Rajko Igić is a Serbian

Serbs

The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...

 doctor

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

 and scientist

Scientist

A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...

. He is best known for his anti-smoking

Tobacco smoking

Tobacco smoking is the practice where tobacco is burned and the resulting smoke is inhaled. The practice may have begun as early as 5000–3000 BCE. Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 16th century where it followed common trade routes...

 campaign in the Former Yugoslavia

Former Yugoslavia

The former Yugoslavia is a term used to describe the present day states which succeeded the collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia....

 and experimental work on the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE).

Igić received his M.D.

Doctor of Medicine

Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...

 at the University of Belgrade

University of Belgrade

The University of Belgrade is the oldest and largest university of Serbia.Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-based departments into a single university...

 and Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 at the University of Sarajevo

University of Sarajevo

The University of Sarajevo is the first university in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was originally established in 1531 as a Madrasah or Islamic Law college, with a modern university being established and expanded on top of that in 1949. Today, with 23 faculties and around 55,000 enrolled students, it...

. Igić was a Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Tuzla

University of Tuzla

University of Tuzla is a public university located in the city of Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The university was founded in 1958. It became a proper university in 1976, and today is one of the major institutions of higher learning in Bosnia.-History:...

 (1978-1992) and the Director of the Department of Scientific, Cultural, and Educational International Exchange for the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...

 from 1990 to 1992. He left Bosnia after the start of the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Igić has authored numerous papers and books in several fields within medical sciences. Igić currently resides in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, where he is a senior scientist in the department of anesthesiology and pain management at Cook County Hospital. He is also Editor-in Chief of a medical journal "Scripta Medica" (Banja Luka). See WWW.scriptamedica.com.

Igić also writes poetry and is a member of the Academy of American Poets

Academy of American Poets

The Academy of American Poets is a non-profit organization dedicated to the art of poetry. The Academy was incorporated as a "membership corporation" in New York State in 1934...

. He also devised a combined alphabet, dubbed "Slavica

Slavica (alphabet)

Slavica is a new writing system for Serbo-Croatian language that was proposed by Rajko Igić in his 1987 book, Nova Slovarica, published by Universal from Tuzla...

", a fused version of two existing alphabets used to write the Serbo-Croatian language (Cyrilic and Latin alphabet

Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...

), in an attempt to mend the divisions among the Yugoslav ethnic groups.

Books

• The Destiny of Germans in St. Ivan and Other Writings ISBN 1-929882-29-7
• Eleven Poems and One Story ISBN 978-1929882212
• Come, Live in This World ISBN 978-1929882427
• "Pictures from Serbia: My Gypsy Neighbors" ISBN 192988263X