According to info got by StampNews.com Serbian Post has issued a set of stamps dedicated to Serbian scientists. These stamps depict such famous persons as Petar Stevanović and Josif Pančić. The issue has been already released and is now available for purchasing.
Petar Stevanović, professor of geology at the University of Belgrade, member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, president of the Serbian Geological Society, and scientist with high international reputation, is the last student of the prominent Serbian geologist Jovan Žujović.
In the field of Neogene stratigraphy of Pannonian Basen, he has introduced the two new substages (time-intervals), the Portaferrian (the Upper Pontian) and the Serbian (the Upper Pannonian) and identified forty taxa, new for science (bivalve and gastropod species and subspecies). During his long-lasting geological field research, he discovered new fossiliferous localities of different geological age in the Belgrade area, Kolubara Basin, Kostolac, Krupanj, Koceljeva, Loznica and Timočka krajina.
He was appointed as a member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts, the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the Academy of Sciences of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the honorary member of the Hungarian Geological Society and the Paleontological Society of the German Federal Republic. His successful and fruitful work has been awarded by several orders and rewards (Order of Labor with the Golden Wreath, two October Prizes of City of Belgrade, “Seventh July Prize”).
Josif Pančić was a Serbian botanist, doctor, a famous lecturer at the Great School in Belgrade and the first president of the Serbian Royal Academy. He extensively documented the flora of Serbia, and is credited with having classified many species of plants which were unknown to the botanical community at that time. Pančić is credited for discovering the Serbian Spruce.
He was acquainted with the Serbian linguist Vuk Stefanović Karadžić in Vienna who wrote him a letter of recommendation to the Serbian authorities in order to fulfill his wish to settle in the Principality of Serbia and to study its nature. In May 1846 he arrived in Serbia, and worked as a physician in rural Serbia. In 1853, he moved from Kragujevac to Belgrade when he was appointed professor of the Belgrade Lyceum (Royal Serbian Lyceum). In 1853, he introduced Mineralogy with geology at the Lyceum.
He extensively documented the flora of Serbia, and is credited with having classified many species of plants which were unknown to the botanical community at that time. His most significant discovery was the Serbian Spruce, which he had discovered near Zaovine on the Tara Mountain in 1875. He is said to have “fell in love” with Kopaonik, which he visited 16 times between 1851 and 1886.
Pančić was named the first president of the Serbian Royal Academy formed on April 5, 1887. He requested opening of the Botanical garden “Jevremovac” in Belgrade.