Exhibition: Sima Lozanić: Knight of Serbian Science
As part of the commemoration of the 175th birth anniversary of chemist Sima Lozanić, to whom SASA dedicated the year 2023, the exhibition titled ‘Sima Lozanić: Knight of Serbian Science,’ authored by Snežana Bojović, was opened at the SASA Gallery, on 26 December. During this anniversary year, a scientific conference was organized at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, which was dedicated to the character and work of Academician SIma Lozanić, and a monograph on his life was produced.
Academician SIma Lozanić belongs to the group of renowned people belonging to the last decades of the 19th and the first decades of the 20th centuries, who left an indelible mark on European science, simultaneously contributing to the development of the early Serbian state by participating and furthering industry, politics, culture and everything that placed Serbia on the map of developed European states.
He was a professor and a rector of the Belgrade Higher School, the first rector in the history of the University of Belgrade, the president of the Serbian Royal Academy, envoy to London minister of national industry and minister of foreign affairs. His scientific papers, some of which have been cited to this day, put him among our most significant scholars. Through his textbooks on inorganic and organic chemistry, he introduced modern chemistry to the Belgrade Higher School, during the period when it was being taught in the most developed European countries. In his capacity as the minister of industry, he passed laws which sped up the development and industrialization of Serbia.
The Exhibition aims to present Lozanić’s overall work (scientific, expert, pedagogical, industry work, political and diplomacy-related actions as well as his active participation in the wars of that period) and highlight the importance and the scope of his scientific and expert engagement in the field of chemistry and agriculture boost, industry laws and foundation of industrial institutions which were to be for the general development of the country.
His scientific papers, analyses he carried out for state institutions and several photographs are kept in his legacy at the Faculty of Chemistry. The rest of the exhibits such as photographs and documentary records belong to the State Archives, SASA Archives, SASA Library, the University Library “Svetozar Marković” and Miloš Jurišić and Snežana and Dragan Vicić’s collections. The SASA Audiovisual Archives and Centre for Digitization has digitized books, documents, correspondence and photographs which are to be exhibited and reproduced in the Catalogue.
The author of the Exhibition is Ljiljana Radosavljević. Katarina Đivanović and Slađana Savić are the Exhibition curators. The project has been realized in cooperation with the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Belgrade. It is accompanied by the Catalogue titled Sima Lozanić: Knight of Serbian Science by the author Snežana Bojović.
The exhibition will be on display until 25 February 2024, and it has been realized with the financial support of the Assembly of the City of Belgrade.