Rusmir Mahmutćehajić Passes Away

(Patria) - Academician Rusmir Mahmutćehajić, a prominent intellectual and the first Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, passed away in Sarajevo last night, April 5th, at the age of 78.

Besides being the Deputy Prime Minister of the first Government of RBiH, Mahmutćehajić also served as the Minister of Energy, Mining, and Industry of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Mahmutćehajić was born on June 29, 1948, in Stolac, where he completed primary school and high school. He graduated in 1973 from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Sarajevo, and in 1975 he obtained his Master's degree and in 1980 his doctorate from the University of Zagreb. He completed his specialization in 1982 at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, and his postdoctoral studies in 1988 at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.

He worked as a researcher and director at the Institute for Occupational Safety of the University of Sarajevo and as the director of the Institute for Ergonomics of the same university; from 1985 to 1991, he worked as a professor and dean at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Osijek, Croatia.

From 1991 to 1992, he was the Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and from 1992 to 1994, he was the Minister of Energy, Mining, and Industry of Bosnia and Herzegovina, when he resigned. He was also a member of the councils of the Universities of Sarajevo and Osijek and the president of the Commission for Social Activities of the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Since 1992, he has been the president of the Bosnian and Herzegovinian committee of CIGRE, since 1996 the president of the editorial board of the magazine "Dijalog", editor of the magazines "Bosanskohercegovačka elektrotehnika" and "Blagaja". In 1997, he was elected as the first president of the International Forum Bosna. Since 2023, he has been a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.

In his specific scientific field, he published over a hundred professional and scientific papers, including eight books. He also published seventeen books of original prose, political and philosophical essays, and translations into Bosnian.