MIKA ALAS - GREAT SERBIAN MATHEMATICIAN

BIJELJINA, MAY 5 /SRNA/ – Mihailo Petrović Alas, also known as Mika Alas /1868–1943/, a Serbian mathematician, one of the first eight professors at the University of Belgrade, a long-time professor of mathematics at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, and a member of the Serbian Royal Academy, was born on May 6, 1868.

Alas authored more than 250 scientific and professional papers and is regarded as a founder of modern cybernetics. As a boy, he learned the fishing trade from a Belgrade fisherman, Gašpar Čuklja, later passed the master craftsman exam of the fishermen’s guild, thus earned the nickname Mika Alas. He wrote more than 400 works in theoretical and applied mathematics, mathematical physics and chemistry, mechanics, geometry, and general phenomenology. Alas was the creator of mathematical phenomenology and the theory of mathematical spectra, which found practical application in astronomical, statistical, and other calculations. He made significant contributions to mathematical analysis, particularly the theory of differential equations and the theory of functions. His works include "Qualitative Integration of Differential Equations," "Elements of Mathematical Phenomenology," "Phenomenological Mapping," "Lectures on Mathematical Spectra," the travelogue "Through the Polar Region," and the popular science work "The Eel Novel". Alas also built a military career. In 1898, he passed the exam for reserve second lieutenant and took part in both Balkan Wars as a reserve engineering officer, later becoming a second-class captain. During World War I, Alas served as adjutant to Đorđe Karađorđević. After the bombing of Belgrade, he went to Niš, then to France, and later to Switzerland, where he remained until the end of the war and worked in cryptography. In 1917, he developed a new cipher system that was immediately put into use. After the war, he improved it and named it the “three-card mechanism”, which continued to be used in the military and diplomacy. Due to his expertise in cryptography, the military re-engaged him before the start of World War II. At the very beginning of the war, in April 1941, he was captured in Sarajevo and taken to a prisoner-of-war camp in Nuremberg, where he spent three months. Following the intervention of Prince Đorđe Karađorđević in mid-1941, Alas was released due to his age and returned to Belgrade. Five original practical patents by Mika Alas were registered at the French Patent Institute: a distance meter, a portable gear device, a perpetual calendar, a depth-measuring device for submerged objects, and a method for avoiding minefields. Mika Alas died in 1943.