Serbia

Prof. Dr. Ivan Gutman was born in Sombor, Yugoslavia in a Bunjevac family. In 1970 he graduated chemistry from the University of Belgrade where he worked for a short time as an assistant in the Chemistry Department. From 1971 until 1976 he worked as a Research Assistant and Senior Research Assistant at Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb, Department of Physical Chemistry. In 1973 he received an M.Sc. degree from the University of Zagreb, in the area of theoretical organic chemistry. In the same year, he received a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Zagreb. From 1977 he worked at the University of Kragujevac, eventually becoming a full research professor in 1982. In 1981 he received a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Belgrade.

His research interests are theoretical organic chemistry, physical chemistry, mathematical chemistry, graph theory, spectral graph theory, and discrete mathematics. Prof. Gutman is known for his work in chemical graph theory and topological descriptors. In mathematics, he introduced the notion of graph energy, a concept originating from theoretical chemistry. With Chris Godsil he worked on the theory of the matching polynomial.

He is a full member of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1997. Other memberships include membership in the International Academy of Mathematical Chemistry, the Academy of Nonlinear Sciences (Moscow), and Academia Europaea. Gutman is a collaborator on the Lexicon of Danube Croats for the Croatian Academic Society 'HAD' in Subotica.