Three researchers of the Institute of Physics were elected academicians on regular elections of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Dr Branislav Jelenković who had been a SASA corresponding member was elected a SASA full member. Additionally, Dr Magdalena Đorđević and Dr Antun Balaž joined SASA as corresponding members.
The SASA Election Assembly took place at the SASA Grand Hall on Thursday, 7 November. A total of 55 candidates, who had undergone a thorough evaluation by commissions and SASA Departments, were presented for voting. At the end of the process, 17 full members, 22 corresponding members and five foreign members were elected by means of a secret ballot cast by the attending academicians.
Over the Institute’s history, a significant number of our researchers has been granted a coveted title of an academician, with many leaving an indelible mark on SASA and its bodies’ work. This year’s candidates were proposed by the SASA Department of Mathematics, Physics and Geosciences.
Academician Branislav Jelenković was elected a SASA full member and he is a distinguished researcher in the fields of quantum and non-linear optics. He has worked at the Institute since 1995, where he founded and managed the Photonics Center. As a pioneering figure in the field of light research, he has fostered multiple generations of scientists and initiated numerous experiments, projects, conferences, and other initiatives.
He began his education at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Belgrade, where he completed his bachelor studies in 1974. He received his PhD from the Faculty of Sciences in 1983. He continued his academic education at the prestigious JILA Institute in Boulder, Colorado, USA in the period between 1993-1995. Throughout his career, he published numerous scientific papers and has been dedicated to the work with young researchers.
Dr Magdalena Đorđević, a newly elected SASA corresponding member, conducts research in high-energy physics and theoretical nuclear physics. In 2016, she received a prestigious grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for her research in the field of quark-gluon plasma, a state of matter that existed before the formation of the Universe as we know it. Dr Đorđević graduated from the Faculty of Physics of the University of Belgrade, pursued further studies at Columbia University, where she defended her doctoral thesis, and continued her post-doc studies at the Department of Physics of the Ohio State University.
Dr Antun Balaž, recently elected as an SASA corresponding member, serves as the Deputy Director of the Institute of Physics Belgrade. He is also the head of the Centre for the Study of Complex Systems, which operates the Paradox supercomputer, a critical research infrastructure. He focuses on functional formalism in quantum theory and its application in studying ultra-cold quantum gases, including the Bose-Einstein condensate. Dr Balaž gained his BSc, MSc and doctoral degrees from the Faculty of Physics of the University of Belgrade.