Prepared by Dr Svetlana Nikolić-Brzev

In Kingston, United Kingdom, on May 6, 2019, Academician Prof. Dr. Boško Petrović, dipl. civ. eng., passed away at the age of 93. He was born in Aleksinac in 1926 and grew up in Belgrade, where he also completed his education. He graduated from the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Belgrade in 1951 and earned his doctorate in 1977. He began his professional career as an associate of Academician Branko Žeželj at the Institute for Material Testing of Serbia, where he spent most of his working life and held important positions until 1990. He was one of the most prominent engineers responsible for the post-war reconstruction and development of Yugoslavia. From the beginning of his rich career, he participated in the development and design of significant structures in the country, such as Hall 1 of the Belgrade Fair with a dome spanning 106 meters, which at the time of construction (1955–57) was the largest concrete hall in the world. He was part of the pioneering group that introduced prestressed concrete technology into the then Yugoslav practice and led important tests of models and structures made of prestressed concrete, such as large-span lattice girders. He played a leading role in the development of the IMS-Žeželj prefabricated building system from the early 1950s. He conducted studies on the behavior of components and connections of that system under cyclic loading, as well as the design of multiple residential buildings using this system in New Belgrade, Banja Luka, and elsewhere. In the 1960s, he also performed dynamic characteristic testing (logarithmic decrement) of a building constructed using the IMS system in New Belgrade.

He was one of the most significant experts in the field of earthquake engineering in the former Yugoslavia. He began working in this area after the 1963 Skopje earthquake. He participated in the development of the first Temporary Technical Regulations for Construction in Seismic Areas for the former Yugoslavia, which were published in 1964. During that time, he started testing models of reinforced and prestressed concrete structures and their connections under cyclic loading. He developed a numerical model to simulate the nonlinear behavior of prestressed concrete structures, as well as a series of computer programs for dynamic structural analysis that were used in practice. He participated as a lead researcher in several bilateral scientific research projects with the University of California, Berkeley (USA), and in several important United Nations projects, such as the UNDP/UNIDO project Building Construction under Seismic Conditions in the Balkan Region.

Since the establishment of postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Belgrade, he taught courses in the fields of prestressed concrete and earthquake engineering. He also held the position of associate professor at the University of Cyril and Methodius in Skopje, where he taught at the postgraduate level. From 1990 to 1993, he was a full professor at the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad. He authored significant scientific papers published in national and international journals and presented at scientific conferences. In 1985, he published the book Selected Chapters in Earthquake Engineering (Građevinska knjiga), which covered topics in earthquake engineering relevant for research and construction practice. This book was used for many years as a textbook at civil engineering faculties in the country and still serves as a valuable source of information for many generations of students, researchers, and practicing engineers. He was also co-author of the important book Earthquake Engineering: High-Rise Buildings (published by Građevinska knjiga), alongside colleagues Dražen Aničić, Peter Fajfar, Miha Tomaževič, and Antun Szavits-Nossan.

He was one of the founders and an active member of the Yugoslav Society for Earthquake Engineering, as well as a member of the Seismic Commission of the International Federation for Prestressing (FIP) since 1970, and also served on the FIP Council. He was also the president of the Yugoslav Society for Prestressing. For his contributions to engineering theory and practice, he received several significant national awards and recognitions. He was elected as a corresponding member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA) in 1985, and as a full member in 2006.

Professor Boško Petrović was undoubtedly one of the most prominent experts in the field of earthquake engineering in our region. He possessed an extraordinary breadth of technical knowledge as well as a broad general education. With equal passion, he could discuss numerical methods for dynamic structural analysis as well as Mozart’s symphonies. He was capable of repairing any computer in the Institute and knew the finest details of structural testing equipment. He was an exceptionally humble person, always available for discussions with colleagues and collaborators. Younger associates at the Institute were privileged to have the opportunity to work with Boško, to learn from him through every interaction and conversation, and to be treated as members of one happy family. Boško’s passing is an irreplaceable loss to his family, whom he loved endlessly, as well as to all of us who had the honor of knowing and working with him. Serbia has lost a giant in earthquake engineering and structural design.