Academician Miroslav Gašić passed away

It is with great regret that the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts informs the public of the passing of Academician Miroslav Gašić, aged 90 (b. Belgrade, 30 December 1932), a full member of the Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences and one of our foremost chemists who particularly contributed to the study of the chemistry of natural products.
His BSc (1959) and PhD (1964) he received from the Faculty of Sciences and Mathematics of the University of Belgrade, while his postdoctoral studies he completed at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, Shrewsbury, the USA in 1965, as well as at the University of California, Los Angeles (1965−1967).

He was a full professor at the Faculty of Sciences and Mathematics of the University of Belgrade (from 1983) and the head of the Department of Organic Chemistry (1985−1996).

In the year of 1985, he was elected a corresponding member of SASA, whereas he was elected a full member in 1994. He was the secretary of the SASA Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences in the period 2002 to 2017, a SASA Presidency member and a member of the SASA Gallery Council. Furthermore, Academician Gašić was a president of both the Serbian Chemical Society (1997−2001) and Union of Chemical Societies of Yugoslavia, as well as a member of the International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), American Chemical Society and German Chemical Society.

He authored more than 90 scientific articles in international scientific journals, primarily on the natural products of the sea (structure extractions, biological activities), essential oils, organic reactions, etc. Academician Miroslav Gašić was a member of the editorial boards of Journal of the Serbian Chemical Society, Facta Universitatis, Niš and Molecules.

For his successful lasting scientific research work, he received numerous awards and recognitions, some of which are as follows: October Prize of the City of Belgrade (1988); Order of Labour with red banner (1988); Medal of the Serbian Chemical Society for continual and outstanding contribution to science (1997); honorary president of the Serbian Chemical Society (2006).

His passing is a great loss for the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the overall Serbian science.