CEREMONIAL SESSION ON THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF ACADEMICIAN MIHAILO LJ. MIHAILOVIĆ

The ceremonial session marking the centenary of the birth of Academician Mihailo Lj. Mihailović will be held at the SASA Grand Hall, on Tuesday, 4 June, at 11 a.m. The session is organized by the SASA Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences. Academician Zoran Popović, an SASA vice-president will welcome the audience, while Academician Živorad Čeković, Academician Slobodan Milosavljević, Academician Radomir N. Saičić, Professor Snežana Bojović and Professor Ivan Juranić will talk about the life and work of this great chemist.

Mihailo Lj. Mihailović (b. Belgrade 22 January 1924 – d. 8 June 1998) was one of the founding fathers of modern organic chemistry in Serbia, a full professor of the University of Belgrade and one of the foremost Serbian Scientists of the second half of the 20th century.

He graduated in 1950 from the Department of Chemistry of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics of the University of Belgrade. In the same year, he was elected as a teaching assistant at the Institute of Chemistry of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts where he later received his doctorate.

In 1955, he was elected an assistant professor at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Belgrade, while he became an associate professor in 1961, finally being elected as a full professor in 1968.

Invited by Professor Leopold Stephen Ruzicka and Professor Vladimir Prelog, laureates of the Nobel Prize in chemistry, he received professional training at the Institute for Organic Chemistry of the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich in the period between 1957 and 1959. During his career, he stayed at various world research centres on multiple occasions and held lectures at international scientific conferences.

He was elected an SASA corresponding member in 1961 and became a full member in 1965. He was also a member of JAZU (1981), the New York Academy of Sciences (1982) as well as the European Academy of Sciences (1989).

His reach bibliography includes over 250 scientific papers published in prestigious international and domestic journals. His field of study encompassed several areas of organic chemistry and the chemistry of products, with the most prominent ones being reactions of metal hybrids, some antibiotics structures, and particularly the application of the oxidation process of organic compounds. In his research work, he discovered a large number of new reactions and classes of organic compounds.

He was a member of numerous national and international expert societies and organizations, some of which are as follows: the Serbian Chemical Society, American Chemical Society, Swiss Chemical Society, Royal Chemical Society in London and French Chemical Society.

He received many awards and recognitions such as the Serbian Cultural Council award, 1958; the October Prize of the City of Belgrade, 1969; the 7th July Award, 1978; AVNOJ Award, 1983; Order of Labour with a Red Banner, 1981 Prix d’Aumale by the French Institute at the proposal of the French Academy of Sciences, 1985; Medal of the Serbian Chemical Society for lasting and outstanding contribution to science, 1988;  Order of Merit to the People with a golden star, 1988; and the Knight of the Republic of France of the National Order of the Legion of Honour in 1989.

With his productive scientific work, he became greatly distinguished in international scientific circles and left an indelible mark in the history of Serbian science.

A live stream of the event is available at  LIVE STREAMING.