[Lifetime achievements of Bogomir B. Mrsulja. 1940-1944]

Bogomir Mrshulja was born on September 18th, 1940 in Lendava. He finished both elementary school and high school in Belgrade and subsequently graduated from the School of Medicine, University of Belgrade in 1965. As an undergraduate he was an assistant at the Biochemistry Department and the subject became his profession for life. The University of Belgrade awarded him a scholarship and in 1968 he defended his MSc thesis entitled Glycogen of the Central Nervous System--Methods of Separation, Fraction Isolation, Regional Distribution and Variations in Different Levels of Deprivation of Paradoxical Sleep. Soon after, in 1970, he defended his PhD thesis, as well: Brain Glycogen and Deprivation of Paradoxical Sleep--Biochemical and Pharmacological Aspects of Glycogenolysis. In the period 1973-1975 he spent 18 months in the capacity of a visiting scientist in the Laboratory for Neuropathology and Neuroanatomic Sciences of the National Institute of Health in Bethesda (USA), and again, twelve more months in the same institution (Laboratory for Neurochemistry) in the capacity of a special expert of this institution (1983-84) where he was the chief investigator of neurochemical sequelae of experimental cerebral ischemia. He started his university career as an assistant professor in 1965; he was elected associated professor in 1970, promoted adjunct professor in 1978, while in 1984 he received the full professorship of biochemistry at the School of Medicine, University of Belgrade. In 1970 he was elected research associate of the "Sinisha Stankovitsh" Institute of Biological Research. He was professor of neurochemistry and Head of Department of Neurosciences of the Center for Multidisciplinary Studies, University of Belgrade. He was the Head of the Institute of Biochemistry and Head, Department of Biochemistry and Specialized Courses in Clinical Biochemistry at the School of Medicine, University of Belgrade. Owing to his original hypothesis on mechanisms of the occurrence of ischemic cerebral edema and possible therapeutic approach, Bogomir Mrshulja was frequently invited to lecture in university centers of USA, Canada, Japan, Germany and former USSR. He also participated at over 50 international congresses and symposia worldwide. In the mid seventies, Bogomir Mrshulja started more intensive studies of pathophysiological events in the course of cerebral ischemia and already with his early papers intrigued the professional circles which was reflected in an exceptionally high number of his citations in international scientific and referential literature, including the textbooks. The research activities of Bogomir Mrshulja was impressively fruitful: he published 183 papers in extenso, out of which 42 in books of international publishers and 6 invited review articles. In all these papers he illustrated extensive knowledge, maturity, originality, critical attitude, high level of creativity and, finally, courage to oppose the conventional principles. It should be pointed out that in his works Bogomir Mrshulja tended to draw conclusions that stimulated both himself and his colleagues, researchers in the related fields, insisting on extensive evaluation and testing of hypotheses, which is easily illustrated by the number of citations of his papers. According to the Science Citation Index, by 1995 he was cited 1700 times in the world literature, and in the period 1995-2002 he was cited 250 more times. Besides, he set up and headed the Laboratory for pathological neurochemistry at the School of Medicine in Belgrade that was the cradle for many outstanding researchers and lecturers that now work at the Schools of Medicine in Belgrade, Nish and Kragujevac, Military Medical Academy, and other institutions countrywide. He insisted on indispensable link between laboratory and clinical work, and, at least in the field of neurosciences, he is one of the pioneers of this kind of dialogue. In the year in which he left us for good (1994) scientific contribution of Bogomir Mrshulja was recognized by his election for the corresponding fellow of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. In the same year, he also received the October Award of the City of Belgrade for research.