HAZU DONATES MONEY FOR RECONSTRUCTION OF NOBEL PRIZE WINNER'S HOUSE IN VUKOVAR

HOUSE IN VUKOVAR ( Editorial: --> 3646 ) VUKOVAR, 25 Nov (Hina) - A delegation of the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences (HAZU), led by the Academy President Ivan Supek, on Tuesday presented Vukovar Mayor Vladimir Stengl with a donation worth 72,000 kuna (US$12,000). The donation is intended for the reconstruction of the Memorial Centre of Nobel Prize winner Lavoslav Ruzicka in Vukovar. Lavoslav Ruzicka was born in Vukovar and is one of the most famous chemists of the 20th century. He won Nobel Prize award in 1939. HAZU wants the Memorial Centre, which is based in the house of Ruzicka's birth, to become one of HAZU's institutes, which would make Vukovar the centre of science and art in that part of Croatia. Thanking HAZU for the donation, Mayor Stengl said that the town had already decided to reconstruct the Memorial Centre in Ruzicka's destroyed house in central Vukovar. The costs of the reconstruction have been estimated at 1.5 million kuna, but a donor has not yet been found. (hina) jn rm 252148 MET nov 97