Lojze Vodovnikscientist and humanist

On the 90th anniversary of the birth of academic professor Lojze Vodovnik and the unveiling of his monument, several events will take place on Wednesday, September 6, 2023, in Ljubljana.

• It is necessary to register for the events, registrations are collected HERE.

Academic professor Lojze Vodovnik (1933–2000)

This year marks ninety years since the birth of Professor Lojze Vodovnik, who dedicated his life to science. Scientific disciplines that we today call functional electrical stimulation, biocybernetics, biomedical engineering, and rehabilitation engineering barely existed 60 years ago. Lojze Vodovnik was undoubtedly among those who shaped them and gave them a significant humanistic note. The basic guideline of his research was always “to help fellow humans”. As an engineer – committed to finding applicable solutions and at the same time a great humanist – he succeeded in the general benefit of scientific progress, human health, and with the aim to improve the quality of life of each patient, connect engineers, biologists, physiotherapists, and doctors. His research work is extremely rich and surprises in its variety and vision. In memory of the works of Lojze Vodovnik, we repeatedly find that in biomedical engineering, especially in the field of the use of electric currents for therapeutic purposes, there are few questions that Lojze Vodovnik has not already asked in his research.

Lojze Vodovnik was born on September 6, 1933, in Maribor, where he also graduated from high school. In 1957, he graduated from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Ljubljana. After graduation, he got a job at the company Elektromedicina, where he proposed and developed several devices for electric stimulation of nerves and muscles. In 1963, he obtained a doctorate from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, the next year he went on a one-year postdoctoral training at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, USA, where he continued with extremely resonant research on the use of functional electrical stimulation and dedicated himself to finding new possibilities of rehabilitating disabled people with the help of electronics and cybernetic concepts. From 1966 to 1969, he lectured at Case Western Reserve University and at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. After 1970, he led domestic and international research projects at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, was the founder and manager of the Rehabilitation Engineering Center, which placed Ljubljana among the leading research centers in the world in the field of biocybernetics. In his very intense and fruitful research life, he was a mentor to many students, who continued and spread his approaches and views and from whom many achieved notable results. In 1998, academic professor Lojze Vodovnik retired and became an emeritus professor of the University of Ljubljana.