Academy Members

Božičević Josip, F.C.A.

Academic titles:

• fellow of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
• Doctor of Science

Institutions:

• full professor, retired – Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, University of Zagreb

Functions in Academy:

• head – Institute of Transport (2017 – 03/13/2021)
• deputy secretary – Department of Technical Sciences (01/01/2004 – 12/31/2010)
• member of the Presidency – Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (01/01/1998 – 12/31/2003)
• chair – Scientific Council for Traffic (1997 – 2021)

Membership in Academy:

• full member – Department of Technical Sciences (01/30/1997  – 03/13/2021)

Josip Božičević, F.C.A., a prominent Croatian construction and transport expert, former Minister of Transport and Communications, was born on 17 March 1929 in Josipdol. He finished elementary and high school in Ogulin. He graduated in 1956 from the Faculty of Engineering in the traffic direction of the Department of Civil Engineering. From 1956 to 1971 he worked in the Railway transport company (ŽTP), where he advanced to the position of director of the plant for construction plants, and at the same time in 1971 he was elected associate professor of the Faculty of Civil Engineering. After the collapse of the Croatian Spring, he was dismissed from the ŽTP and the Faculty of Civil Engineering as politically unfit, and from 1971 to 1982 he worked as a teacher at the Higher School for Road Transport in Zagreb, which, through Božičević’s efforts, grew into the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, where he was dean for four terms. Josip Božičević earned his first doctorate in 1965 at the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering in Ljubljana for the scientific field of civil engineering, and the second in 1983 at the Faculty of Maritime Affairs and Transport in Rijeka for the scientific field of transport technology.

From 1990 to 1992 he was minister of transport and communications in the Government of Democratic Unity and a member of the Crisis Staff of the Republic of Croatia. During the Homeland War, he established within the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences the Institute of Aeronautics and organized a higher education system for military and civilian pilots.

He was elected a full member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in the Department of Technical Sciences in 1997, and from 1998 to 2003 he was a member of the Presidency of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

He was one of the founders of the Croatian Academy of Engineering and its first president from 1994 to 1997.

The contribution of Josip Božičević in the technical scientific field can be divided into two complexes of scientific achievements: design, construction and maintenance of road and rail roads and applied projects of transport and economic development. In the first part, the original solutions of the continuous welding process of rails, the construction of double-elastic rail fastening, the construction of new concrete sills and the construction of the test track plant for the ejection of rails can be singled out as a special scientific contribution. This contributed to the reintegration of Croatia into the System of European transport flows and the concrete obtaining of significant corridors. Based on Božičević’s works, more than 1000 kilometres of uninterrupted track have been carried out in Croatia.

Of particular importance is the scientific study of Academician Božičević on the determination of transport corridors in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the basis of which Croatia has obtained new transport corridors that enable it to better connect with Europe (corridors Budapest – Zagreb – Rijeka, Budapest – Osijek – Sarajevo – Ploče, Ljubljana – Zagreb – Belgrade and Graz – Maribor – Zagreb). The adoption of new corridors through Croatia enabled loans and concessions of international institutions to be realized for the construction of roads on these corridors, which is a great contribution to the further economic development of Croatia.

Bozičević also dealt with the problem of safety in rail, road and air transport and explored the problems of discrepancy of traffic development and ecology.

During his many years of scientific work, Božičević has published 130 scientific and professional papers, of which 13 author’s books. Among them is the most significant Transport Valorization of Croatia from 1992 published by the Scientific Council for Transport of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in which an insight into all technical, economic and organizational elements of the transport system, relevant for the assessment of the current situation and the possibilities of transport development, is consistently and clearly given. This work was the basis for establishing the basic concept of traffic development in Croatia and the basis for the development of a comprehensive Transport Development Strategy of Croatia.

For his work, Academician Božičević has received numerous awards, including the Order of the Croatian Morning Star with the figure of Ruđer Bošković for science, the Order of The Croatian Morning Star with the figure of Blaž Lorković for the development of the economy, the Order of Ante Starčević for the Development of Croatian Statehood, the Order of the Croatian Wattle, the Homeland War Memorial, the State Lifetime Achievement Award for Science in the field of technical sciences in 1998 and the City of Zagreb Award 2017. Since 2002, he has been an honorary citizen of Ogulin.