Đuro Pilar was an Croatian

Croats

Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

 geologist, professor and rector at the University of Zagreb

University of Zagreb

The University of Zagreb is the biggest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of Southeastern Europe...

.

Biography

Pilar had, with his mother (Tereza Čulić of Derventa

Derventa

Derventa is the name of a town and municipality of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the northern part of Republika Srpska just northwest of the town of Doboj, in the Posavina region...

), a strong family relationship to Bosnia.

His formal training was very extensive. The first training he received was at Esseg, Zagreb, and Osijek

Osijek

Osijek is the fourth largest city in Croatia with a population of 83,496 in 2011. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja county...

. Later, he studied at the Université Libre de Bruxelles

Université Libre de Bruxelles

The Université libre de Bruxelles is a French-speaking university in Brussels, Belgium. It has 21,000 students, 29% of whom come from abroad, and an equally cosmopolitan staff.-Name:...

 (from 1865, Natural Sciences), the Sorbonne

Sorbonne

The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...

 (from 1869), and the École de C himie (1869, chemistry) in Paris. He received his Ph.D. in 1868 and acquired a title of docent

Docent

Docent is a title at some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks below professor . Docent is also used at some universities generically for a person who has the right to teach...

.

Since 1875 he worked as a regular professor at the Faculty of Philosophy (up until 1928 called Mudroslovni fakultet). He was the director of the Mineralogical-geological Department of the People's Museum in Zagreb. He became a full member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1875.

Professor Pilar was the first rector of the University of Zagreb with background in natural science

Natural science

The natural sciences are branches of science that seek to elucidate the rules that govern the natural world by using empirical and scientific methods...

, and also the first Croat to be the professor at the Department for Mathematics. He served as a dean in two mandates, as a rector of the university in the academic year 1884/1885, and as a prorector the following year. In 1874 he founded with his associates Croatian Alpinist Association, and in 1885 Croatian Association for Natural Science.

As a versatile geologist, Pilar studied waters and set the foundations of karst

Karst topography

Karst topography is a geologic formation shaped by the dissolution of a layer or layers of soluble bedrock, usually carbonate rock such as limestone or dolomite, but has also been documented for weathering resistant rocks like quartzite given the right conditions.Due to subterranean drainage, there...

hydrology. In his research he investigated earthquakes, speleological objects, and coal findings. As a skilled amateur chess player, he was one of the organizers of the Zagreb chess events, being a winner of the first chess tournament held in Zagreb in 1886. A street in Zagreb is named after him.

Publications

• Osnovi abisodinamike (1880)
• Geološka opažanja u zapadnoj Bosni. Istraživanja god. 1879. (Rad JAZU, 16. book; 1882)
• Flora fossilis Susedana (1883)