ANTON DIMITRIJA BILIMOVIČ

(1879 - 1970)

Anton Bilimovič was born on July 20, 1879 in Zhitomir, Ukraine. He finished elementary school in Vladimir-on-Klyazmi. In 1896 he finished training at Kiev cadet corps. He passed exams in Latin and Greek language at Nikolayevsky engineering school in Petrograd, then transferred to the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at the Kiev University, where he graduated in 1903, obtaining the Golden medal.

He defended his M. A. thesis, entitled Equations of motion for conservative systems and its application at the Kiev University in 1903.

From 1905 to 1907 he specialized in Paris and Gottingen.

Anton Bilimovič defended his doctoral dissertation, entitled Contact motion of rigid body, first part: motion with one degree of freedom in Odessa, in 1907.

He worked in Russia from November 25, 1903 when he was appointed as an assistant of the Department for Mechanics, Kiev University, until January 1920, when he left Russia. In 1907 he became associate professor of the Kiev University, and in 1915 full professor for the subject mechanics, at the Novorossisky University in Odessa. At the same University he held the position of Rector for two mandates.

Anton Bilimovič worked in Serbia from April 20, 1920, to February 15, 1955 when he was retired. On April 20, 1920 he was elected professor under contract at the Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade University. On February 18, 1925 he was elected a corresponding member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences. On November 3,1926 professor Bilimovič was elected full professor of the Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade University for the subjects rational mechanics and applied mathematics. On February 17,1936 he was elected full member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences, in which he held the position of Secretary General of the Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, from 1939 to 1940. Besides rational mathematics, he also taught higher, mathematics for the students of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Belgrade. Anton Bilimovič was retired on February 15, 1955.

Professor Bilimovič died on September 17, 1970, at the age of 91.

Scientific work of professor Bilimovič, encompassing fifty-years of work at the Belgrade University, is enormous one and is of a paramount value for domestic and world scientific circles. He published works in the most acknowledge world journals, journals of many Academies of sciences and arts, and at the Belgrade University Journal that he set up, and gave all of his efforts to acquire world recognition. Professor Bilimovič published 138 scientific works, 22 scientific papers, 35 book and text-books, many of them had few editions, 9 texts for popular use, 15 reviews and 15 reports.

The main characteristic of his scientific opus is that he did not address only the problems of one narrow scientific field. In his papers Anton Bilimovič studied the problems of theory of curves and surface, rational mechanics, celestial mechanics and geophysics, non analytical functions and vector calculus. Especially in rational mechanics he was occupied by phenomenological principles, motion of the rigid body around fixed point, dynamics of elastic bodies and equations of motion.

Works of Anton Bilimovič were cited by world scientists and served as an inspiration for further study to the Serbian scientists. His contribution to the Serbian and world science is a great one, but his influence for development of mechanics at the Belgrade University is even greater, and that positive influence spread all over younger universities in Serbia, as well as his permanent influence on young generations that were educated at departments of mechanics and mathematics between 1920 and 1950. Even today, at the beginning of the 21 century, his influence on scientific thought of mechanists in Serbia is still present.

For his contribution to the education of young generations in Serbia, many of his students were successful university professors, academician Bilimovič was decorated with the Labour Medal of the First Class, in 1955.

Anton Bilimovič was one of the founders of the Department of technical sciences of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He was also a founder of the Yugoslav Society for Mechanics.

Professor Bilimovič deserves recognition for dissemination of the Russian school of mechanics in Serbia. He was one of the founders of the Belgrade school of mechanics. His first doctorate students at the Belgrade University were Vječeslav Žardecki, Demčenko, Konstantin Voronjec and Tatomir Anđelić. Many of the works of his students that were published in journals in Serbia, Yugoslavia and at well known world journals, gave considerable contribution to development of fundamental problems of contemporary analytical mechanics.

In 1926 Professor Bilimovič initiated and founded the Club of Mathematicians of the Belgrade Univeristy, and was its director. In 1932 professor Bilimovč founded the journal Publications de l'Institut mathematique de l'Academie Serbe des Sciences.

Thanks to the efforts of professor Bilimovič, Institute for Mathematics of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts was founded in 1946. Due to his engagement the first post-war journal Publications de l'lnstitute mathematique de l'Academie Serbe des Sciences, was published in 1949.

Together with the like-minded persons Milutin Milanković, Jakov Hlitčijev, Konstantin Voronjec and Tatomir Anđelić he founded study-group for mechanics. On the suggestion of professor Hlitčijev the same group was founded at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics of the Belgrade University, in 1952. The first professors were above mentioned founders, and its first Head of the group, until his retirement, was professor Bilimovič.

His bibliography is found here.

Author: Đukić, Đorđe