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]