Education and science
In alignment with European standards, Croatia's higher education system has adopted the best features of the Bologna Process, contributing to the growing integration of science and scientists in Europe. The modern Croatian education and science system is based on a tradition established in 1396, when the first public university opened in Zadar. The University of Zagreb, which is today the largest, dates back to 1669. Among Croatian scientists and inventors, many have made particular contributions to international knowledge, especially Ruđer Bošković (1711–87) and Nikola Tesla (1856–1943). The former was a Jesuit mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, diplomat and poet, came to prominence by producing an atomic theory, and was one of the most renowned physicists of his day. One of the craters on the Moon is named after him. The modern system of transmitting electrical energy would have been unthinkable without the inventor Nikola Tesla, who created the first hydroelectric plant on the Niagara Falls, and invented the electric motor, which we find in almost all household appliances today. Other inventions which are now part of daily life, such as the tie, the parachute, the solid-ink fountain pen, the airship, the MP3 player and fingerprint identification techniques, are numbered among the products of Croatian creative minds. Scientific excellence is best recognised through the Nobel Prize, and two Croatian chemists, Lavoslav Ružička (1939) and Vladimir Prelog (1975), have been awarded it.