A zoologist of international reputation Spiridion Brusina (born in Dubrovnik, 1845-1908), analyzed and classified 600 fossil species. He has a great merit for popularizing science in Croatia. Natural scientists throughout Europe named in his honor about 50 species according to his name.

Vinko Dvorak (1848-1922), Czech who came from Prague to Zagreb in 1875 and was lecturing physics at the University of Zagreb, was the student of Ernst Mach. He is well known by his discoveries in acoustics, especially about acoustic forces. He was the first constructor of an acoustic radiometer, which has been unjustly attributed to Rayleigh.

Dragutin Gorjanovic Kramberger (1856-1936) was a professor of geology and paleontology at the University of Zagreb. He discovered the remains of Diluvial Neanderthal people on a site not far from Zagreb.

The scientific activity of Vladimir Varicak (1865-1942), professor of mathematics at the University of Zagreb, was mainly in non-Euclidean geometry and its applications to Einstein's theory of relativity. His work has been cited in Wolfgang Pauli's Relativitätstheorie.

Eduard (Slavoljub) Penkala (1871-1922) invented a sort of a chemical pen which is bearing his name and now it is in everyday use. He was also one of the first constructors of planes (Zagreb, 1910).

Another constructor of airplanes was Ivan Soric, who had been flying in Subotica in 1913 (only 10 years after brothers Wright). Stanko Hondl (1873-1971), professor of physics at the University of Zagreb, has a great merit for popularizing Einstein's theory of relativity in Croatia.

Franjo Hanaman (1878-1941), chemist and metallurgist, invented together with Aleksandar Just the first economical electric bulb with wolfram filament.

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), born in Croatia (at that time within Austro-Hungary), is well known and need not be particularly introduced. We feel it is necessary to cite his words that he was equally proud of his Croatian motherland and Serbian descent. It is interesting that he belonged to the Serbs of the Valachian descent. He is the father of alternating electrical current technology and the three phase system. He is equally known by his contribution to the high frequency technology and wireless communications. The impact of Tesla's numerous inventions (more than 700 patents) on the development of modern civilization is immeasurable. The unit for magnetic induction Tesla, was named after him (Conference general des poids et mesures, Paris, 1960). He refused to receive the Nobel prize which he had to share with T.A. Edison.

Windows of the building of Electricité de Strasbourg in France, where Tesla had worked for some time, have inscriptions with names of outstanding scientists. There you can see his name surrounded with Laplace, Planck, Bohr, Einstein and Rutherford (click on the left). In front of the building of International Union for Telecomunications in Geneva there is a statue of Nikola Tesla. When his mother died, he payed a visit to Croatian capital Zagreb in 1892, where he gave a lecture about alternating current. On that occasion he said: As a son of my homeland I feel it is my duty to help the city of Zagreb in every respect with my advice and work (Smatram svojom duznoscu da kao rodeni sin svoje zemlje pomognem gradu Zagrebu u svakom pogledu savjetom i cinom), and suggested to build alternating current power plant. There is no doubt that by saying "homeland" he meant Croatia. In 1931, at the age of 75, Tesla received birthday greetings from Lee de Forest and Albert Einstein. His monument carved by Ivan Mestrovic, who knew him personally, can be seen in Zagreb. After the end of World War II, the famous sculptor was asked by Belgrade officials to prepare Tesla's monument for the capital of Yugoslavia, but he refused, explaining that Tesla did not like the city. By the way, the family name Tesla does not exist in Serbia. Another monument, carved by Croatian sculptor Frano Krsinic, can be seen near Tesla's hydro power plant on Niagara Falls. A part of Technical Museum in Zagreb is dedicated to Nikola Tesla. According to some recreational sources on WWW, four greatest geniuses in the history of Mankind are Gutenberg, Edison, da Vinci, and Tesla (in this order). There is not doubt that with a different homeland Tesla's position on the list would be much higher. Even today, so many years after Tesla's death (1943), his numerous manuscripts are kept as top secret by the Ministry of Defense of the USA (see Margaret Cheney, Tesla: Man Out of Time, Prentice Hall, 1981; Vladimir Muljevic, Nikola Tesla, slavni izumitelj, Hrvatska zajednica tehnicke kulture, Zagreb, 2000, p. 75.)

Among scientists studying seismology the famous Moho-layer (or Moho-discontinuity) of the Earth is well known. It was named after the great Croatian geophysicist Andrija Mohorovicic (born in Volosko, 1857-1936), professor at the University of Zagreb. His discovery was essential for understanding the inner structure of the Earth and the behavior of seismic waves. Together with the theory of forces due to J.R. Boskovic, this is probably the greatest achievement in the history of Croatian science. Let us cite a part of his biography from Willard Basom's monograph A hole in the Bottom of the Sea, The story of the MOHOLE project, 1959/61, Doubledays, USA (p. 143): ...As a boy of 15 he spoke Italian, French, and English as well as his native Croatian, later added German, Czech, Latin, and old Greek. He studied physics at the University of Prague under some famous professors including E. Mach and did his graduate work at the University of Zagreb, from which he obtained a Ph.D. In 1894 Dr. Mohorovicic became Director of the Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics and Professor at the University of Zagreb in 1897, where he remained until his retirement in 1921. His special interest was the precise measurement of time for both astronomical and seismical events, but his reputation mainly rests on his classic paper in the field of seismology, The Earthquake of October 8, 1909, which contains the news of his discovery of a major discontinuity at a depth of 55 kilometers. This discontinuity, now generally known as the Moho in his honor, defines the crust of the earth. Professor Mohorovicic died in 1936 in circumstances approaching poverty. Two Croatian names appear on the map of the Moon. The name of J.R. Boskovic was given to a mountain on the visible side, and the name of A. Mohorovicic to a mountain on the dark side of the Moon.

Stjepan Mohorovicic (1880-1980), professor of physics at the University of Zagreb, made a very important theoretical discovery of the positronium (rotational pair of electron and positron) as early as in 1936, published in `Astronomishe Nachrichten'. Its existence was confirmed experimentally in 1951.

As an explorer, Dragutin Lerman (1863-1918) was a member of Stanley's expedition to Congo (Zaire), and a commissary (Commissaire General) of the Belgian government in Congo. By the end of his career the Belgian king Leopold conferred the knighthood of Lion's order on him. And the famous Stanley wrote: "The Croat is energetic, cautious, in high spirits..."

Brothers Mirko (Karlovac 1871-Peru, 1913) and Stevo Seljan (Karlovac 1876-Ouro Preto, Brazil 1936) spent several years in Ethiopia carrying out geomorphological, climatological and ethnographic investigations. They occupied an important position at the court of emperor Menelik II. Later they went to South America, where they founded the society La Mission Cientifica Croata Mirko y Stevo Seljan and organized some expeditions, especially in Peru, Chile and Brazil (in the region of the Amazon).

One of the most outstanding representatives of photochemistry was Ivan Plotnikov (1878-1955), a Russian emigrant to Croatia (1918) and a professor of physical chemistry in Zagreb.

Ivan Jagsic (1886-1956), born as a Burgenland Croat in Austria, studied cartography, topography and geology in Zürich. As a professor of University of Cordoba, Argentina, he lectured also meteorology and astronomy, and wrote numerous scientific books. The South American Oceanographic Institute in Brazil was named after him.

Stefan Gelineo, Croat by birth, born in Starigrad on the island of Hvar (1898-1971), studied in Leipzig and Vienna. He was the professor of physiology at the University of Belgrade (capital of Serbia and former Yugoslavia). He is internationally known by his contributions to the study of hypothermia, i.e. the study of vital functions under low temperatures.

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 thermodynamics, published by Max Planck in Annalen der Physik in 1908:

Q=Q0a, T=T0a,

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/a.

This result that he published in Glasnik mat.-fiz i astr., 2/1947 in his article "Sur les paradoxes de la notion d'énergie", was rediscovered 13 years later by H. Ott. It is already time to correct wrong attribution of this discovery to H. Ott in the scientific literature, since Blanusa's priority in indisputable. Blanusa's most important work is related to isometric immersions of two-dimensional Lobacevski plane into six-dimensional Euclidean space and generalizations. This result is included in authoritative Japanese mathematical encyclopedia Sugaku jiten published by Iwanami shoten, Tokyo, 1962, p. 612. His work in graph theory resulted with what is now known as

Blanusa's graph

William Feller (1906-1970) is a well known name among mathematicians dealing with probability theory. He was a Jew born and educated in Zagreb, where he started his university study of mathematics, a professor at the University of Kiel, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Lund, Providence, Princeton etc., a member of many scientific organizations. Many important mathematical notions bear his name: Feller's process, Feller's transition function, Feller's semigroup, Feller's property. He worked with von Neumann, one of the creators of modern computers.

One of our best theoretical physicists was Prof. Gaja Alaga (1924-1988). He worked not only in Zagreb, but also at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Berkeley, Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich etc.

Croatian Nobel prize winners are:

Croatian Medicine

Let us now mention several names of significance in the history of Croatian medicine. Valent Cibel (born in Varazdin about 1490), a canon in Pecuh, wrote one of the first antialcoholic publications in history.

Gjuro Baglivi (born in Dubrovnik, 1668-1707) was a professor of anatomy and theoretical medicine in Rome (Sapienza) already at the age of 28, and the Pope's physician. He developed a theory that living fibre was the anatomical and physiological element of all pathological processes (fibral pathology). He also had some essential discoveries in the fine structure of muscles. His collected works written in the Latin language had more than 20 editions, translated into Italian, French, German and English. Acadé Française accepted him as "membre d'honneur". Baglivi was also a member of the Royal Society in London.

His Ragusan colleague Anselme Banduri (1675-1743) became a famous antique numismatist in Paris, and entered Académie des Inscriptions et Médailles.

Gjuro Dubrovcanin (Gjuro de Ragusa) published his "Epistolae Mathematicae" in Paris in 1680.

Mihajlo Soretic (1741-1786), a Croat who was born and lived in Hungary, was a professor at the Universities of Trnava and Budapest. He conjectured the law of the specific energies of senses. Niko Ostoic (born on the island of Hvar, 1810-1848) wrote a book about the influences of light on human body, one of the pioneering works on modern heliotherapy.

Ferdinand Hadvig was a surgeon in Zagreb who completed his studies in Prague in 1791. There exist documents confirming that already in 1792 he was vaccinating children in Zagreb against smallpox. He was also teaching parents about methods of prevention against smallpox. Historians of medicine claim that the first smallpox vaccination in Zagreb took place before the earliest known such vaccination in England, which was considered to be the earliest in Europe. This was discovered by Lelja Dobrinic, outstanding Croatian historian, curator of the Zagreb City Museum, see Vjesnik, May 29-30, 1999, p. 35.

Franz Leopold Jelacic (1808 Dorpat-Tartu / Estonia - 1888 Kazan / Russia) is a descendant of noble Croatian family of Jelacic (Russian branch). He studied in Vilnius in Lituania. After his specialisation in Berlin, Vienna, Paris and Munich, he founded The University Clinic in Kazan, for which he obtained felicitations from a minister in 1845.

Count Edgar Bourée de Corberon (1807-1861) was descendant of an old French noble family (born in Troissereux, dpt. of Oise), polyglot and interesting Croatian intellectual. In 1845 he arrived to Zagreb, and settled in Janusevac near Brdovec, the most beautiful Croatian palace at that time. He was a good friend to Ban (viceroy) Josip Jelacic. In his letters Corberon wrote about Croatia as his second homeland, about dangers of intensive magyarization (in his letters to the Hannover king Ernest August I written in French) in turbulent years around 1848.

His generous material support of various Croatian institutions persuaded him to leave the palace of Janusevac, and to settle in Bisag, in Draskovic's palace near Komin. In 1851/52 he urged Ban Josip Jelacic to reestablish the University of Zagreb to full extent (in 1850 the Faculty of Philosophy was concealed), offering his help as a potential lecturer. As a witness of epidemic of typhus and cholera in Croatia in 1851 he asked the Austrian monarchy officials to open the Faculty of medicine in Zagreb, suggesting its precise structure. Unfortunately, the faculty of medicine was opened only in 1917., during the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph I.

By the end of his life Corberon wrote his Programm für die Erweiterung der Königlichen Akademie Agram [Zagreb] to einer volständigen Universität, but the sudden illness and death prevented him from completing his work. According to his last will, he was buried in Croatia in Bisag. How much he loved his new homeland can be seen from the fact that (also according to his last will) even obituary notices in his native Troisseraux in France had to be printed in Croatian. See Alojz Getliher, Marulic 3, Zagreb, 1999, pp 528-537.

The oldest orthopedic institution in Croatia and one of the oldest in Europe, is the hospital for orthopedic surgery and rehabilitation "Dr Martin Horvat" in Rovinj, a lovely coastal town in Istria. It was founded in 1888 by Viennese physicians for children from Vienna.

It is interesting that Robert Koch spent two years, 1900 and 1901, on the island of Brijuni near Istrian peninsula, when the malaria disease appeared. There is a monument of Robert Koch carved in live rock, and also his bust. This famous physician and scientist gave impetus to prevent malaria not only on the Brijuni islands, but also in Istria, by drainage of swamps.

Karl Heitzmann (a German, born in Vinkovci, 1836-1896) was a histologist and pathologist and worked in Vienna and New York. He was the first who described hematoblasts. Emanuel Klein (1844-1925), a Croatian Jew born in Osijek, worked as a bacteriologist and histologist in London. He described many fine, until that time unknown structures of human body, and discovered Bacillus enteritidis sporogenes. He proved the streptococal etiology of scarlatina.

Ante Grosic (1849-1926), the head of the surgical ward in the Hospital of Rijeka, was the first to introduce iodic tincture in preoperative disinfection of patient's skin.

Stjepan Poljak (1889-1955), a neuroanatomist, was a professor in Berkeley and Chicago. He was successful in some fundamental discoveries concerning the delicate structure of retina.

Milislav Demerec (1895-1966) worked in the field of genetics in the USA. He had various discoveries in the genetics of bacteria and grew a sort of mould that improved the production of penicillin. President of the American Genetics Society and editor in chief of Advances in Genetics

Jaroslav Havlicek was born in Croatia, in Garesnica (1879 - 1950), of the Czech nationality. His steam boiler fed by coal powder represented a revolution in building large power supplies. A reputed journal Applied Mechanic's Review included him among 10 most important personalities in the history of energetics (besides Volta, Fermi, Edison, Tesla). His major inventions were completed during his stay in Brno (Czechia). Since 1919 he was a professor in Zagreb.

Croatian reader may be surprised to learn that in Argentina there are rivers like Korana, Kupa, Cetina, Una (confluents of river Chany), then Bosna, Lika, Mura, Sava, Drava, Drina (confluents of river Relem). There are also waterfalls Budak and Mime (Rosandic). This is due to Croatian scientist Ivica Frkovic, who led topographic investigations in the south of Argentina in the province of Neuquen near Chilean border. He discovered new, till then unknown rivers, to which he gave Croatian names. He also named two lakes in the region by the names of his daughters Jasna and Mirna, killed in 1945 during infamous Way of the Cross in Yugoslavia, immediately after the WW2. In 1946 president J.D. Peron allowed 35,000 Croats to enter Argentina, to save them from persecutions of Yugoslav state, and among them there were many intellectuals. The founder of the first faculty of forestry in Argentina is dr Josip Balen, together with his Croatian colleagues (Santiago del Estero in the south of Argentina).

Eduard Miloslavic (1884-1952) was a descendant of Dubrovnik emigrants to the USA, born in Oakland, California. His family returned to Dubrovnik in 1889. Ed studied medicine in Vienna, where he became a professor of pathology. In 1920 an invitation came from the Marquette University in Wisconsin, USA, to take the chair of the full professor of pathology, bacteriology and forensic medicine. In subsequent years "Doc Milo", as colleagues called him, inaugurated criminal pathology in the USA. As an outstanding specialist he was also involved in investigations of crimes perpetrated by al Capone gang. He was one of the founders of the International Academy for Forensic Medicine, member of many American and European scientific societies and academies, and also vice president of the Croatian Fraternal Union (CFU) in the USA. In 1932 he moved to Zagreb, where he was a full professor at the Faculty of medicine until 1944, when he moved again to the USA. He was lecturing also pastoral medicine at the Faculty of Theology in Zagreb, and was known as ardent adversary of abortion and euthanasia. In 1940 he was elected member of the prestigeous "Medico-Legal Society" in London, in 1941 promoted the full member of the Tzarist Leopoldine Carolingue Academy of Natural Sciences in Germany, and doctor "honoris causa" at the University of Vienna, where he started his scientific career. For his 1943 investigation of the slaughter of 12,000 Polish officers perpetrated by Soviets in the Katyn wood in 1940. By the end of 1944 he moved again to the USA (St.Louis, Missouri), where he was working until his death. It is important to note that after his initiative in 1941 the Faculty of Medicine in Sarajevo was founded in 1944 during the NDH regime.

When the University of Zagreb was founded in 1874, the Viennese government of the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not permit to open a medical school. Professor Drago Perovic (1888-1968), a Serb born in Herzegovina in Trebinje, who completed his studies in Vienna sub auspiciis regis, was one of the founders of the medical study at the University of Zagreb in 1918. He was one of our experts in the field of anatomy. He was one of important collaborators of Croatian Encyclopedia (see his extensive article Anatomija there). Unfortunately, being a Serb, he had no possibility to collaborate in Croatian Encyclopedia during the WW2 period, although he considered Croatia his homeland.

Professor Andrija Stampar (1888-1958) was our leading authority in the field of epidemiology and a pioneer in preventive medicine. As an expert of the League of Nations he spent three years (1933-1936) in China, developing the health service there. During the WW2 he was arrested by the German Nazis and kept in custody in Graz in Austria. He was one of the founders of the World Health Organization (WHO) and very active in promoting the health service in Afghanistan, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. He wrote the introductory declaration of the Statute of the WHO and was the first president of this organization. In 1955 he was awarded the medal of Leon Bernard, which is the most prestigeous international acknowledgement in the field of social medicine. For more details see his book The first ten years of the World Helth Organization, Geneva, 1958.

The most outstanding representative of the Croatian medicine, our specialist of international reputation in the field of othorhinolaryngology, was Ante Sercer (1896-1968). Due to his efforts a faculty of medical science was founded in Sarajevo in 1944 (terribly bombed by Serbian aggressors since 1992). He was the editor in chief of our Medical Encyclopedia (the first edition appeared in ten volumes, over 700 pages each, in 1957-1965), which was one of the first in the world. It is interesting to mention that the famous jazz trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong-Satchmo was professor Sercer's patient in Zagreb, and was treated carcinoma of his lower lip in the sixties. He also cured Mario del Monaco and Giuseppe di Stefano.

The initiative to open the faculty of Medicine in Sarajevo was given by professor Eduard Miloslavic. He also suggested to open the Faculty of Oriental studies in Sarajevo, and the Sheriatic theological faculty. The University of Zagreb helped during the NDH period (WW2) the Sarajevo faculty of medicine with 15 tons of professional equipment necessary for teaching, and books. Due to war operations in Bosnia going on in 1944/45 it was not possible to transport further equipment for the faculty. When WW2 ended, academician Ante Sercer was sentenced by Yugoslav communists to one year of forced work, and his property was confiscated. He was found guilty among others for having supported the NDH regime to build the faculty in Sarajevo (while the faculty continued its activity after 1945 only due to initial efforts of Croatia during NDH period). And during the ustasha regime in Sarajevo the faculty had 8 professors, among them two Serbs (Zarko Prastalo and Milutin Gligic), and one Muslim (Muhamed Kontardzic). Out of 180 students, about 35% Muslim, 35% Croats, 25% Serbs, and 5% the rest, including Jews. For more information see dr. Vladimir Dugacki: Prvi medicinski fakultet u Sarajevu (1944-1945), Marulic, 1999, 2, Zagreb, p. 282-285.

Vladimir Sertic (1901-1983) was a microbiologist. He discovered and classified several bacteriophages, among others the famous Fi X 174. He was working for 11 years (1929-1940) in Paris in the Laboratory of Felix d'Herelle, the discoverer of bacteriophages. His collaborator in Paris was Nikolai Bulgakov, who emigrated from the Soviet Union and completed his medical studies in Zagreb. The famous Russian writer Michail Bulgakov (the author of `Master and Marguerite') was Nikolai's brother.

Franjo Kogoj (1894-1983), dermatologist, discovered the endemic disease on the Croatian island of Mljet (the Meleda disease).

Mirko Drazen Grmek (1924-2000), born in Krapina near Zagreb, was professor of history of medicine at the University of Zagreb. Since 1971 he has been full professor at the Sorbonne in Paris, then associate professor of many European and American universities (Berkeley, Cambridge-Masachusetts, Geneva, Lausanne, Rome), and finally Director of Studies at the École Practique des Hautes Études, Sorbonne, Paris. He was director of International school for history of science in Naples, Ischy, Annecy, president of European center for history of medicine in Strasbourg, editor or editor-in-chief of several professional international science lexicons, author of about thirty books.

For his scholary achievements he was awarded with the order of the Knight of the French Legion of Honour. He also obtained Laurea ad Honorem from Universita di Bologna. In the early 1990s he advocated Croatia's right to independence through several appearances on French television, and was the first president of Almae Mater Croaticae Alumni in Paris.