical Engineering School. After a short stay in Belgrade, he moved back to the University of Zagreb in 1936. He was a collaborator of Croatian Encyclopaedia. After 1945, during the Yugoslav communist regime, he was degraded…

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Danilo Blanusa (1903-1987), Croatian mathematician, professor at the University of Zagreb, was born in Osijek. He discovered a mistake in relations for absolute heat Q and temperature T in relativistic phenomenological thermodynamics, published by Max Planck in Annalen der Physik in 1908: Q = Q0 a,  T = T0 a , where Q0 and T0 are the corresponding classical values, and a = (1-v2/c2)1/2. Blanusa proved that the correct relations should be Q = Q0 / a,  T = T0…

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William Feller (Vilim, Willy, Willi, 1906-1970) is a well known name among mathematicians dealing with probability theory. He was born and educated in Zagreb as Vilim Feller, where he studied mathematics for two years (completing 4 semesters out of 8), and then in 1926 continued his studies at the University of Göttingen. By the end of the same year, at the age of 20, he defended his doctoral degree in mathematics. Göttingen at that time the strongest mathematical center in…

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The Savannah nuclear ship, the first nuclear-powered merchant ship, was built to the plans of Erazmo Tićac. Born in Žurkovo in 1904, Erazmo went to schools in Žurkovo, Kostrena and Bakar, and made a career as a shipbuilding engineer in the USA. After the president Dwight Eisenhower announced his decision to build an experimental nuclear-powered merchant ship in 1955.  Erazmo Tićac, planner of the Savannah nuclear ship. Source of the photo. The planning was entrusted to the firm The Sharp…

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George M. Skurla (1921-2001), after completing his college training, he joined the Aircraft Engineering Corporation as an apprentice engineer. In 1965, he became director of operations for Grumman at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Kennedy Space Center (KSC). In that position, he brought together the 1,600-man Grumman team responsible for the final assembly, test and pre-launch checkout for the Apollo lunar module vehicle. Skurla led the team that built the historic Apollo 11 lunar landing module. The lunar…

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Milojko Mike Vucelic, former Apollo System Manager for NASA/Rockwell, recipient of Presidential Award for Freedom, studied Mechanical Engineering at the Univeristy of Zagreb, and was a member of Croatian Nobility in the city of Zagreb. Mike Vucelic, with a badge of Croatian nobility in the form of Croatian Coat of Arms, to the right of his cravat. Photo by Anto Magzan/Pixell.

Jacob Jake Matijevic (1947-2012), of Croatian origin, PhD in Mathematics from the University of Chicago, was NASA engineer and a father of Curiosty rover which successfully landed on the planet Mars in 2012. NASA named several landmarks, including “Matijevic Hill” and “Jake Matijevic” rock, for him on the planet Mars. Dr. Jacob Jake Matijevic died a few weeks after his rover landed on Mars.

In 1972 Hrvoje Saric invented and patented the first professional synchro-rotational photo-camera (360-degree camera) in history. In 1988 he deviced the first electronical construction consisting of nine BETACAM videocameras, catching the range of the full circle. Saric’s 360 degree film technology was exploited at 1988 and 2000 at EXPO exhibitions organized in Lisbon, Portugal, and in Hannover, Germany. Croatian pavillion was the main event at the 1998 EXPO in Lisbon, Portugal, among others due to 360-degree film technology introduced by…

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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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