Academy Members

Čolić Petar Krešimir, F.C.A.

Academic titles:

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

Institutions:

• full professor – Faculty of Geodesy, University of Zagreb

Membership in Academy:

• full member – Department of Natural Sciences (12/03/1992 – 05/27/2000)

Curriculum Vitae

Petar Krešimir Čolić, F.C.A. was born on July 10, 1938, in Sokobanja, Serbia, and deceased on May 27, 2000, in Zagreb. He attended elementary school and gymnasium in Nova Gradiška. In 1956/57 he enrolled in the Geodetic Department of the then Architectural and Construction Geodetic Faculty of the University of Zagreb, where he graduated in 1961. Upon graduation he worked in the Office for New Survey in Zagreb at the Republic Geodetic Administration of Croatia, and from 1962 in the Office for New Land Survey in Rijeka. In the academic year 1962/63 he enrolled in the study Theoretical mathematics at the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb where he attended six semesters.

In 1963 he was elected assistant at the Department of Higher Geodesy of the Faculty of Geodesy University of Zagreb, 1975 for assistant professor, 1980 for associate professor, and in 1986 for full professor at the same university. Doctorate of Technical Sciences in the field of geodesy obtained in 1971 in Bonn, Germany, at the Institute for Theoretical Geodesy of the University of Bonn. He taught mathematical and physical geodesy at his home faculty for years and participated in postgraduate study in teaching all orientations with multiple courses. He was a visiting professor at the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Sarajevo and Technical University of Graz.

He was a member of numerous scientific international commissions and study groups within the framework of International Association for Geodesy (IAG). He was vice president and president of Croatian commission for geodesy and geophysics, representing Croatia in the international union International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) and was a national delegate at the International Association of Geodesy. In 1994, he became a corresponding member of the Austrian geodetic commissions. He was a longtime editor-in-chief of the Geodetic Newspaper, president, and honorary president of the Croatian Geodetic Society, as well as president of the Croatian Astronomical Society. He was a member of the Committee for Natural Sciences and Mathematics of Matica hrvatska and a member and president of the Technical Sciences Committee of the Rectors’ Assembly.

He has participated in numerous congresses, symposia, and consultations with invited lectures. He led numerous projects, as well as the project Dynamic three-dimensional model of Plitvice lakes, travertine barriers and tributaries sponsored by UNESCO. He has published 40 papers in foreign journals and proceedings, 25 in domestic, 9 scientific studies, projects and studies and 34 professional papers.

In 1992 he was elected full member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Department of Mathematical, Physical, Chemical and Technical Sciences, and since 1997 he has been a member of the newly established Department of Technical Sciences. Since its founding, he has been the first vice president, and then president of the Croatian Commission for Geodesy and Geophysics and President of the Scientific Council for Remote Sensing and Photointerpretation of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Petar Krešimir Čolić is the winner of the J. J. Baeyer Memorial Medal, which he received in 1990. awarded by the Central Institute of Earth Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic. For his significant contribution to science, he was awarded in 1998. Order of Croatian Danica with the image Ruđer Bošković for special merits for science.