dc.description.abstract | Dimitrije Nešić is rightly regarded as one of the outstanding persons in
Serbian educational practice, culture and science. Along with Josif Pančić
and Djura Daničić he belongs to the most prominent Serbs who have marked
the spiritual rise and progress of Serbia in the second half of XIX century.
For a number of years he was Rector of the Belgrade College, full member
of the Serbian Learned Society, full member of the Serbian Royal Academy
(its president from 1892 to 1895), corresponding member and president of
State Council.
He was born on October 8 (20) 1836, in Belgrade, where he completed
his elementary and six-grade secondary school. In 1853 he enrolled
Department for natural sciences and technical sciences at Lycaeum, and in
1855 he got state scholarship and continued his studies at the Technical
College in Vienna (1855-1858). Then, he proceed to the Polytechnical School
at Karlsruhe.
Following the completion of his studies in 1862, Dimitrije Nešić
returned to Belgrade where he was elected a professor of mathematics at the
Lycaeum, which became the Belgrade College the next year. He was a
professor at the Belgrade College until his retirement 1894.
As he was educated in Belgrade and other progressive scientific and
technical centers of Europe of that time, with fresh and broad intellectual
and far-reaching concepts and views of the situation in natural sciences,
Dimitrije Nešić knew and was able to evaluate and accept the new ideas. His
great talent and enormous energy was aimed towards development of
education in general, as well as to development of technical culture. He laid
the foundations of contemporary university teaching of mathematics in
Serbia. He was the author of the first textbooks in higher mathematics in
Serbian language (three textbooks) and according to M. Milankovi6 " he
considered it his primary task" .
Being a pedagogue did not stop of involving himself in scientific work.
He published eleven works in the Gazette of the Serbian Learned Society
and the Voice of the Serbian Royal Academy, mainly referring to
mathematical analysis. He was our first mathematician that considered
complexity of boundary processes; getting rid of formality of its application.
At the 70-es of the last century, he was appointed a member of state
commission, the task of which was to study possibility of introducing metric
measures in the Principality of Serbia. He was the author of the draft of Law
on Metric Measures, which came into force in 1873, 17 months before the
Convention du Metre was signed in Paris. His book "Metric Measures" was
published in 1874. Dimitrije Nei was decorated with the Order of St. Sava
of first and second class and the Order of White Eagles of fourth class. He
was a person of good character, noble and open-hearted, good-
-manners, mild temper and highly honourable person. He died on April 26,
1904, in Belgrade. | sr |