Fran Bošnjaković (1902–1993) was a noted

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

n thermodynamicist considered to be one of the pioneers in the development of technical thermodynamics. Bošnjaković was born 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, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

, where he was initially educated. He continued his education at the

Technische Hochschule A ''Technische Hochschule'' (, plural: ''Technische Hochschulen'', abbreviated ''TH'') is a type of university focusing on engineering sciences in Germany. Previously, it also existed in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands (), and Finland (, ) ...

(Technical University) in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. He obtained there a doctoral degree in engineering in 1928, and in 1931 he became a Privatdozent (university teacher) at the same Technical University. When Hitler came into power, his further career in Germany was blocked, and he accepted in 1934 the position of an associate professor at the

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade () is a public university, public research university in Belgrade, Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it me ...

. He moved back to the

University of Zagreb The University of Zagreb (, ) is a public university, public research university in Zagreb, Croatia. It is the largest Croatian university and one of the oldest continuously operating universities in Europe. The University of Zagreb and the Unive ...

as full professor in 1936. After 1945, during the Yugoslav communist regime, he was degraded to two years of forced labor. In 1951, he became rector of the

, then part of Yugoslavia. However, continuing political disagreement with the communist régime in Yugoslavia made him decide to accept one of the research offers in post-war Germany. In 1953, he started lecturing at the

(Technical University) in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( ; from Low German , local dialect: ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

in Germany, becoming the head of the Department for

thermodynamics Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, Work (thermodynamics), work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed b ...

and director of the ''Thermotechnical institute''. In 1961, he founded the ''Institute of Thermodynamics for Aeronautics and Astronautics'' at the university of

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

, Germany, which he led until his retirement in 1968. There he established groups for ''Irreversible Thermodynamics'', ''Mass Transfer and

Thermokinetics Thermokinetics deals with the study of thermal decomposition kinetics. See also * Thermogravimetry *Differential thermal analysis *Differential scanning calorimetry Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is a thermoanalytical technique in whic ...

'', ''

Radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'' consisting of photons, such as radio waves, microwaves, infr ...

and Plasma'', and ''Heat Transfer''. After retirement, he spent several years as visiting professor at leading American universities. His research covered a very wide area: problems of

exergy Exergy, often referred to as "available energy" or "useful work potential", is a fundamental concept in the field of thermodynamics and engineering. It plays a crucial role in understanding and quantifying the quality of energy within a system and ...

evaporation Evaporation is a type of vaporization that occurs on the Interface (chemistry), surface of a liquid as it changes into the gas phase. A high concentration of the evaporating substance in the surrounding gas significantly slows down evapora ...

, binary and multi-component systems,

heat In thermodynamics, heat is energy in transfer between a thermodynamic system and its surroundings by such mechanisms as thermal conduction, electromagnetic radiation, and friction, which are microscopic in nature, involving sub-atomic, ato ...

and

mass transfer Mass transfer is the net movement of mass from one location (usually meaning stream, phase, fraction, or component) to another. Mass transfer occurs in many processes, such as absorption, evaporation, drying, precipitation, membrane filtra ...

combustion Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combustion ...

and

gasification Gasification is a process that converts biomass- or fossil fuel-based carbonaceous materials into gases, including as the largest fractions: nitrogen (N2), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), and carbon dioxide (). This is achieved by reacting ...

, high temperature plasma, solar collectors and irreversibility of energy conversion in

thermodynamic process Classical thermodynamics considers three main kinds of thermodynamic processes: (1) changes in a system, (2) cycles in a system, and (3) flow processes. (1) A Thermodynamic process is a process in which the thermodynamic state of a system is c ...

es. With M. Jakob he laid down principles of nucleate bubble growth in

superheated liquid In thermodynamics, superheating (sometimes referred to as boiling retardation, or boiling delay) is the phenomenon in which a liquid is heated to a temperature higher than its boiling point, without boiling. This is a so-called ''metastable state ...

. His

textbook A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions, but also of learners ( ...

''Technische Thermodynamik'', published in 1935 in Dresden, had seven improved and extended editions in Germany, and was translated into English (''Technical Thermodynamics'') and

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

(''Tehnicheskaya termodinamika''). As one of world's leading experts in thermodynamics, professor Bošnjaković was a member of Academies in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

and

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

, Braunschweig Society of Sciences and since 1991, a corresponding member of the

Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (; , HAZU) is the national academy of Croatia. HAZU was founded under the patronage of the Croatian bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer under the name Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts (, JAZU) since its ...

in Zagreb. He received a '' Grashof Commemorative Medal'' of the

Verein Deutscher Ingenieure Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI) (English: Association of German Engineers) is an organization of about 135,000 engineers and natural scientists. More than 12,000 honorary experts process the latest technical findings each year to promote the te ...

as well as Gold Medals of the Associazione Thermotechnica Italiana, and the Institut Français des combustibles et de l'énergie.

References

External links

History of the Institute of Thermodynamics for Aeronautics and Astronautics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bosnjakovic, Fran 1902 births 1993 deaths Croatian physicists Academic staff of the University of Belgrade TU Dresden alumni Academic staff of the University of Zagreb Rectors of the University of Zagreb Engineers from Zagreb Plasma physicists Yugoslav engineers Yugoslav emigrants to Germany