Academy Members

Barišić Slaven, F.C.A.

Academic titles:

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

Institutions:

• full professor, retired – Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb
• Professor emeritus – University of Zagreb

Functions in Academy:

• chair – Committee for Cooperation with Croatian Universities and Scientific Institutes (05/25/2011 – 04/04/2015)
• member of the Presidency – Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (01/01/2011 – 12/31/2014)

Membership in Academy:

• full member – Department of Mathematical, Physical and Chemical Sciences (07/24/1991 – 04/04/2015)
• extraordinary member – Department of Mathematical, Physical and Chemical Sciences (05/17/1990 – 07/24/1991)

Slaven Barišić, F.C.A., a prominent Croatian physicist, was born on January 26, 1942, in Pleternica. He graduated in physics in 1964 from the Faculty of Science of the University of Zagreb and obtained his master’s degree (1968) and doctorate (1971) from the Faculté de Sciences, Université de Paris in Orsay, under the guidance of Professor Jacques Friedel.

From 1965 to 1972 he was a research assistant and then an associate at the Institute of Physics, University of Zagreb. From 1967 to 1971 he was a researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France. Since 1972 he has been an assistant professor, since 1976 an associate professor, and since 1979 a full professor at the Physical Institute of the Faculty of Science. He received the title of Professor Emeritus of the University of Zagreb in 2013.

He became a full member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, in the Department of Mathematical, Physical and Chemical Sciences, in 1991, and since 1990 he has been an extraordinary member. From 2011 until his death, he was the president of the Committee for Cooperation with Croatian Universities and Scientific Institutes, and from 2011 to 2014 a member of the Presidency of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

From 1972 to 1981 he was the first head of the Department of Theoretical Physics at the Institute of Physics, from 1977 to 1978 head of the Physical Department of the Faculty of Science, from 1984 to 1986 vice-rector of the University of Zagreb, and from 1986 to 1988 dean of the Natural Science Departments of the Faculty of Science. Since 1982 he has been a member, and from 1989 to 1999 president of the Parent Commission for Physics.

The field of scientific work of Slaven Barišić was the theoretical physics of condensed substances, especially phase transitions in low-dimensional conductive materials. His constant interest was high-temperature superconductors, i.e., in a broader sense, heavily correlated electronic systems. He is the author and co-author of about a hundred cited original and review scientific papers, mostly published in renowned world journals, and 34 invited lectures at international conferences. He is a co-organizer of three international scientific conferences and co-published two of their proceedings. In his teaching work, he rearranged the undergraduate course Solid State Physics, introduced a new undergraduate course Irreversible Processes and a new postgraduate course Phase Transition Theory. As head of the Physical Department, he initiated the reorganization of studies in the directions of graduate engineer of physics and professor of physics.

From 1991 to 1992 and from 1998 to 2000 Slaven Barišić was advisor to the first President of the Republic of Croatia Franjo Tuđman for science, education, and development strategy. From 1993 to 1996 he was a member of the Governing Council of the University of Zagreb. He is a co-founder of the Military Technical Council of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Croatia. From 1994 to 2000, he was the first president of the National Council for Higher Education. As a member of the Program Council for Education in the field of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, he achieved the introduction of the secondary gymnasium profile Natural Science Technician in 1988, and as a member of the Educational Council of the Republic of Croatia in 1990, he successfully advocated the reintroduction of gymnasiums.

He was a co-founder and first president of the Croatian Physical Society in 1990, and was a member of the French Physical Society, the Institute of Physics in Great Britain, and the European Physical Society.

Since 1995, he has been a full member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts based in Paris. In 1976 he was awarded the “Ruđer Bošković” award, in 1992 he was awarded the Homeland War Memorial, and in 1997 he was awarded the Order of Croatian Morning Star with the image of Ruđer Bošković.