Ceremonial session in honour of 125 years since the birth of SASA Corresponding Member Stefan Gelineo

The 125 years since the birth of SASA Corresponding Member Stefan Gelineo will be marked by a celebration at the SASA Grand Hall, on 21  June at 10 a.m.

Stefan Gelineo (b. 17 June 1898 – d. Belgrade 1 October 1971) was a renowned physiologist and a Belgrade University professor. He studied biological sciences in Belgrade, Leipzig and Vienna. He graduated from the University of Belgrade in 1928. The following year,  he started working at the Institute of Zoology of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, where he was elected a teaching assistant. He defended his doctoral dissertation titled Adaption of Thermogenesis to Thermal Environment, at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, under the supervision of Academician Ivan Đaja (Jean Giaja). He was elected an assistant professor at the same Faculty in 1937. Due to his Marxist views, he was suspended from the Faculty.

During the Second World War, he was imprisoned at the Banjica Concentration Camp, in the period from 1941 to 1944. Following the liberation, he returned to professorship, and in 1945, he was elected a full professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb. The same honour was bestowed upon him by the Faculty of Philosophy, in 1947. After the establishment of the Faculty of Natural Sciences in Belgrade, in 1947, he joined the staff of the Department of Biology.

In 1946, he was elected a corresponding member of the Serbian Royal Academy.

He was the founder and the first director of the Institute for People’s Nutrition Research.

In his scientific work, Professor Gelineo researched thermoregulation and bioenergetics. The results of his research on thermal adaptation garnered considerable attention from the world scientific public and were considered a fundamental discovery. His comparative physiological and ontogenic research laid the foundations for the study of evolutionary physiology in the region of the Balkans. He published over 120 scientific and expert papers. At Belgrade University, he was the one who initiated the study of comparative physiology.

He was a member of numerous expert associations, some of which are as follows: the Yugoslav Physiological Society, the French Biological Society and the Nutrition Society of London.

He is a recipient of numerous achievements and recognitions, including the Order of Merits to the People with a golden wreath.

With his educational and scientific work, which was visionary in some aspects of physiology, he greatly contributed to the development of our science.