The 33-year-old Soljacic is an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Sanader said Soljacic's discovery was an encouragement to the government to persevere in its decision to make Croatia a society of knowledge. He said that Croatia, as a small to medium-sized country in European terms, could not compete with large economies such as Germany or Spain, but could exercise its differentia specifica and be a knowledge-based society and economy.