Department of Applied Chemistry

Department History

The founder of the Department of Applied Chemistry is academician Dragomir Vitorović. He defended his doctoral thesis entitled "On the Nature of the Organic Substance of Paraffinic Slate. The Oxidation with Potassium Permanganate in a Neutral Environment" in 1956 at the University of Belgrade. The most prominent chemists and physicochemists in Serbia at that time were in the Defense Commission: Vukić Mićović, Đorđe Stefanović, Pavle Savić, Stojan Pavlović i Panta Tutundžić. The study of the organic substance of the geosphere, i.e. organic geochemistry, has remained the dominant research area at the Chair until today.

In the early 1990s, Professor Petar Pfendt introduced research work in the field of environmental chemistry. Professor Mirjana Šaban was started the research of biological markers. Professor Vitorović mostly worked on methods for determining the structure of kerogen. Professor Predrag Polić has joined to the research team of Professor Pfendt, while professors Vitorović and Šaban were joined by Branimir Jovančićević. Since the mid-1990s, Professor Jovačićević has been adding environmental chemistry to his organic geochemical research. In 2020, the Chair of Applied Chemistry consisted of full professors Branimir Jovančićević, Ivan Gržetić, Goran Roglić, Aleksandar Popović, and Ksenija Stojanović, associate professor Dubravka Relić, assistant professor Konstantin Ilijević and assistant Slađana Savić.

Former and current members of the Department have made a great contribution to our society as members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, ministers in the Government of Serbia, and a large number of our professors had the honor of being the dean of the Faculty of Chemistry. The deans of the Faculty of Chemistry were professors: Petar Pfendt, Predrag Polić, Branimir Jovančićević, and Ivan Gržetić. The current dean is Professor Goran Roglić, and Professor Aleksandar Popović is the President of the Council of the University of Belgrade.