Olga Hadžić

Contributions to culture and science:

Olga Hadžić was a Serbian mathematician, the youngest doctor of sciences in the SFRY, the first woman rector of the University of Novi Sad and the youngest member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Areas of her scientific work were numerical mathematics, functional analysis method, topology and probability theory. As an author and co-author, she published more than 200 scientific papers and 21 books. She defended her second doctoral thesis in 2006 at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Novi Sad in strategic management in cultural tourism.

Short biography:

She was born in Novi Sad. Her father was a lawyer whose maternal grandfather was the writer and doctor Ilija Ognjanović. Her mother was from Bijeljina from the Atanacković family, and her uncle was the painter Milenko Atanacković. She finished elementary school, high school and the High School of Music “Isidor Bajić” in Novi Sad, piano department. She graduated in mathematics from the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad in 1968. In the same year, she was elected an assistant at the newly formed Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Novi Sad. She received her master’s degree from the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Belgrade in June 1970 and her Ph.D. in March 1972 from the Faculty of Science in Novi Sad. The title of the doctoral dissertation was “Some problems of differential calculus in locally convex spaces”. She passed through all university titles and was elected full professor at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Novi Sad in 1981. In 1991, Olga became a regular member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. She was a member of the Department of Mathematics, Physics and Geosciences. As the first woman rector of the University of Novi Sad, she held the position from 1996 to 1998.

Interesting facts (Storytelling):

All her life, Olga loved to play the piano. Her two pianos were played in the ceremonial hall of the Rectorate of the University of Novi Sad. The Yamaha piano was acquired when Olga Hadžić was the rector of the University of Novi Sad. The Rectorate of the University of Novi Sad was the first and only one in Yugoslavia to have a piano. Olga received the other piano from her parents when she enrolled in music school. She played on it every day for six decades, often for several hours. After her death, the piano was placed in the hall of the Rectorate at her request.