Events on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the birth of professor Lojze Vodovnik

LOJZE VODOVNIK, SCIENTIST 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.

Exhibition Opening

At 11:00, the exhibition From the Archive of Academician Lojze Vodovnik will be opened in the Prešeren Hall of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts at Novi trg 4. The opening event will be greeted by the Secretary of the Class for Mathematical, Physical, Chemical and Technical Sciences professor Matej Brešar, corresponding member of SASA Roberto Merletti and professor emeritus Thomas Mortimer from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

International Symposium

From 14:00 to 17:30, the International Symposium The Legacy of Lojze Vodovnik will take place in Lecture Room P2 at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the University of Ljubljana on Tržaška Street 25 (onsite and online). The symposium is organized as a hybrid event by the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and DMBTS – Society for Medical and Biological Engineering Slovenia, endorsed by international professional organizations IFESS – International Functional Electrical Stimulation Society, IFMBE – International Federation of Medical and Biological Engineering, and ISEBTT – International Society of Electroporation-Based Technologies. The symposium will be moderated by professor Damijan Miklavčič. The participants of the symposium will be addressed by the president of DMBTS professor Tomaž Jarm, president of IFMBE professor Ratko Magjarević and the first president of the IFESS Uroš Stanič.

Monument Unveiling

The monument to Lojze Vodovnik will be unveiled at 18:30 in the park in front of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Tržaška cesta 25. The monument is the work of professor Mirko Bratuša, a member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. The keynote speakers at the unveiling of the monument will be professor Marko Topič, the Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, professor Peter Štih, President of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and professor Damijan Miklavčič from the Laboratory for Biocybernetics at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering UL.

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.

• You can find registration for the events HERE.
• More informations about the events are available HERE.