VETERINARSKI ARHIV 69 (2), 61-62, 1999

ISSN 1331-8055
Published in Croatia






Prof. Dr. Josip Zivkovic
(1938-1999)



We were saddened and shocked to hear of the untimely death on 22 February 1999 of our highly esteemed professor, colleague and long-standing Head of the Department of Foodstuffs, Hygiene and Technology at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Professor Josip Zivkovic, Ph.D.

Professor Zivkovic was a scientist of international standing, whose entire working life was a very active one, utterly devoted to his students, his colleagues and to others in his mother Institute, his Faculty and indeed in his profession. His contribution to the field of animal foodstuffs hygiene and technology was enormous. He was highly regarded as a veterinarian among physicians, agricultural experts, agronomists and food technologists, as well as among all those who are in any way involved the area of control, production and processing of foodstuffs. His contribution to fundamental sciences was also considerable.

Born on 7 February 1938 in the town of Knin, Croatia, Josip Zivkovic acquired his veterinary know-how and titles at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb. He first came to the Faculty in 1961, acquired his Master's Degree in 1965 and his Ph.D. in 1987. By 1972 he had completed his habilitation and had acquired the title of Senior Lecturer. In 1977 he was elected Assistant Professor, becoming a Full Professor in 1981. Professor Zivkovic had been the Head of the Department of Foodstuffs, Hygiene and Technology for almost eighteen years.

Throughout the many years of his scientific, teaching and professional work he had also lectured as a guest professor at a number of faculties, he was the founder and president of the Croatian Association of Veterinary Food Hygienists, and a member of the World Association of Veterinary Food Hygienists (WAVFH). He was also president of the "EKO-Food" programme and of the Technical Board for Meat and Meat Products within the Croatian Chamber of Economy ("Croatian quality" and "Genuine Croatian"), as well as being the president of the State Commission for bio-residues and a member of the Scientific Council for Veterinary Medicine at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the Republic of Croatia (1991). He also held the presidency of the Technical Board for Standardization of Meat Quality at the State Institute for Standardization and Measuring. In parallel with all those obligations, Professor Zivkovic was very active in veterinary associations, he was the mentor for graduated veterinarians, and gave many public lectures in all areas of veterinary public health, and production of and trade in foodstuffs. He had been the editor-in-chief of the journal "Meat Technology" for many years, and a member of the editorial board of the journal "Dairy Industry" published by the Croatian Association of Dairy Co-operatives.

He was also a member of the Croatian Academy of Medicinal Sciences (AMZH), and his years of dedicated work earned him numerous commendations, decorations and awards.

Professor Zivkovic was the author of several textbooks and manuals, and he also had published over 300 original scientific and professional papers in journals and proceedings of papers of many scientific and professional congresses, symposia and conferences both at home and abroad. Here, we would like to mention just a few of his sojourns: including institutes in other countries, and his participation in world congresses of Veterinary Food Hygienists in Roskild, Denmark; Montreal, Canada; Stockholm and Uppsala, Sweden; Berlin, Germany; The Hague, Holland, and others.

He was the head of several scientific projects run by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of Croatia, the leader of post-graduate studies, and a mentor to candidates in their production of Master's theses and Dissertations at the faculties of Veterinary medicine, Human medicine and Agronomy, University of Zagreb.

As a teacher, and the Head of the Department and Leader of post-graduate studies, Professor Zivkovic endeavoured to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors. His principles on matters involving hygiene and technology of foodstuffs, as a veterinary scientific and professional discipline, were extremely exacting. Just as with his predecessors, such an approach was not always met with understanding, particularly in the interdisciplinary segment of the areas in which he was engaged.

Just as significant was his contribution to the development and improvement of the legal regulations concerned with veterinary and sanitary inspection, and veterinary public health as a part of the veterinary profession in the service of health protection of people.

His contribution to Veterinary Medicine, and to the bio-medical and bio-technical sciences, which are so closely intertwined, earned him a place alongside the most deserving of his peers.

With the passing of Professor Zivkovic, Croatian science has lost one of its leading experts in the field of hygiene and technology of foodstuffs, whose interest lay in the problems of food in relation to current world trends.

We shall remember him as a teacher of generations of veterinary surgeons, as a man who made an enormous scientific and professional contribution to veterinary medicine, and as a man of inexhaustible energy and ceaseless, untiring activity.

Dedicated to his eternal memory, with gratitude.

Mirza Hadziosmanovic

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