Academician Momčilo M. Ristić, the renowned scientist involved with the science of sintering, passed away on 10th August, 2018 after a prolonged illness. He was born in Mrčajevci, Serbia, on June 27th, 1929. He graduated from the Technical faculty of the Technical School in Belgrade and received his Ph.D. from the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy at the University of Belgrade in 1962. He was a full-time professor at the Universities of Belgrade, Nis and Kragujevac and a scientific advisor at the Institute of Technical Sciences of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU).
Academician Ristić founded the “Team of Round Table Meetings on Sintering” in 1968 and edited the Journal ‘Physics of Sintering’, which was later renamed ‘Science of Sintering’ in 1975. In the Round Table World Meetings, initially held in Hercegnovi in former Yugoslavia and later in other countries (Poland, India, Japan and Canada), he as General Secretary of the Team invited scientists from both East and West on a single platform. It was a difficult task during the Cold War period, which he however accomplished admirably. The meetings used to be lively ones and discussions were informal, but in depth. In the year 1975, the Team of Sintering was renamed as the ‘International Institute for the Science Sintering’, for which the late Professor G.V. Samsonov of Kiev toiled enormously. The Headquarters of the Institute was at SANU in Belgrade.
Professor Ristić became a regular member of SANU in 1985. In addition, he was a foreign member of The Russian Academy of Science, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and a member of the working group of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He had 171 publications to his credit, including numerous books related to sintering. With passing away of Academician Ristic, an internationally renowned sintering researcher of the 20th Century is no more.