ALEKSANDAR DESPIĆ Chemist; (b. Belgrade, 6 January 1927 – d. Belgrade, 7 April 2005)

University professor, Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy in Belgrade, full professor (from 1971); principal research fellow of ICTM Department of Electrochemistry; director of the Museum of Science and Technology (from 1989)

Membership of SASA: Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics; corresponding member from 16 December 1965; full member from 21 March 1974; Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences from 8 June 1998; vice-president of SASA from 19 November 1981 until 22 December 1994; SASA president from 22 December 1994 until 11 February 1999

Accession speech: Department paper presentation: Problem Quantification of Construction of Reactive Mechanisms Models. PI/SANU. Spomenica. 402: 30 (1967) 79–86. Speech – The Path of Chemical Reaction and Resonance Activation. Glas/SANU. Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics 300: 40 (1976) 68–73. Delivered on 17 November 1974

Biography, bibliography: Godišnjak/SANU 75 (1971) 591–600; 81 (1976) 139–144; 92 (1986) 339–349; 102 (1996) 369–373.

Membership of SASA Boards: Board for Physical Chemistry; Board for Biomass; Interdepartmental Board for the 3rd Millennium; Interdepartmental Board for Kopaonik; Interdepartmental Board ‘Man and the Environment’; Interdepartmental Board for Energetics and Energy Resources; Interdepartmental Board for Fundamental Problems of Heterogeneous and Homogeneous Catalysis; Interacademy Coordination Board for Chemical and Applied Chemical Sciences; Endowment Commission, member;  SASA Fund for Research in Sciences and Arts, president of the Managing Board; SASA Council for Computer Science, president; director of the SASA Gallery of Science and Technology; president of the Managing Board of the Museum of Science and Technology, Interdepartmental Board for Physical Chemistry of Materials

Awards and recognitions: October Prize of the City of Belgrade (1968); The 7th July Award (1990); charter of recognition and plaque of the Serbian Chemical Society (1972); Order of Labour with red banner

Photograph: SANU-F 513