Academicians Nikola Konjević and Tibor Varadi Honoured with the SASA Medal for 2025

At its session held on 23 October 2025, the Presidency of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts adopted the proposal of the SASA Medal Award Commission to confer the SASA Medal in the field of Natural and Technical Sciences upon Academician Nikola Konjević, and in the field of Social Sciences and Humanities upon Academician Tibor Varadi.

Academician Nikola Konjević is presented with the award for his long-term scientific work in the field of physics and spectroscopy of low-temperature gas plasma, focusing on the development of spectral methods.

’The results of his work have been used in spectroscopic methods that rely on the shapes of spectral lines of hydrogen and non-hydrogen atoms and ions in plasma. They have been applied in numerous laboratories across the world for testing and advancing theories, as well as for developing gas plasma diagnostics in laboratory and industrial settings, and particularly in astrophysics. The list of applications is evident in the citations of the publications to which Academician Konjević has contributed. It was Academician Konjević who first initiated work with lasers, several years after their invention, using them for plasma diagnostics. He authored the first textbook on lasers and was the first educator in Serbia in this field,’ the Commission’s statement notes.

In presenting the SASA Medal to Academician Tibor Varadi, the Commission emphasised his internationally recognised contributions in the field of international commercial arbitration, confirmed by his seminal textbook, which has already seen seven editions and is used on five continents.

’Another important contribution is related to his research on the language of legal procedures, and he published the results in his highly regarded international monograph (2006), international journals and most recently in the Cambridge Collection on International Commercial Arbitration (2023).

The mentioned academic contributions have been reinforced and validated by the candidate’s successful participation in a range of international arbitrations, including those in which he represented subjects from Serbia, as well as the Serbian State, in front of the International Court of Justice.

Finally, Academician Varadi has crowned everything by serving as a visiting professor at numerous leading world universities.’

The SASA Medal awarding ceremony will be organised as part of the session marking the Day of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts on 19 November 2025.