academician zoran j. maksimović

ACADEMICIAN ZORAN J. MAKSIMOVIĆ
There are numerous scientific disciplines in Serbia which have had a specific course
of development – as a rule, at their beginning such scientists appeared who not
only initiated the “start up” of new disciplines, but very quickly developed them
during their lifetime and working life. One of such disciplines has been
geochemistry, and one of such scientists – Academician Zoran J. Maksimović. In
more than half a century geochemistry in Serbia has matured into a discipline
which we can be proud of before the world, as it has long ago transcended local
borders. Its founder has gained an international renown.
Academician Zoran J. Maksimović was born in Belgrade, on March 18, 1923, by
father Jovan and mother Danica (née Panjević). He completed his secondary
education in the town of Čačak, graduating in 1941. This very year Serbia was
caught by World War II and his further education was interrupted. He began his
university studies in Belgrade in 1946, graduating from the Faculty of Natural
Sciences and Mathematics, University of Belgrade (B.Sc. in Mineralogy) in 1950. As
an excellent student, having the scholarship of the Serbian Academy of Sciences
(SAS), he became a research assistant at the Geological Institute of the Serbian
Academy of Sciеnces. That was the beginning of a brilliant scientific carrier,
announced two years before, in 1948, when Maksimović, as a student, published
the paper: “Comparative Geochemistry of Uranium and Thorium with the General
Characteristics of their Deposits in the Earth’s Crust”.
Owing to the scholarship of the British Council, Academician Maksimović spent a
certain period of time (1954–1956) at Cambridge (UK), where he worked on his
doctoral dissertation Geochemistry of alteration of ultrabasic rocks in Serbia. In
1957, he obtained his Ph.D. degree from the Faculty of Natural Sciences and
Mathematics in Belgrade. It should be pointed out that it was the first doctoral
thesis in the field of geochemistry not only in Serbia but in the then Yugoslavia,
too. In the same year, he began his academic career as an assistant professor of
geochemistry at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Belgrade; he
gradually passed through all teaching positions up to full professor of geochemistry
at the Faculty of Mining and Geology in Belgrade. He retired (by law) in 1988.
Academician Zoran Maksimović was the Chairman of the Department of Petrology
and Geochemistry at the Faculty of Mining and Geology. He contributed greatly to
the education of undergraduate and graduate students in geochemistry, and also
held postgraduate courses at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). He participated
as an invited lecturer in many national and international meetings, as well as at the
universities in the USA, Great Britain, Russia, Poland, Greece, Hungary and
Romania.
For his contributions to science, Professor Maksimović was elected to the Serbian
Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1974 as a corresponding member and in 1985 as
a full member. After the election as an honorary member of the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences in 2001, he presented his inaugural lecture: “Genesis of some
Mediterranean karstic bauxites and karstic nickel deposits”, in the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences in Budapest.
Scientific activities
Academician Maksimović spent the early years of his work at the Geological
Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences (1950–1957). During this time he
acquired considerable experience in field research, studying various geological
1
phenomena, especially in Western Serbia. In the years to come, he performed his
field research in other parts of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Slovenia and Macedonia, former Yugoslavia, as well as in Greece, France, Hungary,
Jamaica and Libya. On the other hand, he acquired significant laboratory
experience at the Geological Institute, and, especially during the work on his Ph.D.
thesis, at the Department of Mineralogy and Petrology, University of Cambridge
(UK). In 1958, he established the Geochemical Laboratory at the Department of
Mineralogy and Petrology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in
Belgrade, which after 1963 became a part of the Department of Mineralogy,
Crystallography, Petrology and Geochemistry at the Faculty of Mining and Geology
of the University of Belgrade.
The most important scientific activities of Academician Maksimović can be divided
into three groups: (a) geochemistry and mineralogy of ultramafic rocks, their
products of hydrothermal alteration and weathering, including the lateritic nickel
deposits; (b) geochemistry and mineralogy of karst-bauxites and karstic nickel
deposits, including karstic processes, and (c) environmental geochemistry including
some geomedical aspects. As a result of his very active work in these fields, he
published, alone or with coauthors, 326 scientific papers both in national and
international journals, including two monographic contributions.
Geochemistry and mineralogy of ultramafic rocks,
their alteration products and deposits
Since the early period of his work at the Geological Institute of SAS, Academician
Maksimović has paid great attention to ultramafic rocks, which are very widely
spread throughout Serbia. Besides geological relations, distribution and chemistry
of these rocks, he studied their weathering and hydrothermal alteration caused by
Tertiary magmatism. That has been particularly pointed out in his Ph.D. thesis,
which even nowadays represents a rich source of data and an example how to
study the alteration of other rocks. He found that the hydrothermal alteration of
peridotites is characterized by the formation of chromium-bearing clay minerals in
the alteration zones, including chromium-illite, chromium-kaolinite, chromiumdickite, chromium-tosudite, and chromium-halloysite.
Academician Maksimović discovered in the Balkan Peninsula relicts of two
weathering crusts on ultramafic rocks of different age: the Lower Cretaceous one,
which was mostly destroyed by Albian-Cenomanian transgression, giving rise to the
formation of reworked Ni-Fe ores; and the Tertiary one, preserved in some places
up to 40 to 60 m in thickness. Fifty years ago, in the Tertiary weathering crust of
these rocks, he discovered the first lateritic nickel deposit in the Balkan Peninsula,
in Kosovo and Metohija, near Priština. In the weathering profiles he found nickel
clay-like minerals from the kerolite-pimelite series, and studied their spatial
distribution and genesis. He paid attention to the age of formation of nickel
laterites, their mineralogical and chemical composition, including the behaviour of
trace elements in the weathering processes. On the basis of this research he
described different types of fossil weathering of ultramafic rocks in SE Europe. The
research on mineralogy and geochemistry of nickel laterites in the former
Yugoslavia and Greece has contributed to Academician Maksimović’s international
reputation. His papers on kеrolitе-pimelite and lizardite-nepouite series, which he
first managed to define, have been often cited in international scientific literature.
As a result of weathering of ultramafic rocks in the Balkan Peninsula, some large
magnesite deposits were formed under the weathering crust. Academician
Maksimović used trace element-indicators, mostly mercury, to discriminate
magnesite of hydrothermal origin from those formed by weathering. He found that
2
some of our magnesite deposits were formed by hydrothermal processes, but most
of them were the result of weathering of ultramafic rocks in Tertiary. The largest
magnesite deposits in Europe, in Euboea Island in Greece, contrary to earlier
opinions, were not of hydrothermal origin. The results of the geochemical study
were proved by his discovery of the relics of the Tertiary weathering crust
containing nickel hydrosilicates above the magnesites.
During the study of alteration processes of ultramafic rocks he also studied the
chemistry and trace element contents of fresh and partly serpentinized peridotites,
including minerals of various ultramafic rock types. On the basis of results obtained,
already in his Ph.D. thesis, Academician Maksimović divided these rocks into two
major zones in the Dinarides: Harzburgite zone (H), in the Inner Dinarides, and
Lherzolite zone (L), in the Central Dinarides. L-Zone contains more Na, K, Ti, V, Cu
and Mn, and less Cr, Ni and Co relative to H-Zone. Later results confirmed the
existence of these two different ultramafic zones. Based on a great number of
electron microprobe analyses of olivine, orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene and spinel
from L-Zone and H-Zone, and thermodynamic calculation of the closure
temperatures and pressures, he obtained a different thermal and emplacement
history of these two ultramafic zones in the Dinarides.
In the reworked Paleozoic weathering crust on ultramafics on Radočelo Mt.
(Serbia), he discovered a new mineral phase – reevesite rich in iron, a new
member of the hydrotalcite group.
Kaolin deposits in the former Yugoslavia also attracted his attention: he
distinguished the deposits of hydrothermal origin from those formed by weathering
of granitoid rocks in Tertiary. To solve the problem of kaolinite genesis he used the
temperatures of formation of this mineral based on oxygen isotope study.
Geochemistry and mineralogy of karst-bauxites and karstic nickel deposits
Probably the most important field of study of Academician Maksimović was the
problem of karst-bauxites and karstic nickel deposits. He considered the genesis of
these karstic deposits from a geochemical point of view, introducing for the first
time the study of migration per descensum of trace elements in these processes.
He found that during the bauxitization in situ of clayey materials, collected in a
highly drained karstic environment, most of the trace elements were mobile,
including nickel and rare earth elements (REE), and concentrated on the
geochemical barrier of the footwall carbonate rocks. These studies enabled the
rapid discovery of various authigenic nickel and rare earth minerals in numerous
karst-bauxite deposits in Greece and the former Yugoslavia. It should be noted,
however, that the first karstic nickel deposits studied by Academician Maksimović
were those in the village Ba, in Serbia, for his B.Sc. diploma in 1950, and in the
village Takovo in 1951. After intensive and systematic mineralogical and
geochemical research, in 1957 he discovered in both localities, a new nickel claylike mineral named takovite. A great number of publications in this field, important
new results and original explanation of the karst-bauxite genesis, brought him a
high international reputation.
New minerals of nickel and the rare earth elements are important discoveries,
related to karstic deposits. Besides the new mineral, takovite, Academician
Maksimović discovered in a bauxite deposit in Greece a new Ni-containing
aluminous member of the serpentine group, named brindleyite in honor of
American mineralogist Dr. George W. Brindley. The third nickel clay-like mineral,
baite, discovered by Academician Maksimović in the karstic nickel deposit in the
3
village Ba, in Serbia, and in the Lokris area in Greece, was reported to the IMA
Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names.
In cooperation with Dr. Gy. Pantó, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences,
which has lasted almost 30 years, Academician Maksimović discovered in karstbauxites five new rare earth (RE) minerals and two new RE varieties: monazite(Nd) in Greece, associated with the new variety bastnaesite-(La); synchysite-(Nd)
in the bauxites of Metohija, in South Serbia: new variety of Nd-goyazite in the
bauxites of Vlasenica, in Bosnia; hydroxylbastnaesite-(Nd), the first new mineral of
Montenegro, former Yugoslavia, in large deposits of Nikšićka Župa. In the bauxites
of the Lokris area in Greece, Dr. Gy. Pantó and Academician Maksimović recently
discovered two new RE minerals: hydroxylcarbonate-(Nd) and hydroxylcarbonate(La). The results of the long-standing research and cooperation with Dr. Gy. Pantó
in mineralogy and geochemistry of the REE in karstbauxites and karstic nickel
deposits, were published in the monograph Rare Earth Minerals, Mineralogical
Society Series 7, London, Chapman & Hall, 1996.
Apart from the contribution to mineralogy and geochemistry of the REE in karstic
deposits, Academician Maksimović discovered in the large deposits of Montenegro a
high accumulation of hydroxylbastnaesite-(Nd,La), which could be a potential
source of the light lanthanides.
Environmental geochemistry
In the past twenty years, Academician Maksimović expanded his research in a new,
very topical field – environmental geochemistry. Long years of studies of
geochemical processes, especially rock weathering, resulted in the application of
knowledge and experiences to the solution of some geomedical problems in Serbia
(for example, Balkan nephropathy). He was the first to recognize a serious
selenium deficiency in this country, in the stream sediments, soils, crops and in
human population. Through a project of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
he organized a team of researchers in this field, which successfully dealt with this
problem, fusing the research in environmental geochemistry, biology and medicine.
As a result, Academician Maksimović organized three symposia on selenium, two
being of international character with the participation of wellknown scientists. The
contributions were published in Biological Trace Element Research (1992), in a
special publication of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts – Conference on
Selenium (1995), and in the Journal of Environmental Pathology, Toxicology and
Oncology (1998). Thanks to the pioneer work of Academician Maksimović,
significant achievements have been made in this field in Serbia during past twenty
years, which is confirmed by the citation rate of papers published in Serbia.
In December 1997, Academician Maksimović organized the Round Table Selenium
status in Serbia and the problem of supplementation in the Serbian Academy of
Sciences and Arts. In December 1998, he organized the First Symposium on
Magnesium there.
Other activities
Academician Maksimović initiated the establishment of the Geochemical Working
Group at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (1975), and for a long period of
time time he was its president. He is now the president of SASA’s Committee for
Geochemistry.
4
He is a member of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain (since 1955),
International Association for the Study of Clays (AIPEA), Society of Environmental
Geochemistry and Health, and the Serbian Geological Society. He was the first
president of the Mineralogical-Petrological Section of this Society. Academician
Maksimović is an Honorary Member of the Mineralogical Society of Romania (1997).
Academician Maksimović was a member of the editorial board of Annales
géologiques de la péninsule balkanique, Travaux du Comité international pour
1’étude des bauxites, de l’alumine et de l’aluminium (ICSOBA), Vice President of
ICSOBA, and a board member of the Spectrochemical Section of the Serbian
Chemical Society.
For his research achievements, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the
Geological School and Science in Serbia, he received the Yugoslav Order of Labour
with golden wreath (1980), and the Plaquette for the development of science from
the Faculty of Mining and Geology. On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of
the Serbian Geological Society (1991), Academician Maksimović received the
plaquette awarded by the Society for scientific achievements. In 2006, he received
another Charter from the Serbian Geological Society for his contribution to Society’s
affirmation and development of geological sciences in Serbia.
In 1998, on the occasion of his 75th birthday, Rajka Radoičić, distuinguished
Serbian geologist, devoted to him newly discovered fossil species: Zittelinae
maksimovici.
Activities in the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
•
•
•
•
Secretary of the Department for mathematics, physics and Earth sciences
since February 26, 1999.
Member of the Presidency
Member of the Publishing Committee
Member of the Administrative Committee of the Fund for Scientific Research
Academician Zoran Ј. Maksimović is the head of the following committees and
projects:
− Committee for Geochemistry
President: Academician Zoran Maksimović Members: Corresponding Member
Vidojko Jović, secretary; Academician Stevan Karamata, Academician Dragomir
Vitorović, Academician Marko Ercegovac, Prof. Dr. Petar Pfendt, Prof. Dr. Mihovil
Logar, Prof. Dr. Vesna Poharc-Logar, Prof. Dr. Ljubomir Cvetković, Prof. Dr.
Branimir Jovančićević, Prof. Dr. Dejan Prelević and M.Sc. Mihailo Ršumović.
Within the framework of the project “Geochemistry”, the following topics have
been the subject of research: The geochemistry of the upper mantle and the
igneous rocks of the Earth’s crust; Geochemistry of the rock alteration;
Mineralogy.
− Interdepartmental Committee: Deficiency of selenium and magnesium
in Serbia
President: Academician Zoran Maksimović) Project: Deficiency of selenium
and magnesium in Serbia – Coordinator: Academician Zoran Maksimović
Collaborators: Academicians Vojislav Petrović, Vladimir Kanjuh and Miroslav
Gašić, Corresponding Member Vidojko Jović (secretary), Prof. Dr. Tomislav
Jovanović, Dr. Ivana Đujić, Prof. Dr. Mihailo Spasić, Dr. Zorica S. Saičić, Dr.
Biljana Buzadžić, Dr. Bato Korać, Dr. Duško Blagojević, Dr. Aleksandra Nikolić,
Dr. Slađan Pavlović, M.Sc. Mihailo Ršumović, M.Sc. Slavica Borković, Tijana B.
Kovačević and Marija Savić.
5
Academician Zoran Maksimović is a member of the Committee for Geodynamics; he
was a member of the following committees: Committee “Man and Environment”;
Committee for Kopaonik Mountain; Committee for Natural History Museum;
Committee for the study of urinary tract.
***
After more than half a century of successful and fruitful scientific activity,
Academician Maksimović has gained a great reputation both in international and
national circles. The discovery of ten new minerals and six varieties of minerals,
high citation rate in international journals and the recognition as an authority in
some fields of geochemistry and mineralogy are the most important results of his
scientific work. Apart from that, Academician Maksimović, covering a wide scope of
geochemical investigations, was the founder of the modern geochemical school at
the University of Belgrade.
6