THE STELLAR JOURNEY OF MILUTIN MILANKOVIĆ
Authors:   Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Republic of Srpska, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Pecelj Milovan R. , Pecelj Milica ,   Geographical Institute “Jovan Cvijić” SASA, Belgrade, Serbia
Published: October 2024

Milutin Milanković was a brilliant thinker and a visionary with diverse talents, personifying the spirit of the Renaissance. Although his parents initially intended for him to study agronomy to improve the family estate in Dalj, his course changed when Professor Varićak at the Real Gymnasium in Osijek recognized his exceptional talent for mathematics. Inspired by this encouragement, Milanković enrolled at the Technical University of Vienna, where he earned his degree and gained recognition as a skilled engineer, renowned for designing ceilings, bridges, and buildings. During his studies, he also attracted the attention of Czech mathematician Emanuel Czuber. Even though he was offered a teaching position at the Technical University of Vienna, Milanković decided to leave the field of engineering, feeling it did not align with his greater ambitions. He soon responded to an invitation from prominent Serbian scientists Jovan Cvijić, Bogdan Gavrilović, and Mika Petrović Alas, joining the University of Belgrade as a professor. There, in a humble office equipped with pencil, digitron and paper, he finalized his monumental work, Canon of Insolation. Doing so, the world may have lost an agronomist and engineer, but it gained a groundbreaking scientist. Milanković transformed the study of climate by developing the astronomical theory of climate. He became the founder of cosmic climatology, calculating the temperature conditions of various planets throughout the solar system. In particular, he was the first to precisely quantify the effect of Earth’s long-term orbital cycles on climate variations, solving the mystery of the ice ages. Over that time, the issue of climate change in the past and the mystery of the ice ages were important scientific questions that attracted Milanković’s attention. A significant role in developing the idea of climate was played by Serbian climatologist Pavle Vujević, who introduced him to the works of renowned meteorologists and climatologists Julius von Hann and Wilhelm von Trabert. Milanković’s theory of insolation was soon recognized and strongly supported by Vladimir Köppen and Alfred Wegener, with major contributions to its affirmation made by Wolfgang Sürgel, Bartel Eberl, and later by Hays III, and André Berger. Milanković’s scientific contributions spanned his 79-year life, during which he consistently pushed the boundaries of his field. It took three decades to withstand the challenges to his theory. Those who did not understand him claimed that it was merely a scientific trick for publicity. Milanković waited more than half a century for the Canon of Insolation to be confirmed by the American expedition of James Hays, John Imbrie, and Nicholas Shackleton, who decoded paleoclimatic history as part of the CLIMAP research project in 1976, definitively proving Milanković’s insolation cycles. The modern calendar and the migration of the poles are among Milanković’s great achievements, though they remain overshadowed by the Canon of Insolation. The new authorities after the Second World War regarded him as a political enemy. They criticized him for his lack of knowledge about Marxism and Leninism, ignoring the fact that he was a deeply religious man with strong spiritual beliefs. What ultimately spared him was his age, as he was already in his seventies. A man of extensive education, he retained his elegance and dignity throughout his life, embodying the gentlemanly manners and qualities characteristic of the Viennese Biedermeier period.