Marijan Šunjić (physicist)

Marijan Šunjić ([mârijaːn ʃǔːɲitɕ]) (born 5 April 1940 in Zagreb) is a Croatian physicist, university professor, former rector of the University of Zagreb and a diplomat.

Šunjić went to the Classical Gymnasium in Zagreb and later enrolled at the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb (Croatian Prirodoslovno-matematički fakultet or PMF) where he graduated from the Physics department in 1963. In 1966 he earned his Master of Science degree at the Faculty of Science with a thesis in theoretical solid-state physics and in 1970 the earned a doctorate at the Imperial College London. Between 1963 and 1970 he worked at the Ruđer Bošković Institute and in 1981 he became a professor at the Zagreb Faculty of Science. Between 1983 and 1989 he was the head of the department for postgraduate studies in physics at the Faculty of Science.

Šunjić held many posts in Croatian and international university associations and between 1990 and 1991 he held the post of assistant to the Croatian Science Minister Osman Muftić. Šunjić then served as the Rector of the University of Zagreb for almost seven years between 25 April 1991 and 8 February 1998, and between 1998 and 2000 he was Croatia's ambassador to the Holy See.

His main scientific interests are in the area of theoretical condensed matter physics, especially surface physics. He worked on solid state spectroscopy, electron spectroscopy, photoemission, dynamical processes at surfaces and has published over 100 scientific papers. Doniach and Šunjić published a many-body theory of photoemission and explained X-ray photoemission spectra. Lucas and Šunjić introduced a dielectric theory of HREELS of which a full quantum-mechanical description was developed by Mills and Evans. He is a member of the Institute of Physics in London and the American Institute of Physics. Šunjić was also made honorary senator of the University of Maribor and he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Mostar.