Константин Коста Алковић : (1836-1909)

Abstract

"Kosta Alković was an honorary member of the Academy. His professional career was mainly within the Belgrade College as a professor. At the beginning of his career he gave up the idea of the original approach towards science for the benefit of being "a good professor of physics" which earned him election as a chief of the Department of physics. He was an excellent professor and pedagogue. His well-attended lectures were very clear and easy to understand. He loved his students and proved it by bequeathing his property to the University Student's Fund. He was very friendly with younger colleagues who were beginning their duties at the Belgrade College. His spirit of goodwill and loyalty made the atmosphere at the College very pleasant one. We, his former students and later on his colleagues, will always keep Mr. Kosta Alković in a pleasant memory." This was said by the academician J. M. Žujović, honorary member of the Serbian Royal Academy at its Annual Assembly meeting, held on February 22, 1910. Kosta Alković was born in 1836, in Belgrade, where he died in 1909. He was a student at the Lycaeum, at Department of natural sciences, and from the Lycaeum correspondence we found out that in 1855 he was awarded silver medal for "paper written about atmosphere". He studied at the Polytechnic College in Vienna with a preference to the subjects of mathematics, physics, mechanical engineering and practical geometry as his majors. Upon completion of his studies in 1859, he returned from Vienna to Belgrade, and took the post of assistant lecturer, then a professor of physics at the Belgrade College. He was a professor of physics and mechanical engineering at the Lycaeum and the Belgrade College; Dean of Technical Department of the Belgrade College (1868); the Rector of Belgrade College (1885-86); full member of the Serbian Learned Society; honorary member of the Serbian Royal Academy; Minister of civil engineering (1891-93). His professional and pedagogical work, beside the Belgrade College, was with a number of other educational institutions. At the end of the last century the interest in astronomy became more intense, and professor Alković chose two of his students and fully supported them in their interest for astronomy. Thanks to the one of them, the Belgrade College got its Observatory for Astronomy and Meteorology. He was very active in many examination boards (professorial examination, state examination, final exams at gymnasium). He served on a number of expert and professional teams, established by the Government of Serbia with the task of elaborating studies and projects for solving the civil engineering problems. Special emphasis should be given to his engagement in commissions set up to explore and improve railroad y constructions and printing equipment. According to the Article 38 of the Peace Treaty, the rights and duties of Serbia concerning the construction of railroads were defined. According to Vienna Railroad Convention from 1880, obligations of Serbia to finish construction of railroad from Belgrade to Niš were defined, and Mr. Alković was one of the three engineers on whose knowledge the Government of Serbia deeply relied. He was founder of the Department of physics at the Belgrade College. His contribution in teaching physics at the Belgrade College dećserves the highest compliments.