In Memoriam VLADISAV STEFANOVIĆ (1943 – 2015) AN ACADEMICIAN, DOCTOR, SCIENTIST, VISIONARY AND FRIEND

Abstract

Academician V. Stefanović unexpectedly passed away in October of the last year, leaving his family and friends. However, his work, vision and friendship remain with us and show us the direction our work should take.

I met Stefanovic in the early 80’s during one of my visits to Nis, at a meeting he organized together with professor Spira Strahinjic. Professor Spira Strahinjic had built a strong nephrology center in Nis which became well-known in the Balkans and the world. Academician Stefanović, who had been educated in France and became an excellent doctor and researcher, with friends among world-renowned nephrologists, was a key figure in the realization of ideas on scientific development of the Nephrology Clinic of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Nis. He has published a great number of papers and he is one of the most productive medical scientists in Serbia, the Balkans, as well as in Europe. He has pointed to the need of expert scientific development based on research results and he fought for quality of the published papers.

We had the same ideas related to the need for research in nephrology, especially concerning Balkan endemic nephropathy  (BEN) and our cooperation, which started in the 80’s, lasted until his unexpected death in late 2015. Together with our associates, including the participation of our colleagues from Bulgarian and Macedonian Academy of Sciences we have published several papers about BEN. Some studies and ideas about the research of BEN were among the first in scientific community.