GEOL. CROAT. 50/2 139- 141
1 

1 ZAGREB 1997 

Professor Milan Herak - on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday 

Ivan GUSler and Vclimir KRANJEC2 

Milan Herak was born on March 5th, 1917, in Bra­
s ljcvica, in the area colloqu ially referred to as Zumbe­
rak karst. He grew up in a large family , where good 
working habits were acquired carly in life, and where 
he benefited from family harmony and mutual support. 
In his lat er professional career, as a researcher, team 
leader, mentor or supervisor, these qualities aided hi s 

fostering of a stimulating, creative research environ­
ment. 

He finished Second Classical High School in Za­
greb during which he did not commit himself to any 
profession. When he was selecting University ed uca­
tion, he followed his inclination toward research activi­
ty , which was olIelTed by the then Philosophica l Facu~ 

Ity with a combination of several natural sc iences. 
As a student, Herak was mainly interested in the 

botanical courses, whereas his close colleague Radovan 
Dom<lc was more strongly commited to geology, and 

according to their preferences they divided among 
themselves the obligations of the lecture notes. During 
his study, Herak was selected as a demonstrator in thc 
Department of Geology and Palacontology. This, toge­
the r with his part icipation in geological field research 
led by Professor Salopek, and successfully completed 
field work in Lika, Paklenica and later on Mt. Medved­
nica, resulted in geology, (which was not his primary 
desig nation), becoming his addiction and thus his pro­
fessional future. Professor H erak used to comment 
" ... one has not to define his future vocation in the early 
youth". 

After he graduated (1941) , he received advance 
training in palaeontology in Vienna where he obtained 
hi s Ph.D. , which was based on th e palaeontolog ical 
study of Triassic sponges under the guidance of Profes­
sor Julius Pia, who was m that time the most outstand­
ing specialist for fossil algae. Here, besides other 
things, he had to take nine examinations and to partici­
pate in the course of Palaeontology lectured by Kurt 
Ehrenberg (the so n-in- law of Othenio Abel). Despite 
the fact that, at that time, Abel's palaeobiology was 
based on neolamarkism, Professor Herak was not inDu-

I Department of Geology and Palaeonto logy, Fac ulty of Sciences, 
University of Zag reb, Ul. kralja Zvonimira 8, HR - IOOOO Zagreb, 
Croatia. 

2 racuity of Mining, Gcology and Petroleum Engineering, University 
of Zagreb, Pi crollijcva 6, HR-l OCXXJ Zagreb, Croatia. 

enced by this idea in his subscquent investigation s of 
foss il algae and particularly or the cave bear from Krap­
ina, which was characteristically based on a population 
approach. 

Although he was employed between 1943-1952 with 
the Geological-Palaeontological Museum in Zagreb, 
wherc he was also vcry ac tivc, Professor H erak had 

already been engaged since 1949 with the Universi ty of 
Zagreb as a part-timc Professor. Initially, he taught the 
new introduccd courses of Palaeobotany and Palaeobi­

ology in the Faculty of Science, and lectured basic geo­
logy to student.s of civil engineering and geodesy of Lhe 
then Technical faculty. For both Palaeobotany and Pala­
eobiology he utilised his own research experience from 
his undergraduate and postgraduate training. 

In 1952 Professor Hcrak was appointed assistant 
professor of the then Technical Faculty, In hi s notes 

Professor Herak states that it was not an easy decision 
for him j because he had planned his future with the fac­
ulty of Science, However, this employment was very 
useful for geosciences, as very soon Herak founded the 
independent D epartme nt for Geology and Palaeonto­
logy. Previously , in the Mining Division of {he Techni­
cal FacuJty there only existed the Department for Mine­

ralogy and Petrology. (headed by Professor Luka 
Maric) and the Department for Coal Geology and Oil 
(led by Professor Franjo Ozcgovic). This was quickly 
followed by the appointment of the lale Dragutin Sikic 
as Herak's assistant. Besides courses in fundamental 
geology, Herak initially taught the new course in Engi­
neering Geology with Hydrogeology. 

Today, it is quite concievable that engi neering geo­
logy and hydrogeology are obligatory courses in all 
branches of geosciences, and a prerequisite for a COIl­

temporarely educated geologist. However, in 1952, 
when Professor Herak commenced to lecture this cou­
rse , it was in fact named Applied Gcology with Hydro­
geology. And now, according to his own statemem, 
although he has never been taught in such applicable 
courses, Profcssor Herak changcd the contcnt of 
"Applied Geology" into the "Application of Geology". 

This paper was presented at the scientific meeting 
ded icated to the 80th anniversary of the life of 

Professor Milan Her ak, 
held on March 5th, 1997 in Zagreb 



14U 

At first glance, this lllay seem a trivial change, or just a 
semantic trick. However, there is an essen tial differ­
ence. Pasteur once said: "There docs not exist a pure (or 
fundamental) science and the applied science, but there 
exist only the science and ils application, and both of 
them arc mutually related as the fruit tree and its fruits". 
Although at thal time Professor Herak did not know 
Pasteur's saying, he completely applied it. This shows 
Ihe identical way of thinking of these two great human 
beings. Herak had previously obtained practical experi­
ence in hydrogeology, first with the late Josip Poljak 
and later, and to a greater extent, in his individual work 
on the geological exploration related to the water accu­
mulation in karst areas. 

Herak, on the basis of his own experience and addi­
tional contemplation of theoretical geological problems, 
which can have any reflection in practical application, 
produced comprehensive subject matter for a new cou­
rse . To be sure, the precise cons ideration of separate 
concrete problems of quantification, i.c., the measure­
ments, are nowadays obligatorily required, but without 
geological ideas in terms of what, where and why to 
measure, the quantification becomes and remains the 
purpose for itself. In another words, as Professor Herak 
used to say, the karst hydrogeology, including the mor­
phology, can be understood only if the geology and 
structure of the terrain are known. It means that the first 
approach in karst exploration must be tectogenetic and 
not purely "geomorphological" and descriptive, as was 
the case with earlier researchers. 

Consequently, from 1952-1959, when Professor 
Herak left the Technical Faculty and accepted the pro­
fessor's position at the Faculty of Sciences, he was tea­
ching Engineering geology with Hydrogeology (besides 
courses in fundamental geology) in the Technical Facu­
lty, and Palaeobotany in the Faculty of Sciences. It is 
hard to conceive two more heterogeneous courses, and 
even geoscientific disciplines, which can be successful­
ly realized by one person and teacher. 

Very soon aner his appointment to the Faculty of 
Sciences, Herak became the active chairman (1959-
1974) of the Department of Geology and Palaeontology 
of the Faculty of Sciences, and in 1960 he was elected 
full professor. He was cont in uously teaching in the 
Technical faculty, as a part-time professor until the 
introduction of a younger successor. 

Throughout hi s prevai ling geo logical occupation, 
Professor Milan Herak has published about 220 differ­
ent bibliographic units, which include about 100 scien­
tific papers, 13 edi tions of text -books in geology and 
palaeonlOlogy, the author's edit ion "General account of 
the Earth", and the international hand book "Karst", 
published by Elsevier (1972). The thematic span of hi s 
papers is very broad and are equal ly distributed bet­
ween domestic and international journals. 

This broad field of vision is characteristic not only 
of his research and scientific act ivity but also of his 
teaching work. His teaching method re lies on bu ilding 
upon a good fou ndation of knowledge, adding specialist 

lJeologw LroatlGI :'lUjL 

techniques in order to obtain results. Knowing how 1O 

apply th e geology is the tool which we learned from 
him to utilise in understanding complex geological 
occurrences, and to show that they can be explained in 
a simple and understandable manner. He convinced us 
that field research must be based on a concept which 
should be checked by observations. When the geologi­
cal processes do not fit into the concept and thus cannot 
be explained, then the concept should be changed; this 
was Professor Herak's guiding principle. 

Generally, and as a rule, at undergraduate level Pro­
fessor Herak was lecturing standard courses (e.g. gener­
al geology, stratigraphy), gradually passing them to the 
younger teachers as he founded new courses, as exem­
plified by Karst Geo logy. 

Before his professorship in the Technical Faculty, 
Professor Herak, together with late Professor Miroslav 
Tajder, wrote the geological part or their joint universi­
ty text-book "Petrography and geology", that was inten­
ded for students of Agriculture and Forestry. This hand­
book ran through four editions (1951,1959,1966 ancl 
1972), further editions were only prevented by Profes­
sor Tajder's decease. Also during his employment with 
the Museum, Professor Herak started to write a hand­
book on Palaeobotany , bccause he took too seriously 
the official suggestion, prevai lcnt at that time, that each 
course shou ld be covered by a correspond ing text-book. 
However, whatever the reasons, after the initial publish­
ing difficulties with "Skolska knj iga", this book ran for 
two edit ions (1953 and 1963) and the book was also 
received in Ljubljana and Belgrade. The strongest inllu­
enee for many generations of students of geology was, 
and sti ll is today, though to a lesser extent, Professor 
Herak's comprehens ive book on the whole subject of 
geology (structure, geodynamics, stra tigraph y and 
regional geology of the Earth), which ran through fiv e 
edi tions (1960, 1973, 1984, 1987, 1990). This was, and 
still is, for the time being, the first and the only compre­
hensive text- and handbook in geology in the Universi­
ty of Zagreb. It would be desirable and in the interests 
of geology, as an integral natural science, that we have 
more textbooks for separate geological disciplines, and 
Professor Herak' s book will always represent a " li ght­
house", in this direction, the first step which "broke the 
ice". (This refers to the geology in the stric t sense, for 
there are text-books on mineralogy, petrography, etc.) 

In modern university education more and more sig­
nificance is focused on post-g raduate stud ies. This is 
guite understandable due to the tremendous progress 
and branching of the natural sciences, incJuding geolo­
gy. Professor Herak was the fo under and the first leader 
of Post-graduate Study in Geology at the University of 
Zagreb and he is still included in its act ivity. 

Perhaps his most important , and most lastin g (or 
even "sclfreproducing") contribution to geology in Cro­
atia, is Professor Herak 's act ivi ty in guiding and push­
ing forward young scientists. He was the mentor for 16 
doctoral theses and many more masters theses. The 
range of his students covered all branches of geology, 



from palaeontology to hydrogeology. Thus he set firm 
foundations for continuous activity in numerous geo­
logical disciplines, which he initiated by his own rese­
arch. 11 should be mentioned, as a fact of special impor­
tance, that lIerak's doctor's and master's candidates 
caille not only from Croatia but also - 5 or 6 of them -
from Bosnia and I iercegovina, which considerably pro­
moted both Herak's personal influence and the influ­
ence of Zagreb geological school in that country. 

For his many-faceted and very fruitful activity, Pro­
fessor I Ierak was honoured with numerous credits . He 
is a correspondent member (from 1963) and a full me­
mber of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. 
He was also its viceprcsident (J 975-1978), the secretary 
of its Department for Natural Scicnces (1986-1988), the 
member of its presidency, editor-in-chief of its journals 
·'Acta geologica" and "Karst of Yugoslavia" and the 
leader of its Committee for Karst and Committee for 
Geotectonics. He is also a member of the Austr ian (sin­
ce 1977), and Sloven ian Academy (since 1977), and he 
was also a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences 
until 1991, wilen he cancel led this membership. He is a 
member of the Geological Society of Croatia, was its 

first secretary and afterwards its president and honorary 
membcr. He is a member of numerous international 
societies. Ile was awarded the "Rueter Boskovic" prize 
(1968), thc prize for the life deed (1976) and the com­
memorative medal of Zagreb city (J 965). I-Ie was 
awarded by the Orden of work with a go lden wreath 
(l96l) and by the Orden for the working people mcrit 
with golden star (1986). 

As a symbol of the significance of his scientific and 
research activity, numerous authors honoured Professor 
Herak by the nomination of new taxa based on his 
name. These are for the most part fossil calcareous 
algae, i.c. in hi s greatest and most easily recognizable 
palaeontological research activity. 

The Croatian geologists, including his numerOLlS 
students, organized a scientific meeting on March 5th, 
1997, on the 80th anniversary or his lire, paying tribute 
to Professor Herak and giving him credit for his tcach ­
ing, professional, and scientific activity. As a lasting 
record of this even t, the content of the scientifi c meet­
lI1g IS now issued as a separate volume of Geologia 
Croatic<1.