Knowledge without frontiers Knowledge Without Frontiers | Page 7

KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT
FRONTIERS
In seeking to achieve this, the Technical
Museum of Slovenia has prepared a project
titled KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT FRONTIERS,
which highlights the positive impact of mi-
gration on society, and aims to show a strong
link between technical and scientific heritage
on one side, and cultural and national identi-
ty, on the other. We present a number of suc-
cessful individuals across different fields of
science and technology who migrated to or
from Slovenian territory from the 16th Centu-
ry to the present day.
Scientists and inventors have been moving
to and from other countries for very different
reasons and quite often of their own free will,
but often because they were forced to do so.
Sometimes they moved in order to improve
their living conditions and working opportu-
nities or “just” to broaden their knowledge.
However, history is also witness to the fact
that one can become a ‘stranger’ even with-
out moving to a foreign land. States and their
borders can change, and our own Slovene
territory is a perfect illustration as this has
happened many times in the previous century
alone. From the Austrian-Hungarian Empire
to a part of Yugoslavia, then the recently in-
dependent Slovenia and becoming part of the
present day European Union. There are many
scientists and inventors who were born in one
country, lived in another and died in a com-
pletely different one - all because the borders
were moved or the countries changed.
When preparing this project we had to se-
lect just a few from a great many potential
candidates. A number of criteria were used in
the selection process, and for simplicity’s sake
we decided to exclude offering information
about the reasons why these selections were
made simply because there were too many.
1. Our first criterion was obviously a connec-
tion to immigration or emigration, wheth-
er this be direct, or indirectly through their
ancestors.
2. Slovene ethnicity (direct or through Slo-
vene ancestors) and those who worked
and stayed within Slovenian territory.
3. By including different periods in histo-
ry (from the 16th century to the present
day) we wanted to stress that this is not a
new phenomenon, but quite the opposite,
whilst also making the selection feel rele-
vant to the present day and the younger
generation.
4. We included a wide range of scientific dis-
ciplines including chemistry, physics, as-
tronautics, telecommunications, electron-
ics, medicine and computer science.
5. Male as well as female individuals.
6. An important “elimination” criterion was a
lack of artefacts in our existing collections
and whether there was a realistic opportu-
nity to acquire any.
As a result of this selection process we
drew up a “short list” with fourteen individ-
uals, eleven men and three female, some of
them very known in Slovenia and almost rec-
ognised as celebrity icons, and others known
only to a handful of experts.
Obviously, we could have dedicated an
entire exhibition to each individual, but that
was never our aim. Within Knowledge with-
out Frontiers they are introduced with brief
insights into their private and working lives
and carefully chosen individual achievements.
Each of them is presented with:
• A short biography, with special attention
to their “migration”.
• Their main professional achievement(s).
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