Milan V. Kurepa

Milan V. Kurepa, a distinguished Yugoslav atomic physicist, died on 16 
October 2000 in Belgrade, following a heart operation. 
	Kurepa was born on 11 May 1933 in the small town of Backa 
Palanka in Vojvodina, Serbia. In 1956, as an undergraduate, he began 
working at what is now Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences near Belgrade. 
He earened a bachelor s degree in physical chemistry in 1957 at the 
University of Belgrade and started graduate studies in physics there in 
1961. However, he spent the 1961-1962 academic year in the electrical 
engineering departmentat the University of Liverpool in the UK, where 
J.D.Craggs supervised him. Kurepa earned his PhD in physics in 1963 at 
the University of Belgrade, as a student of Aleksandar Milojevic. His 
thesis topic was slow electron scattering off atoms and molecules. 
	Kurepa then joined the University of Belgrade physics depatment as 
an assistant professor. He became a professor in 1981 and continued in 
that position until his retirement in 1988. Kurepa also has visiting 
appointments in the UK at the University of York, the Royal Holloway 
College of the University of London, and the University of Southampton 
and in Germany at the University of Kaiserslautern. Kurepa s pedagogical 
work at the undergraduate and graduate levels was highlu valued. He was 
a coauthor of 12 university and 4 high-scool textbooks.
	In 1964, Kurepa joined the newly founded Institute of Physics at the 
University of Belgrade as a research scientist. There, he started the Atomic 
Physics Laboratory. His abilities and work habits were the paradigm of 
professionalism and enthusiasm that he conveyed to his colleagues and his 
students. Due primarily to Kurepa s leadership, the Atomic Physics 
Laboratory gained an international reputation in the field of electron 
collisions with atoms or molecules. Many researchers from the laboratory 
have continued their careers in other institutes and universities in 
Yugoslavia, as well as around the world. At present, about a dozen of 
Kurepa s strudent are scientists and professors at leading universities in 
Australia, Belgium, the UK, France, Germany, Slovenia, and the US.
	Kurepa showed and extraordinary ability to promote scinentific work 
in Yugoslavia, especially by establishing connections with international 
physics organization and institutions. He was an outstanding organizer; foe 
wxample, he coordinated both domestic and international conferences, the 
most important being the Eighth Interantional Conference on the Physics 
of Electronic and Atomic Collisions, and several international symposia on 
the physics of ionized gases. He served as president of the Yugoslav 
National Physics Committee (1986-91) and was the Yugoslav 
representative for the atomic physics committee of the International Union 
of Pure and Applied Physics (1981-91). He also was a member of the 
European Physical Society (1972-92) and served on the executive 
committee of the Balkan Physical Union (1990-2000).
	In 1994, Kurepa was elected the corresponding member of the Serian 
Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU). He often remarked that he felt 
SANU should not only represent and symbolize the unity and importance 
of science, but address the essential and immediate social needs-play a 
more active role within the scientific and intellectual sphere, in general. 
During the isolation of Yugoslav scientists from the rest of the world due 
to United Nations sanctions, Kurepa organized a very successful meeting 
of SANU in 1997 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the 
electron.
	Kurepa fought for democracy in Yugoslavia. A vigorous adversary 
of Slobodan Milosevic s regime, Kurepa founded in 1997 the Association 
of University Professors and Scientists, with the principal aim of fighting 
for the recovery of basic university freedoms in Serbia. He was AUPR s 
first president. The association has been especially active since 1988, when 
the University Act was introduced to abolish the autonomy of Serbian 
universities. AUPR has organized protest meetings at Serbian universities, 
published statements regarding university autonomy and freedom of 
opinion, appealed to international academic associations for intervention 
with the Serbian government, and engaged in similar activities.
	With the same spirit, Kurepa actively participated in the 
nongovernmental Alternative Academic Educational Network (AAEN) 
and in the Southeast European Academic Network (SEAN). He was one of 
the founders of AAEN, which provides jobs for university staff who were 
either expelled from a university by the regime or retired on their own for 
the sake of self-respect (as did Kurepa). AAEN also promotes new 
educational ideas and methods, mainly following the college system, with 
an emphasis on students active participation during lectures. It was 
primaraly due to Kurepa that the natural sciences got its place in the 
AAEN program (which had been strongly oriented toward the humanistic 
sciences), with a course on the history and epistemology of science. SEAN 
helps organize and finance universities in the region, promoting modern 
educational standards. Kurepa took an active role in expounding the 
problems and needs of Serbian universities.
	During the electoral campaign, Kurepa traveled around Serbia with 
the students’ movement Otpor (The Resistance) that was instrumental in 
changing the ruling party in Serbia. Otpor awarded him a certificate, 
acknowledging him as “the most resistive professor”. Kurepa valued this 
honorar very much.
	Kurepa will be remembered as a man of extraordinary scientific 
efficacy and exceptional moral strength. Those who had the privilege to be 
his colleagues and friends will keep a most pleasant and rewarding 
memory of him. 



Petar Grujic
Institute of Physics
Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia
Leposava Vuskovic
Old Dominion University
Norfolk, Virginia