Branislava Perović Nešković

Physicist, researcher and professor. She is first & only female director of the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Yugoslavia’s premier nuclear research institute. She was born and raised in Banja Luka before departing for Belgrade prior to WW2. She studied electrical engineering and physics at the University of Belgrade but graduated post WW2 due to her active involvement in the liberation movement. In 1951 she landed a job at Vinča and defended her Ph.D thesis in 1961. In 1976 when she became director of Vinča, it was the first time in the history of Yugoslavia that a woman took the highest leading position in a scientific research institution. She was involved in pioneering work in the field of ionized gas physics and atomic collisions.