Reaction of the Rector of the University of Montenegro Danilo Nikolić, PhD
On the occasion of media appearance of MP Budimir Aleksić and similar persons, who relate to defense of my doctoral dissertation and mention my mentor, Distinguished Professor Norimas Iida, PhD, I would like to announce the following:
I am very surprised by the malicious insinuations and fabricated attacks on the public function of the rector, my professional integrity and personal dignity, stated by MP Budimir Aleksić in the Serbian newspaper Novosti on July 18th, 2020, without the truthfulness of his allegations. previously checked, i.e. responsibly determined the validity of the same at the relevant addresses.
We are witnessing numerous abuses of parliamentary speech and immunity in degraded political rhetoric, but it is appropriate to expect someone with a doctorate to respect the Code of Ethics and quality research work in terms of prior verification of malicious, suspicious and politically motivated allegations, in order to determine the objective situation and presenting factually - argued views.
What prompted me to react was the attack on my professional and personal work, as well as the professional respect for my mentor, the respected Norimas, PhD, Iida from KEIO University in Tokyo, whom MP Aleksić calls “a certain Japanese man when it has not been determined whether he exists or has ever appeared here at the University, and of course he did not appear at the defense of his candidate's dissertation, which is unique a case in the history of European education ”. Not because of Mr. Aleksić, who knowingly presents malicious and inaccurate information, but because of the general public, I want to point out that in 2000 I was at KEIO University in Tokyo as part of my doctoral research, where I was with the mentor, Norimas Iida, PhD, worked on a dissertation on "Reducing exhaust emissions from diesel engines by modifying the parameters of diesel fuel and engines." Everything about Professor Norimas Iidi can be checked, in addition to basic digital literacy, on the KEIO University website or by searching Google Scholar, ResearchGate and other similar search engines, where you can also see that we have more joint papers published in journals and at international conferences. Also, Norimas Iida, PhD,was a participant in the scientific conferences IPS - Source and transmission of power in Budva in 1997 and 2001, organized by the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Montenegro, so that the scientific public from Montenegro and Serbia then had the opportunity to meet him in person.
Pursuant to the then applicable Law on the University, as well as the Statute of the University of Montenegro, it was determined that the dissertation defense commission consists of at least three members, at least one of whom is not employed at the faculty. Regarding the mentor membership in commissions, the same law and the statute do not explicitly state that mentor is a mandatory member of the Commission for defense of the doctoral dissertation. After defining the date of the defense of the doctoral dissertation at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Montenegro, despite desire to be present, mentor Norimas Iida, PhD, was not able to organize a trip and attend the scheduled defense on June 19th, 2002. As four members of the commission from the five planned were present at my defense of the dissertation: respected Milan Radovanović, PhD, from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade, who was also the dissertation commentator, Stojan Petrović, PhD, from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade, StevanVeinović, PhD, from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Kragujevac and Decan Ivanovic, PhD, from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Montenegro, the Law and the Statute are fully complied with. The legality of the entire procedure and defense of the doctoral dissertation was legitimately confirmed by the then Rector Predrag Obradović, PhD, in response to the Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Milan Vukčević, PhD, from June 4th, 2002 onrequest to have defense of the doctoral dissertation organiseddue to possible absence of a mentor / member of the commission.
Moreover, at a large number of European and world universities, it is a well-established practice that a mentor is not allowed to be a member of the doctoral dissertation evaluation committee or a member of the defense committee, due to the possible subjective approach of the mentor when evaluating his own candidate. Justified and justified absences of mentors or members of the commission to defend the dissertation are rare, but not illegal or unknown practice at universities, but in this case, it is a pompous and sensationalist manipulation of the lay public to collect cheap political points.
I will not react to qualifications presented in the interview with the newspaper Novosti at the expense of the work of the University of Montenegro, which are obviously focused on the daily political activities of individual MPs, in order to exclude our institution from any political influence and media provocations.
Rector, Danilo Nikolic, PhD