Researching Nerve Cells and Brain Synapses
Dr. Kresimir Krnjevic had a “complicated early life history” because his father had been active as a Croatian politician in the 1920s and ’30s. Born Zagreb, 1927, he was the son of Juraj Krnjevi´c, General Secretary of the Croatian Peasant Party and youngest elected member of the Yugoslav Parliament who, 1930, left Croatia to appeal for Croatian democracy at the League of Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, after King Alexander took power. With substantial autonomy granted in 1939, the family returned to Zagreb but when Germany invaded Yugoslavia, 1941, Juraj, as a senior government official, left Zagreb, first for the Middle East, then England, while Kresimir and his sister attended high school, Capetown, South Africa. Reunited with his father, 1944, Kresimir attended Edinburgh University, earning an M.D., 1949, and Ph.D., 1954. Interested in brain research, he continued his post-doctoral studies at the University of Washington, Seattle, 1954-56, and at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, 1956-58, before returning to the U.K. as Senior Principal Scientist Research Officer, Babraham Institute, Cambridge. Invited to be a visiting Professor, McGill University, 1964, Montreal “proved so attractive” that he “could not resist the offer” to remain as McGill’s Director, Anaesthesia Research Department where he has taught, Department of Physiology, and has been The Joseph Morley Drake Professor since 1978, while conducting research on nerve cells and brain synapses. Fellow, Royal Society of Canada, 1975, other honours include the Gairdner Foundation International Prize, 1984, Officer of the Order of Canada, 1987,and the Wilder Penfield Prize, Government of Quebec, 1997. Though he retired, May, 1999, Dr. Krnjevi´c is still doing research at McGill. He is also a member of the Croatian International Initiative, a loose grouping of some two dozen individuals from the Croatian diaspora that promotes democratic institutions in Croatia. [Photo, courtesy Dr. Kresimir Krnjevic]