Slavonia and Barania - 20 banovac 2012 (Fantasy issue)

Lavoslav Ružička (13 September 1887 – 26 September 1976) was a Croatian scientist and winner of the 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry who worked most of his life in Switzerland. He received eight honoris causa doctorates in science, medicine, and law; seven prizes and medals; and twenty-four honorary memberships in chemical, biochemical, and other scientific societies. 

 Ružička was born in Vukovar, Croatia, then part of Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His family of craftsmen and farmers was mostly of Croatian origin, with a Czech great grandparent, and a great grandmother and a great grandfather from Austria. Ružička attended the classics-program secondary school in Osijek. He changed his original idea of becoming a priest and switched to studying technical disciplines. Chemistry was his choice, probably because he hoped to get a position at the newly opened sugar refinery built in Osijek. Due to the excessive hardship of everyday and political life, he left and chose the High Technical School in Karlsruhe in Germany. 

He was a good student in areas he liked and that he thought would be necessary and beneficial in future, which was organic chemistry. That is why his physical chemistry professor, Fritz Haber (Nobel laureate in 1918), opposed his summa cum laude degree. However, in the course of his studies, Ružička set up excellent cooperation with Hermann Staudinger (a Nobel laureate in 1953). Studying within Staudinger's department, he obtained his doctor's degree in 1910. With Staudinger, Ružička went to Zurich and was his assistant. 

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Vukovar water tower is a water tower in the Croatian city of Vukovar. It is one of the most famous symbols of Vukovar and the suffering of the city and the county in the Battle of Vukovar and the Croatian War of Independence, when the water tower and the city itself were largely destroyed by the Serb forces. The water tower was designed by the company Plan and built by Hidrotehna Zagreb, in the late 1960s. 

It was built in a city park, popularly known as Najpar-bašća, in the district of Mitnica. 

 Until the war, the top of the tower was home to a restaurant with a view over Vukovar, Dunav and surrounding vineyards. During the Serbian attack on Vukovar, the water tower was one of the most frequent targets of enemy artillery. It was hit more than 600 times and today it is a symbol of victory and new life. After the reintegration of Vukovar into the Republic of Croatia, reconstruction of water tower was initiated by Croatian President Franjo Tuđman, but that has since changed. The water tower will not be restored to its original state and will instead become a memorial area to the pain and suffering that Vukovar endured.