College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Giving back

With a prestigious award from his homeland, chemistry's Nenad Kostic thought of various ways to give back to his country.
It doesn't take you long to realize that Nenad Kostic, professor of chemistry, is happy in the United States.

He is quick to point out that he is an American citizen and has lived in Ames for the past 17 years.

But he still keeps ties to his homeland of Yugoslavia. He returns quite often to Belgrade. Just last July he was a visiting professor at the University of Belgrade, where he taught for a month without accepting a salary.

"I have some professional and sentimental ties with my homeland," he said. "I try to help as much as I can."

Since the fall of Communism in Yugoslavia in the early '90s, that country has been split into names familiar to Americans - Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia. The seemly endless civil wars have ravaged the Balkans during the past decade. Only now with a new government in Yugoslavia is progress being seen.

Still the opportunities are slim for talented scientists in Kostic's homeland.

Kostic hopes to begin to make a small difference with an award he received this year from Yugoslavia's Karic Foundation. A wealthy Yugoslav family started the private foundation more than 20 years ago and soon after began handing out awards in five areas: humanitarian activities and international cooperation, culture and art, economics activities and commerce, journalism and publishing, and scientific work and research.

Kostic was the sole winner this year in the scientific work and research category. He was honored for his work on biochemical reactions of metal complexes. His research group works with biological molecules (peptides, proteins, and DNA) and with various transition-metal complexes.

As part of his honor, the Iowa State chemistry professor was awarded an impressive certificate, a medal and one million dinars or about $15,000 in U.S. currency.

With this monetary prize, Kostic established a small family foundation ("Kostic Fund for Chemical Sciences") that he hopes will continue to help Yugoslav scientists for many years to come.

"My wife Drogana and I had planned to establish a foundation in the future," he said. "This award accelerated our plans."

While $15,000 may not seem a lot to start a foundation with in this country, Kostic says one million dinars represents what a university professor would make over a 12-year period.

"When life back home is so rough, I couldn't see myself putting that money in my own pocket when a university professor in Yugoslavia makes only about $100 a month," he said.

Kostic plans to nurture and develop the foundation in the future as he hopes to supplement the foundation's income personally as well as try to raise money from other sources.

He has established a board of distinguished Yugoslavian scientists with the intent of selecting grant recipients this next year. The first grants will be awarded to two best graduates. Future grants could go to chemistry departments who wish to make small equipment purchases, libraries and inspiring teachers.

"This sum of money here is a relatively small amount," Kostic said. "There it will do a great deal."

He's also hopeful that by starting a private foundation for a specific purpose in Yugoslavia might encourage others with ties to that country to start similar organizations.

"I hope this foundation can be a model of how an independent foundation can work in Yugoslavia," he said. "There are very few of these type of foundations in my home country. I hope that we will be able to show the benefit to the people of such work.

"I think it if we accomplish that, that will be as great of a benefit to my country as all of the money our foundation will hand out."