image credit: WikiMedia Commons

Author: Nicola Savic

As a part of the celebration of its 215^th anniversary, the University of Belgrade has placed a commemorative plaque on the Mansion of Misa Anastasijevic, which has been named as a “Historic Site” by the European Physical Society (EPS). Professor Milutin Milankovic had his office in this building which houses today the Rectorate of the University, where he performed his work dedicated to climate research. The University of Belgrade together with Association Milutin Milankovic (AMM), which was the main institutional proponent of this Historic Site, the EPS and the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA) organized a small ceremony dedicated to the memory of this famous scientist. 

The plaque declaring the Mansion of Misa Anastasijevic as an “EPS Historic Site” was unveiled in the courtyard of the Mansion on 15th September by Dr. Luc Bergé, EPS President, and Mr. Slavko Maksimovic, President of the AMM.  

During his opening speech, Dr. Bergé underlined that “…since 2011 the selection committee has received about 130 proposals, and around70 sites in 22 countries have been approved. Thus, theEPS Historic Sites program is very successful because it is very attractive. Our selection criteria perfectly apply to Milankovic’ office at the University of Belgrad, which today will become the first EPS Historic Site in Serbia.” 

The event was well received by the media, since there were five TV teams and several journalists present for the unveiling. The ceremony was moderated by Prof. Ratko Ristic, Vice-Rector for International Cooperation of the University of Belgrade, and Prof. Zoran Knezevic, President of SASA, who gave an overview of Milankovic’ work. Prof. Goran Djordjevic, a current member of the EPS Historic Site committee and the initiator of the proposal for the Milutin Milankovic Historic Site, as well as members of the SASA, many well-known physicists and mathematicians from Serbia and renowned university professors were present at the event, including prof. Ivan Belca, Dean of the Faculty of Physics, and Aleksandar Bogojevic, PhD, Director of the Institute of Physics.   

Milutin Milankovic (1879-1958) was a doctor of civil engineering, climatologist, geophysicist, astronomer and promoter of science, who taught at the University of Belgrade rational mechanics, celestial mechanics and theoretical physics (1909-1955). He founded an astronomical theory of climate change on Earth and applied it to the problem of the ice ages. Milankovic developed his theory of climate change to solve the problem of the Earth's ice ages during his time at the Mansion of Misa Anastasijevic. He was the first to accurately compute the climate response to insolation forcing, providing convincing evidence that astronomical mechanisms giving rise to the changes of insolation are three: the secular variations of the eccentricity of the Earth’s orbit, the precession of the Earth’s axis of rotation, and the variations of the obliquity of the rotation axis. A convincing proof of Milankovic’s theory came only after his death, with the results of CLIMAP project in the mid 1970’s. This brought a well-deserved recognition to Milankovic‘s achievements. Craters on the Moon and Mars bear his name, as well as an asteroid (1605 Milankovitch). In addition, the European Geosciences Union established the Milutin Milankovic Medal for for outstanding research in the field of long-term climate change and modeling.

Ratko Ristić, Vice-Rector for International Cooperation of the University of Belgrade and Luc Bergé, President of the European Physical Society
image credit: Nicola Savic