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Sima Lozanić (Сима
Лозанић) (1847-1935)
was a
Serbian
chemist, president of the
Serbian Royal Academy and the
first principal of
University of Belgrade.
Lozanić was born
February 24th,
1847 in
Belgrade,
Serbia. He completed legal
studies in
Belgrade, studied chemistry
under Professor
Johannes Wislicenius in
Zurich and later with
Professor
August Wilhelm von Hofmann in
Berlin. He earned his
doctorate degree on
March 19th,
1870 at the
University of Zurich. He was a
professor at "Great school" (serbian:
"Velika škola") from
1872 and at the Faculty of
Philosophy of
University of Belgrade until
1924.
When
University of Belgrade was
founded in
1905, he was among the first
eight full-time professors who
selected the entire remaining
academic staff. Sima Lozanić was
then chosen as the first principal
of University of Belgrade. His
1905 opening ceremony words
remained recorded as the
following:
- "Our previous belief that
Serbian people will unite
not by spelling books but by
weapons was disastrous for our
people's intellect. I believe
the contrary - that education
will be the main factor in
solving that important question
of ours and that it would have
already been solved if we had
better cared for our education.
Therefore, I believe that
education is the force that
achieves all the goals. Had our
education been more advanced,
everything in the life of our
people would have been better
and more successful."
Sima Lozanić Portrait,
1905
His chemistry classes
paralleled, perhaps exceeded in
some cases, those of the top
European universities. They
were organized with well-equipped
laboratories and libraries, and
produced some of the first
chemistry textbooks. Lozanić
himself wrote a number of
textbooks, which covered various
subject areas of chemistry:
Inorganic Chemistry,
Organic Chemistry,
Analytical Chemistry and
Chemical Technology. His
textbooks were internationally
renowned and in some areas
groundbreaking. For example,
Lozanić's Inorganic Chemistry
textbook was the first European
university textbook with
Dmitriy Ivanovich Mendeleyev's
periodic table of
elements and one of the first
containing a chapter on
Thermochemistry. His Organic
Chemistry textbooks are among the
first books in which the
compounds were represented by
structural formulas.
He also did scientific and
professional work related to all
areas of
Chemistry; some of his most
valued works were about
electrosynthesis in which he
researched the reactions of
CO and
CO2 with other
substances under the effect of
electric discharge. He
published over 200 scientific
papers in
applied and
experimental chemistry.
He performed the first analysis
of thermal water of
Gamzigrad
spa in
1889. He became a member of
Serbian Academic Society
January 30th,
1873, associate member of
"Serbian Royal Academy"
January 23rd
1888 and became a full member
January 6th,
1890. He was a president of
Serbian Royal Academy twice -
1899 to
1900 and
1903 to
1906. From
1907 to
1912 he was a preseident of
Serbian Chemistry Society.
He was the minister of industry
from
January 12th
1894 to
March 21st
1894, and
October 15th
1894 to
June 25th
1895 and
October 11th
1897 to
June 30th
1899,
minister of foreign affairs
from
March 21st
1894 to
October 15th
1894 and from
December 23rd,
1902 to
March 23rd,
1903, as well as a diplomat
and participant in all wars of the
time. Lozanić was the ambassador
of the Serbian government in
London from
1900. He was a president of
Serbian refugee aid comittee in
1916 and a head of
USA mission for aid and
support of
Serbia from
1917.
He was voted the first honored
doctor of sciences of
University of Belgrade. He
died
June 7th
1935 in
Belgrade, in the age of 89.
His son
Milivoje S. Lozanić was also a
chemist and inherited his
university position as the
professor of Chemistry courses.
An exhibition "Sima Lozanić in
Serbian science and culture" was
held in his honor, organized by
Serbian Academy of Sciences and
Arts (SASA,
Serbian language: SANU -
"Srpska akademija nauka i
umetnosti") from January to March
1993, in Academy's gallery in
Knez Mihailova street in
Belgrade. His life and work
was especially investigated by
chemist
Snežana Bojovic, who wrote a
262-page book "Sima Lozanić".
Resources
References
