(LIVE BROADCAST) Foundation “Prof. Dr. Marko V. Jarić” awarded the prestigious “Marko Jarić” award for 2023 to Dr. Ilija Zeljković, full professor at Boston College, USA. The award ceremony was held on Thursday, March 14, 2024, at 12 noon, in the Grand Hall of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Kneza Mihaila 35, Belgrade).
The “Marko Jarić” award, which is sometimes called the “Serbian Nobel for Physics” in the media, has been awarded for more than 25 years for outstanding results in physics. The award is financially supported by the Institute of Physics in Belgrade, which organizes this ceremony. This recognition was given to our most respected researchers, many of whom, just like Marko Jarić, are originally from Serbia, and work at leading world universities.
This year, as stated in the jury’s decision, the award went to Dr. Zeljković “for outstanding contributions to the study of highly correlated superconducting materials based on cuprates and crystal topological insulators, as well as to the study of superconductors with the Kagome crystal lattice.”
The award jury, which consisted of academician Zoran V. Popović, Dr. Jelena Radovanović, full professor of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, and Dr. Đorđe Spasojević, full professor of the Faculty of Physics, University of Belgrade, made the decision unanimously.
Dr. Ilija Zeljković graduated from the Mathematical Grammar Schoolin Belgrade in 2003, and then basic studies in physics and computer science in 2007 at Washington University in St. Louis. He defended his doctoral dissertation at Harvard University in 2013 on the subject of high-temperature cuprate-based superconductors. The main results of his research from that period were published in the leading journals Science and Nature Materials. Dr. Zeljković continued his career at Boston College in Vidya Madhavan’s group. Advancing his career at Boston College, Dr. Zeljković established his own group dealing with the synthesis of new materials and research using scanning tunneling microscopy. So far, he has researched cuprate-based superconductors, iron-based superconductors, and currently superconductors with the Kagome crystal structure.
Foundation “Prof. Dr. Marko V. Jarić” was founded in 1998, with the purpose of preserving the memory of the life and work of Marko Jarić (1952-1997), and its most famous activity is the award of the same name, which is awarded to an individual or a group of scientists for exceptional scientific results in physics.
During the ceremony organized on Thursday, March 14 at 12 noon in the SASA Grand Hall, on the occasion of awarding this prize and marking Marko Jarić’s birthday, the audience and guests will be addressed by the Dr. Aleksandar Belić, President of the Foundation’s Board of Directors, prof. Dr. Petar Adžić, Manager of the Foundation, Dr. Aleksandar Bogojević, Director of the Institute of Physics Belgrade, academician Zoran V. Popović, President of this year’s award jury, as well as a representative of SASA and the guest of honor, after which the prize will be awarded. After the awarding ceremony, according to tradition, the laureate will hold a popular lecture and present his research to the audience.
Ilija Zeljković in the physics meeting room and in the Higgins atrium; PHOTO: Boston College and Chronicle.