Pavle Savi?
(
Serbian Cyrillic
:
Павле Сави?
; 10 January 1909 ? 30 May 1994) was a
Serbian
physicist and
chemist
. In his early years, he worked in
Serbia
as well as
France
, and became one of the pioneers in the research of
nuclear fission
. He was also a sympathiser of
Yugoslav
communists in the
interwar period
, and then rose to prominence during
World War II in Yugoslavia
. He made important contributions to the
Partisan resistance
to the Axis occupation, became a delegate to
AVNOJ
, and was also sent on high level missions to the
Soviet Union
. After the war, he founded the
Vin?a Nuclear Institute
and was a tenured professor at the
University of Belgrade
as well as a member of numerous learned societies, and a president of the
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
.
Biography
[
edit
]
Pavle Savi? was born to Ana and Petar Savi?, as the eldest of five children. His father was a veterinarian, and his mother was the sister of
Kosta Stojanovi?
, a one-time professor at the
Belgrade Higher School
and a minister in the Government of the
Kingdom of Serbia
. His birthplace happened to be
Thessaloniki
, Greece, where his father was posted in a free customs zone at the time. The family soon moved to
Svilajnac
where they spent the time of the
Balkan Wars
and
World War I
. Afterwards, they moved to
Belgrade
where he completed middle school in 1923, and then to
Po?arevac
, where he would graduate high school in 1927, after having shown a keen interest in the natural sciences.
Savi? would go on to graduate with a degree in physical chemistry from the
University of Belgrade
in 1932.
After completing mandatory military service of the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
, he became a teaching assistant at the University, ultimately working with professor Dragoljub Jovanovi? who had previously collaborated with
Marie Curie
at the
Radium Institute, Paris
. By 1934, he had published his first scientific paper in the journal of the
French Academy of Sciences
.
In 1935, he received a six-month scholarship from the French government to study in France, where he moved with his freshly married bride Branka (nee Bo?inovi?). With professor Jovanovi?'s references, he was hired at the Radium Institute in Paris, and he would ultimately spend five years in
France
. He worked with
Irene Joliot-Curie
and
Frederic Joliot-Curie
on interactions of neutrons in the chemical physics of heavy elements, and they published a number of papers in 1938 and 1939.
This turned out to be an important step in the discovery of
nuclear fission
.
Together with Irene Joliot-Curie, Savi? was nominated for the
Nobel Prize in Physics
, but the prize hadn't been awarded during World War II. The same issues were researched by a number of other scientists, including
Enrico Fermi
,
Lise Meitner
,
Otto Hahn
,
Fritz Strassmann
and others, but in 1944 the Nobel Prize was awarded for the discovery of fission only to Hahn.
In the late 1930s, Savi? also took part in social and political activities of the Yugoslav students in France, and in 1938 was elected as the president of their association as a candidate though not yet a member of the
Communist Party of Yugoslavia
. He worked with
Boris Kidri?
and others to aid the
Yugoslav volunteers in the Spanish Civil War
, and in 1939 became a member of the CPY.
Though he was one of the few teachers of the University of Belgrade to do so at the time, his family actually had a history of socialist and later communist activism. As the international affairs at the time became more turbulent, he was expelled from France by the end of the same year, and returned to teach physical chemistry at the then pharmaceutical department of the
University of Belgrade Faculty of Medicine
.
At the start of
World War II
and the
occupation of Yugoslavia
, Savi? immediately became part of the underground resistance to the German occupation.
Soon, in July 1941, after having assisted
Partisan
sabotages, he and his wife left Belgrade to avoid capture, eventually arriving in the liberated
Republic of U?ice
. There, he joined the Supreme Command of the
People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia
as a radio and cipher officer, and was actually badly injured in a November explosion. He moved with them into eastern
Bosnia
, where in 1942 he and his wife collaborated closely with
Josip Broz Tito
and he became one of the most important delegates to the
AVNOJ
.
While Savi?'s contributions to the war effort weren't quite in his area of expertise, he was trusted by the Partisan leadership, and was put in charge of all matters of education, which he used to promote school participation in the liberated areas of the
Biha? Republic
.
As the Germans engaged in Operation
Case White
, Savi? maintained his position with the Partisan Supreme Command, but fell out of favor in July 1943, and was demoted for reasons that are unclear. He nevertheless participated in the second convention of AVNOJ in November the same year, and in April 1944 was again promoted in the military, and sent on a mission to the Soviet Union. He arrived in Moscow where he also immediately engaged in scientific work with
Pyotr Kapitsa
and others, on the topic of liquid helium on extremely low temperatures.
He returned home in October 1944 to liberated Belgrade, where he continued his socio-political activities as well as work on the restoration of the University. After the war had ended, he had another short stint in Moscow, but returned home to work on founding of an Institute of Physics, and was also promoted to a member of the
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
in 1946 and 1948.
After the war he was one of the primary promoters of the idea of constructing the
Vin?a Nuclear Institute
, as in 1948 Savi? became the director of the then-Institute of Physics, the research center for the Yugoslav nuclear programme.
[11]
As the political situation changed with the beginning of the
Informbiro period
the same year, he was forced to become independent of any help from the Soviet Union. Later, in 1958, he became a member of the
Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union
.
In 1966, he assumed an academic post at his alma mater, the University of Belgrade, as a professor at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Department of Physical Chemistry and Department of Physics, now Faculty of Physics. In 1981, he took his retirement.
[12]
He was also the president of
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
from 1971 to 1981,
the year he retired.
[13]
He became a member of the
New York Academy of Sciences
in 1960, the
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
in 1970 and the
Academy of Athens
in 1975.
In 1987, he was mentioned in the so-called
Vojko i Savle
affair.
He published his last scientific paper a few months before his death, at the age of 85, in
Belgrade
.
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
Sources
[
edit
]
- Mi?ovi?, Vuki?
(1972). "Chemistry in Serbia - A Brief Historical Outline of the Development of Chemistry in Serbia, the Period 1843?1941".
Glasnik Hemijskog dru?tva - Beograd
[
Bulletin of the Chemical Society - Belgrade
] (in Serbian). Vol. 37. Translated by Stanojevi?, Lazar. Belgrade: Serbian Chemical Society / NOLIT Publishing House for the U.S. Department of Commerce and National Science Foundation. pp. 29?52.
- Bond?i?, Dragomir (2012).
"15. Pavle Savi? - nau?nik u ratu"
[15. Pavle Savi? ? A scientist in the war]
(PDF)
. In Roksandi?, Drago; Cvijovi? Javorina, Ivana (eds.).
Intelektualci i rat 1939. ? 1947. ? Zbornik radova s Desni?inih susreta 2012 Dio 1
[
Intellectuals and war 1939?1947 ? Proceedings from Desnica's Encounters 2012 Part 1
]. Biblioteka Desni?ini susreti (in Serbian). Vol. 8. Centre for Comparative Historical and Intercultural Studies,
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb
. pp. 239?249.
- Suboti?, Krunoslav (2002). Ceki?, Bo?idar; Babi?, Dragan (eds.).
"Vin?a Annual Report 2001"
. Institut za nuklearne nauke Vin?a.
ISSN
1451-2254
.
Further reading
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Academic offices
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President of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
1971–1981
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