Krista Kostial-Šimonović (19 December 1923 – 29 April 2018) was a Croatian physician and academic who researched the effects of human exposure to

heavy metals upright=1.2, Crystals of osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">lead.html" ;"title="osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead Heavy metals are generally defined as ...

and

toxicity Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a subst ...

. She was elected as an associate 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 1981 and became a full member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, when the country gained its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. In 1996, she was honored with the

Order of Danica Hrvatska The Order of Danica Hrvatska ( hr, Red Danice hrvatske; lit. "Order of the Croatian Morning Star") is the fourteenth most important medal given by the Republic of Croatia. The order was founded on 1 April 1995. The medal is awarded for different p ...

in recognition of her scientific work.

Early life

Krista Kostial was born on 19 December 1923 in

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 ...

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...

to Ivan and Dubravka Kostial. She entered the Medical Faculty

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 ...

in 1943, graduating with a

Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin language, Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a profes ...

degree in 1949. Between 1949 and 1951, she studied occupational medicine at the Andrija Štampar Institute of Public Health.

Career

Kostial began working in the medical faculty at Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health as an assistant in 1950, while she continued her graduate studies. Taking courses in the Department of Physiology at the University of Zagreb in 1951 and 1952, she received a

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

(WHO) Scholarship to work as a research assistant at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. Completing her research in 1953, Kostial returned to the University of Zagreb and earned her Doctorate of Medical Sciences degree in 1955 and her

Habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

in Physiology the following year. Upon completion of her habilitation, Kostial was appointed as a senior scientific associate and the head of the Department of Toxicology and Department of Biophysics at the Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health in 1956, serving as a dual department head through 1964. Simultaneously she taught immunobiology and physiology in the Department of Natural Sciences at the University of Zagreb and between 1961 and 1962, returned to England studying on an

International Atomic Energy Agency The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was established in 1957 ...

scholarship at the Radiobiological Research Unit of the Medical Research Council in

Harwell Harwell may refer to: People * Harwell (surname) * Harwell Hamilton Harris (1903–1990), American architect Places * Harwell, Nottinghamshire, England, a hamlet *Harwell, Oxfordshire, England, a village **RAF Harwell, a World War II RAF airfield, ...

. In 1964, she became head of the Department of Physiology of Mineral Metabolism and was promoted to scientific advisor serving in that capacity through 1989. Kostial's research centered on

pharmacokinetics Pharmacokinetics (from Ancient Greek ''pharmakon'' "drug" and ''kinetikos'' "moving, putting in motion"; see chemical kinetics), sometimes abbreviated as PK, is a branch of pharmacology dedicated to determining the fate of substances administered ...

and the toxicity of heavy metals to humans. She was specifically interested in how microelements interacted with the body's metabolism and were effected by radiation. Her research was influential in adopting international recommendations of daily calcium intake, as well as the limits to the level of exposure to heavy metals in the environment for humans. Serving on numerous international projects, she lectured widely at conferences and published approximately 280 scientific papers and analyses in various journals and books. In 1981, she was made an associate member of the

. Elected as a full member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1991, she was given their Lifetime Achievement Award the following year. After her retirement, she continued to research and publish within her specialty, including such works as ''Metali u covjekovoj okolini i njihov utjecaj na zdravlje'' (Metals in Human Environment and Their Impact on Health, 1991–1994) and ''Metali: izlozenost, ucinci i antidoti'' (Metals: Exposure, Effects and Antidotes, 1996). In 1996, she was honored by President

Franjo Tuđman Franjo Tuđman (; 14 May 1922 – 10 December 1999), also written as Franjo Tudjman, was a Croatian politician and historian. Following the country's independence from Yugoslavia, he became the first president of Croatia and served as p ...

with the

in recognition of her scientific work.

Death and legacy

Kostial-Šimonović died on 29 April 2018 in Zagreb and was buried on 3 May 2018 in the

Mirogoj Cemetery The Mirogoj City Cemetery (, hr, Gradsko groblje Mirogoj), also known as Mirogoj Cemetery ( hr, Groblje Mirogoj), is a cemetery park that is considered to be among the more noteworthy landmarks in the city of Zagreb. The cemetery inters members o ...

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kostial-Simonovic, Krista 1923 births 2018 deaths People from Osijek Croatian women academics Physicians from Zagreb 20th-century Croatian scientists 21st-century Croatian scientists 20th-century women scientists 21st-century physicians 21st-century women scientists Croatian women physicians Yugoslav physicians People of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia Members of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts 20th-century women physicians 21st-century women physicians Burials at Mirogoj Cemetery