ht .I.
Hwl Mo\.sTransfer.
Vol.30.No. 1,~.I,1987
Pcrgamon
Journals
Ltd.Printcd
m GreatBritain.

Fran BoSnjakoviCon the occasion of his 85th birthday
ON JANUARY
12, 1987, Professor Fran BoSnjakoviC
celebrates his 85th birthday with his wife Zlata andtwo sons. In good health and with his mental powers
unimpaired, he still follows new developments as they
are published in the literature or reported in scientificmeetings. In fact, he maintains
a constructiveandcritical overview of those developments
to which hehimself contributed in the area of thermodynamics
byhis research and his teaching.
He was born in Zagreb which, at that time,
belonged to the Austro-Hungarian
Monarchy.
He
studied mechanicalengineering
at the Institute ofTechnology in Dresden, Germany, where he received
his doctor’s degree in 1928 and his venia legendi (asdocent) in 1931. Subsequently,
he was involved inteaching and research as professor of engineering at theUniversities of Belgrade and Zagreb, in Yugoslavia.
In 19.53, he succeeded Ernst Schmidt as professor anddirector of the Institute for Applied Thermodynamics
in Braunschweig,
Germany. In 1961, he accepted theChair for Thermodynamicsof Air and Space Propulsion at the University of Stuttgart, retiring fromthis position as emeritus in 1968. He still lives inStuttgart but visits his native Yugoslavia frequently.
As one of his important contributions,
he developed
the graphic presentationof thermodynamic
and heatand mass transfer processes, continuing the work of
his teachers R. Mollier and F. Merkel. Thus, he provided a tool for engineers which greatly facilitated thetask of analyzing processes of two-phase mixtures inabsorption refrigeration,
heat exchange, combustion,gasification,other chemical
reactions,high temperature plasma, and solar collection. The second
volume of his widely used book Technische Theymodynamik is really a monograph,collecting andextending his studies published in numerous papers.
The book has been translated into a number of languages and has earned him invitations to lecture invarious countries.
His ideas on bubble growth innucleate boiling provided
the foundationof ourunderstandingof this process and gained significancein the development of nuclear reactors.
His paper “Fight Against Irreversibilities”
madeengineers aware of the importanceof basing theiranalysis of thermal processes on the second law ofthermodynamics.
This broughtin the concept ofexergy, which continues to find increasing application.
Thus, his work has strongly influenced our present
view of thermodynamics.
His teaching has inspired
many students who will carry on the developmentof
his ideas into the future. For his accomplishments,
hewas awarded honorary doctorates by the Universities
of Belgrade and Aachen and he received the Grassmann medal of the Verein Deutscher-Ingenieure,and gold medals from the Associatione
Thermotechnica Italiana, Padova, and the Institut Francais
des Combustibles
et de l’Energie,
Paris, among
numerous other honors.
His character and world view were shaped during
the early years of this century making him a moderate
and wise man, modest in spite of his gifts andaccomplishments.
This earned him many friends andI am proud to count myself as one of them. I want tocongratulate him-also
in the name of the editors andscientific advisors of the Internutional Journal of’Heutand Mass TransJi?r-for
his scientific and educational
achievements
and to wish him health, joy, and satisfaction for his remaining years, spent in the circle of
his loving wife and his family.
E.R.G.
ECKERT