History

The Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry was established in 1945, after foundation of the Faculty of Pharmacy. Until 1991, it was located in the building of the Institute of Pathology. The first Head of the Institute was assistant professor Miloš Mladenović, who received his PhD from the Department of Medicine and Chemistry of the Faculty of Philosophy in Graz (1925). He worked at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Zagreb until 1939, and since 1940 he worked at the Pharmaceutical Department of the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade. Prof. Mladenović was also a corresponding member of SANU (1950-1973), president of the Serbian Chemical Society and dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy (1952-1954). The first assistant at the Institute was MSc Danica Fodor Mandušić (1946-1962), and then for the same position Zorka Blagojević was elected, who was the first student to graduate from our Faculty (1947). Prof. Blagojević received her PhD from the Faculty of Pharmacy in Paris (1955), became an assistant professor in 1957 and a full professor in 1968. She was also Head of the Institute (until 1984) and dean of the Faculty (1962-1967). When prof. Blagojević became an assistant professor, Dobrila Živanov-Stakić and Dušanka Radulović were hired as assistants. They both graduated, received master's and PhD degrees at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Belgrade and worked there as full professors until retirement. As a WHO scholar, prof. Živanov-Stakić continued her studies in Belgium, at the faculties of pharmacy in Brussels and Liege, and in the Belgian Laboratory for Drug Control. After returning, she became the first specialist in Drug Testing and Control. Professor Živanov-Stakić was also Dean of the Faculty (1983-1985) and Head of the Institute (1984-1997).

In the early 1970s, PhD Radule Milošević came to the Institute (from the Institute of Analytical Chemistry), and after that Ljiljana Živanović, Sote Vladimirov, Milena Pokrajac, Darko Ivanović and Danica Agbaba were hired as assistants. All of them received master's and PhD degrees at the Faculty and worked there until retirement. The subject of Drug Analysis was created from Pharmaceutical Chemistry (1984), and by the reorganization of the Institute, two separate departments were formed: Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Drug Analysis.

Prof. Sote Vladimirov (Head of the Department until 2017) and prof. emeritus Danica Agbaba (Head of Department until 2019) gave particular contribution to the further development of the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, but also contributed to the overall work of the Faculty (as vice-deans, members of the Council and the Commission for Reforms). Since the mid-1980s, Jasmina Novaković, Snežana-Agatonović Kuštrin, Darka Pećanac, Mira Zečević, Jasmina Brborić, Zorica Vujić (Dean of the Faculty 2013-18; Head of the Department 2019-2020; Vice-Rector of the University of Belgrade, 2021-) and Olivera Čudina (Head of the Department, 2021-) have been hired as assistants. Since 1991, Slavica Erić and Branka Ivković were hired as assistants, and in the last two decades Bojan Marković, Milkica Crevar, Slavica Oljačić, Katarina Nikolić, Vladimir Dobričić and Jelena Savić were hired, who are today teachers of this Department, and the assistant is Dušan Ružić.