Vol.2, No 10, 2000 pp. 1457-1458
MILIVOJE SIMONOVIĆ
PhD, Professor of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade
Minister of Education, Ministry of Education, Serbia

In Memoriam

Milivoje Simonović, Ph.D., associate professor at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade, the Chairman of Department for Mechanics and Minister of Education in Serbian Government, was born on October 20th 1951in Trmka near Kuršumlija. He attended primary school in Kosovo Polje and secondary technical school in Priština. In the school year 1970/71 he envalled mechanical engineering department of the Technical Faculty in Priština and after completing the second year he continued his studies at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade.
During his studies at the Faculty of Mechanical Engi-neering in Belgrade he used to pass his exams even before finished semester lectures and he graduated one semester before the term. As a student who passed all five exams at De-partment for Mechanics with highest grades, he was engaged in performing mechanics classes as a demonstrator and he was immediately engaged in teaching Theory of Oscillations, the final subject of the Mechanics courses cycle.
In 1975 he was awarder the October prize for the success during the studies and his final graduate work. He got the same prize in 1978, but this time for his master's thesis "Contribution to bending torque determining for a ship on a stormy sea". Milivoje Simonović also got the October prize in 1987 for his Ph.D. thesis "Contribution to hydro-dynamic theory of the ship rolling". His mentor for the Ph.D. thesis was Ljubodrag Radosavljavić, who was one of the world's leading authorities in the field of ship dynamics at that time. In 1984 at the 16th Yugoslav Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics in Portoroz, MIlivoje Simono-vić, Ph. D. received a special diploma "Rastko Stojanović", which is assigned to young scientific workers for outstanding scientific contributions in the papers presented at congresses.
In 1975 Milivioje Simonović came to Department for Mechanics at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade. He started postgraduate studies in the same year at the group for applied mechanics. During his preparations for the master's thesis, Simonović started studying the complex theory of the ship rolling, which was at that time outside frame of the theory (which had been) founded by Kirilov. Simonović presented the results of Kirilov's theory researching in the manner of a scientist with mature experience with a sequence of new original scientific results, which were presented as a complex method accommodated for efficient application in engineering.
With this work Simonović indicated that in the future he would strongly develop his abilities as a scientist who developed a strong and stable theory basis in his papers on the basis of which he would build many engineering methods directly applicable in practice. Simonović started his research in hydrodynamic impact to the ship rolling at the time when all ranked institutes, which studied the ship dynamics, searched for the analytical form of the solution for hydro-dynamic impact to the bending torque of the ship with the knowledge that the solution would be the turning point in the further ship dynamics research. Simonović studied the most significant empirical researches of that theory at one of the greatest world's centers of the ship dynamics - the Institute of the Sea Fleet Engineers in Odessa, during 1982 and 1983. After his specialization at the mentioned institute, Simonović registered his Ph.D. dissertation, armed with new ideas.
When he completed and presented his dissertation to scientific public, it has evident that Simonović made a capital work in the field of hydro-dynamic theory of the ship rolling. Namely, in each chapter of his dissertation Simonović gave significant scientific contribution, which was at that time among leading accomplishements in the field of the ship rolling theory. Simonović's most significant result accomplished in his dissertation was determining the analytical expression in the form of integral for the wave velocity diffractional potential using the method of asymptotical growing. Because of the great importance of Simonović's dissertation it was published by the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade shortly after dissertation defense.
Hydro-dynamic theory of the ship rolling remained the main subject of Simonović's scientific interest. But Simonović's ability of adapting to new scientific fields and quick knowledge adopting in those fields was amazing. Taking this fact into account, it is no wonder to find Milivoje Simonović among main authors of the sequence of realized projects on the strategy of technological development of Serbia or to meet him as the only author of the methodology for the Serbian faculties ranking. The book was highly esteemed.
Everything that professor Simonović did was professional and perfect. That is the reason he was indispensable in many important jobs at his faculty, at the University and the Ministry of Education. As an assistant he became the vice dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade. Remaining at that position during two mandates, he was remembered as the best vice dean for the finance that the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering ever had. The initial success lead him to the position of the vice president of the Financial Commission of the Republic Fond for Secondary Oriented Education, then to the position of the assistant of the Minister of Education in the Serbian government in 1991 and finally in 2000 to the position of the Minister of Education.
His advance in politics, a new field he was involved in with the knowledge and talent that he permanently expressed in science, is known in public. What is not known about professor Simonović and what tells much about him as a highey ethical moral university professor is connected with the fact that despite his splendid scientific results, at the time when his fourth textbook was being published, he left us forever without being promoted to a full professor. During the last three years department suggested Simonović's promotion three times because he exceeded with his scientific results all the conditions that the University laws impose to the full professor promotion. Last time, in June 2000 department suggested Simonović's promotion in his absence two days before the tragedy near Velika Plana. But Milivoje Simonović kept refusing that the suggestions leave department and in that way he prevented his own promotion. His explanation was that he didn't want to start the procedure of promotion as long as he was in the Serbian government. This example, which totally agrees with Simonović's high moral codex, is unique in the world of science and politics that surrounds us today.
Professor Simonović Contributed to placing a large amount of attention on Mechanics in educating mechanical engineers at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, which made Department for Mechanics the main for applied mechanics. He took care a all the members of the department, especially the youngest.
Importance of his overall work in the field of Mechanics doesn't remain only at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. His work in the Yugoslav Society for Mechanics, in organization of scientific congresses and symposiums, in publishing international scientific journal Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Facta Universitatis, was permanent and important not only in scientific sense but in any other.
 His premature tragic death left deep incompensable emptiness in science and education in Serbia.

Prof.  Z. Boričić, Prof. V. Čović, Prof. K. (Stevanović) Hedrih
Translated by T. Nestorović