2015Science - First Day Cover

Jovan Cvijić (11 October 1865 - 16 January 1927), a Serbian scientist, the founder of the Serbian geography and The Serbian Geographic Society, the president of the Serbian Royal Academy, a professor and the rector of the Belgrade University, an honorary doctor of the Sorbonne University and the Charles University in Prague, in his rich scientific and research work equally dealt with geology, geomorphology, social and physical geography, but also anthropology, history and etnography.

Cvijić was born in Loznica, in a family of traders. He finished his primary school and the first two grades of Grammar school in his home town. He finished the 3rd and the 4th grade of Grammar school in Šabac, and afterwards he became a student of the First Belgrade Grammar School. He belonged to the famous generation of graduates whose class-master was the professor Kosta Vujić. He finished studies of the Natural-Mathematical Department of the Grand School in Belgrade in 1888. After graduating, he taught geography for a short period of time at the Second Male Grammar School. He got his doctor’s degree at the Vienna University in 1893 and his doctoral thesis made him famous in the European scientific circles. On his return from Vienna he became a full-time professor of the Faculty of Filosophy of the Belgrade Grand School, and since the foundation of the Belgrade University, on 12 October 1905, Jovan Cvijić was one of the eight full-time professors. He founded the Geographical Institute of the Faculty of Filosophy in 1893, the first institute of that kind in the Balkans. He was one of the founders and the president of the Serbian Geographical Society in Belgrade. In 1912, he started a journal “Gazette of the Serbian Geographical Society” which is still published today.

He was the president of the territorial section of the state delegation at the Peace Conference in Paris after the First World War in 1918 and thanks to his eagerness, the newly-formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes got its then borders.

He carried out the most important field researches at the beginning of his carieer, and his geomorphological representation of the terrain in the Balkan Peninsula published in the two-volume book of “Geomorphology“, represents even today, a significant basis in contemporary geomorphological researches. He was the rector of the Belgrade University two times, an honorary doctor of Sorbonne and the Charles University in Prague, a regular member of the Serbian Royal Academy and its president from 1921 until his death.

He died on 16 January 1927. He was burried at the New Cemetery in Belgrade.

Artistic realization of the stamp: Anamari Banjac, academic painter.

Joakim Medović (Joachim Medowic), Polish by his origin, a doctor and a writer, a medical doctor, is one of the first Serbian doctors and one of the founders and the first president of the Serbian Medical Society.

He was born on May 8, 1815 in Podvizov in Galicia, today’s Poland, and finished philosophy in Lavov and medicine in Vienna, and came to Serbia as a medical doctor and a surgeon and a master of obstetrics in 1842. By a decree of Prince Aleksandar Karadjordjevic he was appointed a physicus of Pozarevac district.

Very diligent, dynamic and curious, Dr. Medowic applied in his work some new methods of population treating, at the same time working on the improvement of health culture of the population. By the order of the Minister of the Internal Affairs, he moves with his family to Belgrade, on the position of the Secretary of the Medical Ward in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He participated in the organization of the medical service and the improvement of education in the field of medicine in Serbia. He taught forensic medicine in the Great School, and in 1865 he published the first medical textbook for higher education in Serbia, “Forensic Medicine for Lawyers”. He published the second volume of this textbook during the following year, and in 1869 he published the book “Minor Surgical Services and First Aid in Body Injuries”.

He was one of the greatest authorities in the field of medicine in Serbia. He participated in the organization of the medical service and was one of the creators of the health legislation. Being one of the most educated people of his age, he spoke Polish, Slovak, French, German and Latin language. He became a corresponding member of the Society of Serbian Slovesnost in 1847 and was chosen for a regular member of the Serbian Learned Society in 1864. He performed his duty of the Secretary of the Department for Natural and Mathematical Sciences from 1869 to 1870, and when the Serbian Medical Society was founded in 1872 on the initiative of Vladan Djordjevic, he was its first president. He was one of the creators of the magazine “Serbian Archives of Medicine”. He was elected an honorary member of the Serbian Royal Academy in 1892.

He died in Belgrade in 1893. He was buried in the New Cemetery.

Artistic realization of the stamp: Anamari Banjac, academic painter.