Aleksandar Popović Sandor, born Aleksandar Popović, (10 December (

Old Style Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, they refer to the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries betwe ...

) 1847, in Becej – 1877) was the father of Serbian

geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

. He first described the geology and natural wonders of Mount Fruška and what became in 1960 the Fruska Gora National Park. He did the first scientific investigation of the mineral springs at

Vrnjačka Banja Vrnjačka Banja ( sr-cyr, Врњачка Бања) is a town and municipality located in the Raška District of central Serbia. The population of the town is 9,252 inhabitants, while the population of the municipality is 25,065 inhabitants (2022 ce ...

. The town of Becej was in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

at the time, and when he was less than a year old his family lost everything in the turmoil of the abortive

revolution of 1848 The revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the springtime of the peoples or the springtime of nations, were a series of revolutions throughout Europe over the course of more than one year, from 1848 to 1849. It remains the most widespre ...

. He father, who fought in the

revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

, died in 1856, a broken man. His mother believed strongly in education and scrimped enough to keep him, and his two brothers, in school. Aleksandar Popović tutored other students and won scholarships to complete his basic education in Pest. His older brother Stephan gained preferment with the Serbian Prince Alexander Karađorđević who was living in Pest at the time, and thus was able to support the family, allowing Aleksandar Popović to attend the

University of Budapest A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

where he studied geology under Professor József Szabó. It was at this time that Aleksandar Popović began to use the second last name of "Sandor". Under Szabó, Aleksandar Popović undertook a number of survey field trips, notably to the Mount Fruška region. On one of these he discovered

trachyte Trachyte () is an extrusive igneous rock composed mostly of alkali feldspar. It is usually light-colored and aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained), with minor amounts of mafic minerals, and is formed by the rapid cooling of lava (or shallow intrus ...

a volcanic rock easy to mine as a building stone. He reported his finding and was supported by Professor Szabó; however, by the time that a delegation from the Hungarian Geological Society went to look at the find, it had all been hauled away by local builders. It was only subsequently that Aleksandar Popović was vindicated when he discovered a second locale of trachyte in the Mount Fruška area. By the time Aleksandar Popović graduated, he was a member of the Hungarian Geological Society and the Geological Society of Vienna. He accepted a position teaching at the high school in

Novi Sad Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; #Name, see below for other names) is the List of cities in Serbia, second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pannoni ...

, although he was over-educated for the position, it allowed him to be closer to the mountains and gave him spare time for his researches. He taught natural science, mathematics, and Hungarian, as well as such other science classes as were temporarily lacking faculty. He was very interested in combating illiteracy, and published the first grammar-school textbooks in Serbian. He worked on translations of German and English works into Serbian, but was unfortunately taken by

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

before reaching his thirtieth birthday. When Professor Szabó was informed of Aleksandar Popović's death, he exclaimed, with tears in his eyes, ''Friend, I just cannot judge what a loss for Science is Sandor's death.''.''Пријатељу, само ја могу да оценим, шта је изгубила нау- ка смрћу Шандоровом.''

Notes

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Popovic Sandor, Aleksandar 1847 births 1877 deaths Petrologists Geologists from Austria-Hungary 19th-century geologists Serbian geologists

See also

Notes

Sources