Academician Dragoslav Marinković passed away

It is with great sadness that the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts announces the passing of its full member Dragoslav Marinković (Belgrade, 21 January 1934), aged 90, one of our most eminent biologists and geneticists, on 8 May in Belgrade.

He graduated in 1957 from the Department of Biology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics of the University of Belgrade. In 1960, he obtained a Master’s degree in ecology and behavioural biology from the same faculty, while he defended his doctoral dissertation in population genetics in 1965. He had a postdoctoral training practice at Rockefeller University in New York and the University of California in Davis.

He became a teaching assistant at the Faculty of Sciences in Belgrade in 1959. He was elected to all positions at his Alma mater, having been elected a full professor in 1981. He was the head of the Department of Genetics and Evolution.

In 1997, he was elected a corresponding member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He was a secretary deputy of the Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences of SASA between 2002-2006. He was a member of the SASA Board for Biology, the Academy Board ‘Man and the Environment’ as well as the Academy Board for the Study of Life and Work of Scientists in Serbia and Scientists of Serbian Origin.

His rich bibliography includes more than 200 scientific papers. He is the author of two university textbooks and several handbooks for genetics teaching, and he co-authored numerous monographs and 23 high-school textbooks.

As a prominent researcher, he was a member of multiple expert associations and institutions, some of which are as follows: Serbian Genetic Society, Anthropological Society of Serbia, Bioethics Society of Serbia and the American Association for the Promotion of Sciences. He carried out the duties of the president and vice-president of the Serbian Biological Society. He was one of the founders of the Council of the European Society for the Evolution seated in Zurich and one of the founders of the Union of Geneticists of Yugoslavia. In addition to this, he was an Honorary President of the UNESCO National Committee for Bioethics, headquartered at SASA.

For his scientific work and teaching activities he received numerous accolades and recognitions some of which are: the April Award of the Students of the University of Belgrade in 1964 and 1989; the Labour Day Order with a Golden Star in 1985 and Prof. Vojislav Stojanović Prize of the Association of University Professors and Scientists of Serbia.

He greatly contributed to the development of science in Serbia with his scientific work and educational activities. His departure represents a great loss to the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and overall science.