Exhibition ‘Academician Nedeljko Košanin – Founder of Modern Serbian Botany’ at the SASA Gallery of Science and Technology

The exhibition ‘Academician Nedeljko Košanin – Founder of Modern Serbian Botany,’ authored by SASA Corresponding Member Marjan Niketić, Professor Gordana Tomović, PhD, and Professor Milorad Vujičić, PhD, opens on Tuesday, 8 October, at 6 p.m. at the SASA Gallery of Science and Technology.

This year’s October marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Academician Nedeljko Košanin, one of the most esteemed Serbian intellectuals of the early 20th century. Often regarded as the successor to Josif Pančić, Košanin was an internationally recognized scholar in the field of natural sciences.

Although his first scientific paper focused on zoology, Košanin dedicated the rest of his scientific opus to general botany. He was the founder of plant physiology and geo-botany, and he was one of the pioneers in the fields of algology and bryology in Serbia. He also achieved significant results in the fields of plant systematics, floristics and dendrology. In addition to the newly described species of flowers, he also left behind a vast collection of plant material carefully preserved in the form of dried samples and housed in herbarium collections in Belgrade and major European cities.

During his fruitful career, he wrote around 60 influential scientific papers and several notable biology textbooks for both secondary and higher education. He was a founder and long-standing editor of the scientific journal ‘Glasnik Botaničkog instituta I botaničke base u Beogradu’. Košanin served as a full professor and dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade, as well as the director of both the Jevremovac Institute and  Botanical Garden in Belgrade. During his tenure as a dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, he was awarded the Royal Order of Saint Sava.

The exhibition dedicated to Nedeljko Košanin at the SASA Gallery of Science and Technology will run until 31 October.