On the morning of Tuesday, 24 December 2024, Prof. Dr. Matija Tuma passed away. After graduating from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at UL in 1962 under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Zoran Rant, he first worked in business in the then SFRY, and in 1966 he moved to Baden, Switzerland, to join the BBC Group, where he was involved in the design of large thermal power plants throughout Europe. He received his PhD in 1978 from the ETH Zurich under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Peter Grassmann. He has worked as an assistant, researcher and senior lecturer at ETH Zurich. In 1978, he returned with his family to Ljubljana in the then SFRY. Between 1978 and 1982 he worked for Lek and IMP. In 1982, he joined the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering as an Associate Professor in the Laboratory for Heat and Power, which he led and developed for many years. He was the head of the Department of Energy Engineering. In the field of energy engineering, where he has worked both as a researcher and as a professional, he has published several university textbooks, which have been reprinted several times. He was elected Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in 1995/97. He has also been a member of the Council for Higher Education and the Council for Science and Technology. He retired in 2004. Prof. Dr. Matija Tuma was a well-rounded professor, a top expert in the field of energy, a man of high ethics and an important contributor to the development of UL’s Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.
In 2015, he and his wife, Dr. Jelena Vojvodić Tuma, left a large part of their belongings to the Knafl Private Foundation in Vienna, which was used to establish a scholarship fund to award the Tuma Scholarship for the education of Slovenian students in Vienna. In 2016, for this noble and nation-building act, they were awarded the “Pro universitate labacensi” prize, which is awarded at the University of Ljubljana to natural and legal persons who, through their means or work, have made a significant contribution to the development of the University’s material possibilities or to the training of its employees.
The memory of Prof. Dr. Matija Tuma will be a lasting one. We would like to express our sincere condolences to his wife, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jelena, his sons Tadej and Boris and their families.
The Memorial Service will be held on Thursday, 9 January 2025 at 14:00 in Lecture Hall III/2 of UL’s Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.
On the day of the Memorial Service, the Book of Mourning will be open from 9:00am in the Dean’s Roo
Photo: Prof. Dr. Matija Tuma (IFP, d.o.o.; archive LTE)