Inventors and Innovators

Dr. Zvonko Fazarinc, ASEF supporter & donor, tells his life story about moving from Slovenia to pursue an education at Stanford University and becoming one of the first employees at Hewlett Packard.   Source: ASEF.net

As a young electrical engineer, France Rode (1934-2017) joined Hewlett-Packard, where he worked on the team that invented the first pocket calculator. This was only one of his many ground-breaking achievements facilitating the development of modern electronics in what has since become known as Silicon Valley. Rode left Yugoslavia for the US in 1960 after graduating in electro-mechanics in Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana. Although ...

Researchers from the National Institute of Chemistry have created cells with the help of gene “hacking” which automatically detect inflammations and set in motion a therapeutic reaction – the creation of a cure. A group of Slovenian scientists has made a big step towards the advanced biological treatment of inflammatory diseases. It has created a prototype cell, which can be ...

Born in 1875, Baron Anton Codelli (or Anton Freiherr Codelli von Codellisberg, Sterngreif und Fahnenfeld, to give his rather lengthy full title in German) came from a longstanding family of nobles with Italian roots who lived in the Slovenian province of Carniola. He spent his youth much like any member of the Austro-Hungarian nobility. In 1898, he purchased the first ...

Novo Mesto, the capital of the Dolenjska region, managed to weather the recent financial crisis better than most places in Slovenia. Much of the town’s prosperity is a result of the local pharmaceutical industry. Named after a local river, the Krka company is not just a part of the region’s modern-day fabric; its work also has strong connections to the ...

Koper, the largest town on Slovenia’s coast, is best known for its historic Old Town, which dates back to the glory days of the Venetian Republic. And it was Venetian-ruled Koper that was the birthplace of man who revolutionized medicine and make important contributions in other fields of science. Born into a noble family in 1561, Santorio Santorio possibly had ...

Along with Slovenia Akrapovič is also marking its 25th anniversary. This Slovenian highly innovative exhaust specialist will celebrate throughout the year with various events and the highly exciting production of a very limited edition of selected motorcycle and car exhaust systems. To kick off the celebrations, Akrapovič has prepared a special logo to mark the occasion, featuring an interlocked “25” ...

Born into a modest Slovenian family in 1835, Jožef Stefan grew up to become one of Europe’s preeminent scientists, and has been immortalized in the name of one of Slovenia’s most prestigious institutions. Stefan grew up near the town of Klagenfurt in the Austrian province of Carinthia. His parents, both ethnic Slovenians, were hard-working but uneducated; his father made a ...

Miklavž “Miki” Muster, born in 1925, became one of Slovenia’s most beloved cartoonists and animators. It all began when he first saw the animated classic Snow White. He fell in love with the beauty of the film and began to dream of one day becoming a Disney animator. Muster graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana with a ...

For his role in revolutionizing organic chemistry, Friderik Pregl became the first Slovenian to win the Nobel Prize. But because he had to carry out his scientific work outside of what is now Slovenia, many history books long considered him solely an Austrian Nobel laureate. In 1869, Friderik Pregl was born in Ljubljana to a Slovenian father and a German ...