Violeta Slavkovska, PhD
Dr Violeta Slavkovska (1958-2025) – IN MEMORIAM
Dr. Violeta Slavkovska was born in Radožda, North Macedonia, on November 17, 1958.
She graduated in 1987 from the Faculty of Science and Mathematics, University of Belgrade, in the General Biology program.
She defended her master’s thesis titled “The Composition of Essential Oils of the Satureja montana L. (Lamiaceae) Aggregate in Different Regions of the Central Part of the Balkan Peninsula” in 1996 at the Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade. In 2008, she defended her doctoral dissertation entitled “Differentiation of Species of the Genera Acinos Miller, Calamintha Miller and Micromeria Bentham (Lamiaceae) from the Central Balkan Peninsula: Anatomical Characteristics and Essential Oils”.
Professor Slavkovska began working at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Belgrade, in 1989.
She was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 2018. Throughout more than four decades of teaching and scientific research, Professor Slavkovska achieved significant results in the study of aromatic, medicinal, and potentially medicinal plants, documented in more than eighty scientific publications. Although she worked in various fields of botany, her scientific research was primarily dedicated to the study of intra-, interpopulation, and interspecific variability of essential oils of plants from natural and cultivated populations, as well as to evaluating the influence of abiotic ecological factors on the quantity and composition of essential oils. She focused mainly on species of the genera Satureja, Micromeria, Acinos, and Calamintha (now Clinopodium), and Salvia, as well as species from the families Apiaceae, Rhamnaceae, and others of pharmaceutical importance.
Professor Slavkovska made an exceptional contribution to the education and professional development of young pharmacists and biologists.
With great enthusiasm and dedication, she taught the compulsory course Botany and the elective course Medicinal Plants and the Environment in the integrated academic studies of Pharmacy, as well as the elective course Selected Chapters in Botany in doctoral academic studies. She served as mentor, co-mentor, or committee member for more than 200 student diploma theses, research projects, and dissertations. For many years she organized and led botanical field trips for students, during which she had a unique ability to inspire in future pharmacists an interest in the world of plants and in nature conservation. She served as a member of the committee for the review, evaluation, and defense of one doctoral dissertation and one master’s thesis at the Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade.
She published the “Priručnik za vežbe iz botanike za studente Farmaceutskog fakulteta”, the “Radnu sveske iz botanike za studente Farmaceutskog fakuleta”, the peer-reviewed script “Lekovite biljke i životna sredina”, and the “Ilustrovani botanički rečnik za studente farmacije”.
Professor Slavkovska passed away on April 22, 2025, six month after the retirement.
Students and colleagues will remember Professor Slavkovska as a discreet, friendly, and warm person, always ready to offer sincere help and advice.
When the sad news of the premature passing of our professor was announced, students of the Faculty of Pharmacy wrote on their Instagram page, among other things:
“Her lectures were not just lessons about plants, but classes in attentiveness, patience, and dedication. She knew how to empower, how to listen, and how to stand by her students not only as a lecturer, but also as a source of support.”
With her presence, cheerfulness, kindness, and goodwill, our professor Violeta marked and enriched the lives of all of us who knew her. She was a wonderful friend, teacher, colleague, and supervisor — an exceptional pedagogue, loved and respected by students and by the entire community of the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Belgrade.