Đuro Pilar (April 22, 1846 in

Brod na Savi Slavonski Brod (), commonly shortened to simply Brod, is a city in eastern Croatia, near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Being one of the principal cities in the historical regions of Slavonia and Posavina, Slavonski Brod was the 7th large ...

– May 19, 1893 in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

) was a Croatian geologist, palaeontologist, and professor and rector at the

University of Zagreb The University of Zagreb ( hr, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, ; la, Universitas Studiorum Zagrabiensis) is the largest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of ...

Biography

Pilar had, with his mother (Tereza Čulić of

Derventa Derventa ( sr-cyrl, Дервента) is a city located in Republika Srpska, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in the Posavina region, northwest of the city of Doboj. As of 2013, the town has a total of 11,631 inhabitants, whil ...

), a strong family relationship to Bosnia. His formal training was very extensive. The first training he received was at Zagreb and

Osijek Osijek () is the fourth-largest city in Croatia, with a population of 96,848 in 2021. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja ...

. Later, he studied at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (from 1865, Natural Sciences), the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

(from 1869), and the École de Chimie (1869, chemistry) in Paris. He received his Ph.D. in 1868 and acquired a title of

docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de conf ...

. Since 1875 he worked as a regular professor at the

Faculty of Philosophy A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...

(up until 1928 called ''Mudroslovni fakultet''). He was the director of the Mineralogical-geological Department of the People's Museum in Zagreb. He became a full member of the

Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Croatica, hr, Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, abbrev. HAZU) is the national academy of Croatia. HAZU was founded under patronage of the Croatian bishop Jo ...

in 1875. Professor Pilar was the first rector of the University of Zagreb with background in

natural science Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

, and also the first Croat to be the professor at the Department for Mathematics. He served as a dean in two mandates, as a rector of the university in the academic year 1884/1885, and as a prorector the following year. In 1874 he founded with his associates Croatian Alpinist Association, and in 1885 Croatian Association for Natural Science. As a versatile geologist, Pilar studied waters and set the foundations of

karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

hydrology. In his research he investigated earthquakes, speleological objects, and coal findings. As a skilled amateur chess player, he was one of the organizers of the Zagreb chess events, being a winner of the first chess tournament held in Zagreb in 1886. A street in Zagreb and an elementary school in

Slavonski Brod Slavonski Brod (), commonly shortened to simply Brod, is a city in eastern Croatia, near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Being one of the principal cities in the historical regions of Slavonia and Posavina, Slavonski Brod was the 7th large ...

are named after him.

Publications

* ''Osnovi abisodinamike'' (1880) * ''Geološka opažanja u zapadnoj Bosni. Istraživanja god. 1879.'' (''

Rad JAZU ''Rad'' ( Croatian for ''proceedings'', ''work'') is an academic journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals se ...

'', 16. book; 1882) * ''Flora fossilis Susedana'' (1883)

References

Pilar's biography
at the University of Zagreb website
Pilars' biography
at the Faculty of Science website {{DEFAULTSORT:Pilar, Djuro 1846 births 1893 deaths People from Slavonski Brod Rectors of the University of Zagreb Croatian geologists Members of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Representatives in the Croatian Parliament (1848–1918) Burials at Mirogoj Cemetery Croatian paleontologists