Zorana Štaka and Zlata Jašarević recipients of inaugural “Vera Šnajder” Award
From left to right: Prof. Dragan Huterer (grandson of Vera Šnajder and representative of awards committee), Zorana Štaka, Zlata Jašarević and Majda Mujanović-Babović (Director of BH Futures Foundation)
Bosnia & Herzegovina Futures Foundation is proud to announce that an independent awards committee has selected Ms. Zorana Štaka, a computer science/maths student and Ms. Zlata Jašarević, a materials science & chemical engineering student, as the 2021 and inaugural recipients of the “Vera Šnajder” Award. Zorana and Zlata received the awards at the opening ceremony of 12th Days of BHAAAS conference in Mostar.
About the award
The Vera Šnajder award honors the legacy Vera Šnajder, the first female mathematician of Bosnia & Herzegovina and first female dean in the former Yugoslavia. For many, Vera is considered Bosnia’s Marie Curie. The award was established by the foundation and will be presented annually in the form of a travel grant (up to 5000 BAM) to an outstanding natural/technical sciences student in Bosnia & Herzegovina (undergraduate, masters or PhD). The initiative for the award arose from the desire to support the scientific and research heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina and give adequate recognition to its pioneers in education, science and technology.
Her life philosophy and work are the foundation of what the BH Futures Foundation is doing today. Like Vera, we are actively working to shape the next generation of change makers in our society for the better. The focus is on students of natural and technical sciences. Like Vera, who returned to BiH from a scientific exchange in France, we enable our students to build their personal and professional capacities in the knowledge and skills that our people acquire at the world's most prestigious universities, companies and laboratories.
Recipients of the award
This year the award is given for the first time. In the shortlist, we had 6 great candidates who applied for support to present some of their scientific papers at an international conference or to be participants in the conference.
The winners were selected by a 12-member jury consisting of academics and professionals of BiH origin from around the world, including prof. Dragan Huterer, grandson of Vera Schneider and prof. Mirjana Vukovic, one of the students that Vera taught.
The jury decided to award two young scientists enabling Zorana to travel to a Bioinformatics Conference in Japan at the end of the year, and Zlata Jasarevic to the European Congress of Chemists in Portugal in 2022.
Zlata Jašarević from Gračanica & Zorana Štaka from East Sarajevo, receiving awards.
“This award recognises my strive for excellence as well as my willingness to always help others. I am honored to be mentioned in the same sentence as the great Prof. Vera Šnajder. I hope that I can follow her footsteps and become a great scientist while making great contributions to our homeland.”
“This award means the whole world to me. I did not think I would be selected, but my mentors kept encouraging me to apply. I have grown so much as a professional over the last two years and this award opens new opportunities for me. I want to go out to the world, learn from the best and help build a thriving academic and industry environment right here in Bosnia & Herzegovina.”
US Ambassador Eric Nelson, congratulates Zorana and Zlata on their achievement.
Bigger plans: Project “Knowledge Heroes”
This award is the beginning and part of a larger initiative that we at the Foundation call “Knowledge Heroes”. BiH has hundreds of individuals who have made a huge contribution to science, education, laid the foundations of modern education, but today they are mostly forgotten. We want to change that and re-acquaint the BiH public and the diaspora with these pioneers.
Teams of volunteers are currently researching our scientific past and looking for people like Vera Schneider whose life stories we will try to bring closer to the younger generations and the general public and continue to establish awards and scholarships for educational, scientific and research work with their name. The final aim is the publishing of a book that will be donated in numerous copies to elementary and high schools throughout Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Find our more about Vera by going here
Find out more about the Vera Šnajder Award here
Thank you to the awards committee
Dr. Damir Mitric (Chair) (University of Melbourne), Prof. Dragan Huterer (University of Michigan), Ms. Zeljka Hassler (Hudl), Namik Hrle (IBM), Nedzad Lomigora (Cape Ann Development), Suncica Habul (IANS), Amela Mesak (Bed Bath & Beyond), Hajdi Mostic (Telemach), Aida Topcagic (J.P. Morgan), Daida Hadzic (Meijburg & Co), Prof. Mirjana Vukovic (University of Sarajevo), Dr. Tijana Tufek Memisevic (Candarc)
Thank you to Bosnian-Herzegovinian American Academy of Arts & Science (BHAAAS)
We sincerely thank BHAAAS for the opportunity to award the first, historic award during the opening ceremony of the 12th BHAAAS Day, giving the award a wonderful audience. We would also like to personally thank BHAAAS president Dr. Mahira Tanović & vice president Prof. Ismar Volić for very close cooperation in the last few years.