Completion of the campaign marking 80 years of the culture of remembrance of Nikola Tesla - the giant of humanity

22. Dec 2023.
The national coordinator of the strategic campaign of Serbian diplomacy "Tesla - Energy of Peace", Ambassador Dr Ljiljana Nikšić, today presented the results of the campaign marking eight decades of the culture of remembrance of Nikola Tesla, and the title of Tesla Ambassador was bestowed upon 80 diplomats, companies, artists, journalists, media houses and individuals from Serbia and the world who deserve credit for preserving the memory of one of the greatest minds of humankind.

The event on the occasion of the completion of the campaign initiated by Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dačić on 12 January this year, on the day when Tesla enlightened humanity in 1895 by launching the first hydroelectric plant in the world, at Niagara Falls, was an opportunity for Ambassador Nikšić to present the initiatives launched in diplomatic and scientific circles.

One of the initiatives of the campaign “Tesla Energy of Peace in the Tesla Year of Tesla People – Serbs and Americans” was focused on the need to establish an international Tesla Day at the UN and launch an annual Tesla award equivalent to the Nobel Prize.

According to her, an initiative has been launched to establish a Global International Tesla Committee in which members from more than 100 countries will be appointed, to be based in the only remaining Tesla laboratory at Wardenclyffe, USA, with the aim of awarding the Tesla Prize.

“The goal is for the only remaining Tesla laboratory to be declared a world cultural heritage and placed under UNESCO protection”, Nikšić said at the ceremony, where opera singer Jadranka Jovanović, who today became a Tesla ambassador, as well as actor Jack Dimich, spoke about the campaign.

In the Tesla year, links were established among some of the institutions and organizations from several continents, said Nikšić at the event where the 700-page Tesla bulletin with texts dedicated to Tesla and the Foreign Ministry’s campaign was also presented.

Ambassador Nikšić reminded that, on the occasion of the campaign, Minister Dačić introduced the special title of a Tesla ambassador and Tesla diplomatic passports as collective and individual recognition for everyone who contributed to the preservation of Nikola Tesla’s legacy.

Among the Tesla ambassadors are media outlets such as Politika, RTS – editorial staff of the scientific program and Tanjug, on whose behalf an editor at the agency Ksenija Golubović received the award. The recognition of an ambassador was awarded to Tanjug journalist Aleksandra Otašević. Holders of the title also include journalist Michael Freund, columnist of the “Jerusalem Post”, author of a series of articles on the fate of the Tesla people, director of “Jedinstvo” Rada Komazec and journalists Rada Ranković, Marina Bulatović, a journalist and publicist from Canada.

Among others, the recognition was awarded to Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, Ambassador of France Pierre Cochard and Head of the Economic Department of the U.S. Embassy Joseph Boski, Canadian MP Tom Rakočević, owing to whom Nikola Tesla Day was proclaimed in Ontario, Elon Musk and his Foundation, which supports the work and preservation of the only remaining Tesla’s laboratory.

The Prime Minister of India was awarded for initiating the establishment of the “Swami Vivekananda and Nikola Tesla” Foundation, which will be the focus of the World Energy Conference 2024 in New Delhi, sponsored by him, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela Yván Gil Pinto was awarded because a monument dedicated to Tesla will be erected in Caracas next year.

Wardenclyffe Tesla Science Center, headed by Marc Alessi, has also been promoted to a Tesla ambassador, Nikšić reminded, and emphasized that in June, a Visitor Center will be opened in that area. She recalled that after fire had broken out in the laboratory in November, Serbia joined the ‘My brick for Tesla’ campaign for its restoration.

Li Haibao, an official of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, also attended the event, and Nikšić reminded that the International Tesla Council was formed in China, as well as that, in Athens, the World Philosophical Forum with 53 member countries adopted the first international Declaration on Nikola Tesla, which is represented by Viktor Fersht from Geneva, an expert on UN scientific exchange programs, who also became a Tesla ambassador as did John Cappello, founder and president of the Halyard Mission Foundation.

The title went to the Nikola Tesla Museum, as well as Ambassador Sava Kosanović, Tesla’s nephew, who was awarded posthumously, owing to whom Nikola Tesla’s archive was transferred to Belgrade. With that, she recalled, the conditions were created for the establishment of the first Museum dedicated to Tesla, whose archive is under the protection of UNESCO and is in the “Memory of the World” register.

Furthermore, among the ambassadors is David Vujić, president emeritus of the Tesla Science Foundation from Philadelphia, the last surviving member of the Serbo 7, NASA, Apollo 11 group of Serbian engineers who participated in the Moon landing mission.

Holders of the prestigious title include Novak Djokovic, maestro Zubin Mehta and Hollywood actor Ethan Hawke for the role of Tesla in the film of the same name.

On behalf of Air Serbia, Željko Stojčić, one of the managers was presented the Tesla Ambassador title.

Among the Tesla ambassadors are academician Đorđe Šijački, nuclear physicist Vladan Vuletić – professor at MIT Boston, the Student Center for Excellence of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Petnica.

For saving Tesla’s laboratory, the title of Tesla Ambassador was awarded to Jane Alcorn and Matthew Inman, who launched a campaign in which people from 108 countries participated, in order to buy the land and save the laboratory from inevitable destruction. Tesla ambassadors include Suffolk County Executive Stephen Ballone, who supported the reconstruction of Tesla’s laboratory with $1.8 million, as well as firefighters, including Rich Bernier, who was injured fighting the fire at TSCW.

Among the holders of the title are the Union of Engineers and Technicians of Serbia, Association of Writers, Journalists' Association of Serbia - UNS, Nikola Tesla Airport, St. Regis Belgrade – hotel-endowment of the Astor and Nikola Tesla family friendship, academician Matija Bećković, innovator Dejan Ilić, the last priest in Tesla’s hometown of Smiljan Dragan Mihajlović, Čedomir Kovačević Čekov, author of the conceptual project Teslinum-beacon of humanity, Mila Pivnički Mulroney, designer of Tesla Style coral jewelry.  

The title was awarded posthumously to the mayor of New York, Fiorello La Guardia, who bid farewell to Tesla in 1943, and to Professor Ljubo Vujović, the founder and president of the first society in the USA dedicated to Tesla, who deserves credit for the fact that New York has a Tesla corner today.

The bulletin contains a selection of both original archival articles dating from 1888 to 1943 concerning Tesla and how he was seen during his lifetime, as well as contemporary articles.

In the Tesla year, in addition to the title of Tesla ambassador and Tesla diplomatic passports, 11 Tesla brands were created – Teslarica, Tesla newsletter, Tesla wine, Tesla energy bonbon, Teslowacha brandy, Tesla Spirit perfume, Tesla Style which includes exclusive Tesla scarves by Roksanda Ilinčić, the Tesla Serbini Jewelry with NT monogram, and Tesla Style catalog.

Below is a list of the first 80 Tesla Ambassadors who were awarded in the Tesla Year of Tesla Ambassadors on the 80th anniversary of the culture of remembrance of the global genius who left behind a legacy of 700 inventions, of which only 300 have been registered, and on which the modern technical-technological civilization of the entire humanity is based:

  1. Nikola Tesla Museum Belgrade - owing to Ambassador Sava Kosanović, the archive of Nikola Tesla was transferred to Belgrade and the conditions were created for the establishment of the first Museum dedicated to Nikola Tesla on the planet, whose archive is under the protection of UNESCO and in the "Memory of the World" register, which recognized Nikola Tesla for the entire technical and technological progress of our civilization
  2. David Vujić, (president emeritus of the Tesla Science Foundation, based in Philadelphia, the last surviving member of the Serbo 7, NASA, Apollo 11 group of Serbian engineers who participated in the Moon landing mission, while one of the founders of NASA, in 1915, was Mihailo Idvorski Pupin)
  3. Elon Musk, the founder of Elon Musk Foundation and the world-famous brand "Tesla Inc.”, and of one of the leading space agencies "Space X", a key longstanding donor of significant funds for the reconstruction of the only remaining Tesla Laboratory in the world at Wardenclyffe in New York
  4. Tesla Science Center Wardenclyffe-TSCW, USA (collective title for the Board of Directors and all TSCW activists, Board President Michael Russo)
  5. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, initiator of setting up the first Foundation in the world dedicated to the friendship of Swami Vivekananda, a Hindu monk and philosopher of the Indian philosophy of Vedanta and Yoga, and Nikola Tesla
  6. Yvan Gil Pinto (Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, who initiated erecting the monument to Nikola Tesla in Caracas)
  7. Prof. dr Francis S. Lestingi (head of Buffalo Niagara Tesla Council (BNNTC)), USA
  8. Academician Đorđe Šijački, member of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts - SANU, Department of Mathematics, Physics and Geosciences, head of the Serbian expert team at CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva, working on the "God Particle" research;
  9. Prof. Dr Vladan Vuletić, nuclear physicist, full professor at MIT Boston, who launched the world's first quantum computer, which is 10,000 times faster than the current one
  10. Student Center for Excellence of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade (student teams: "Drumska strela"; "Beoavia", "Robotoid", "Confluence" and "Zeptotech"), Bogdan Čarapić, Director
  11. Petnica Research Station
  12. Novak Djokovic, the first racket of the World, tennis champion
  13. Dobrivoje Tanasijević, Dan Tana (Hollywood legend, ambassador of the Football Association of Serbia)
  14. Maestro Zubin Mehta (the most famous and best regarded conductor in the world)
  15. Maestro Michael Jackson Pratt (lifetime member of the Royal Academy of Music in London, conductor of the Princeton University Orchestra) and the Faculty of Music of the University of Belgrade
  16. Reade Ben (Princeton University alumnus, Fulbright scholarship holder in Belgrade, Congress and White House intern)
  17. Kayli June (alumna of Columbia University, New York, post-graduate at Oxford)
  18. Isabella Khan (Princeton alumna, from the Doyen Group born in 1999, member of the Princeton University Symphony Orchestra)  
  19. Nataly Erbelaz (Princeton alumna, from the Doyen Group born in 1999, member of the Princeton University Symphony Orchestra)
  20. Yie Watson (Princeton alumna, from the Doyen Group born in 1999, member of the Princeton University Symphony Orchestra)
  21. Marina Arsenijević, pianist (composer of Tesla's Rhapsody)
  22. Steven Hunnington Jungo Chokwe (chairman of the United Peace Forum), Kenya, son of the first black Speaker of the Parliament of Kenya, Timothy Jungo Chokwe, alumnus of the University of Belgrade, president of the "Karibuni" Friendship Society;
  23. Michel Saint Lot, Haiti (former head of UNICEF Office in Belgrade, descendant of Emile Saint Lot who served as a signatory for the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights with Eleanor Roosevelt on 10 December 1948)
  24. Marc Alessi (Head of Wardenclyffe Tesla Science Center, USA)
  25. Jane Alcorn (initiator of social activism on Long Island to preserve the only remaining Tesla laboratory in the world, located at Wardenclyffe)
  26. Matthew Inman, the initiator of the "Crowd fund for Tesla Lab" campaign, organizing a fund through social networks that gathered 33,000 people from 108 countries in 6 weeks, collecting the amount of $1.4 million for the purchase of 6.5 hectares of Tesla's laboratory land
  27. Long Island Firefighters - Fire chief Sean McCarric, head of a fire crew of 100 firefighters (Rocky Point Fire Chief), who led American firefighters in extinguishing the fire at the only remaining Tesla laboratory, on 21 November 2023, and 2nd Asst. Chief Rich Bernier, the firefighter who was injured while courageously extinguishing the fire at the only remaining Tesla laboratory, on 21 November 2023
  28. Luka Milošević, alumnus of the law faculty, class of 1999
  29. Steven Ballone, Suffolk County Executive, who supported the renovation of Tesla's laboratory with $1.8 million 
  30. His Excellency Pierre Cochard, Ambassador of France in Belgrade
  31. Joseph Boski (Head of the Economic Department of the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade)
  32. Stefan Lazarević (CEO of the U.S. company NCR)
  33. Vera Nikolić Dimić (American Chamber of Commerce – Am Cham)
  34. Air Serbia (national airline - Airplane "Nikola Tesla" on the BGD-NY-BGD flight)
  35. Union of Engineers and Technicians of Serbia - House of Nikola Tesla
  36. Association of Writers of Serbia, Miloš Janković (President of the Association of Writers of Serbia)
  37. Vidak Maslovarić (Secretary General of the Association of Writers of Serbia)
  38. Nikola Tesla Airport and Aviation Academy, Director Danka Nešović
  39. Željko Mitrović, Pink Media Group, sponsor of the Tesla Year and Prof. Miloš Petrašinović, Ph.D. (founders of the Pink Development Center)
  40. Aleksandra Otašević (Tanjug journalist) for ten years of reporting on TSCW and the only remaining Tesla laboratory on Long Island
  41. Tom Rakočević (Member of the Parliament of Canada for the introduction of Tesla Day in Ontario and Nikola Tesla Boulevard with activists of the Serbian diaspora in Canada)
  42. Marko Stojiljković (president of the Tesla snooker cup)
  43. Voice of America, Rade Ranković, journalist of the Belgrade desk
  44. Stefan Lazarević (President of the American Chamber of Commerce)
  45. Journalists’ Association of Serbia
  46. Politika, the oldest daily newspaper in the Balkans, for supporting the Serbian diplomacy campaign "Tesla - Energy of Peace"
  47. Tanjug, the leading news agency in the region, for reporting on the Tesla Year of Tesla People in the year of its 80th anniversary
  48. Dr. Dejan Ilić (innovator, with 680 registered patents, "father of the lithium battery", author of the "Teslowacha" brand)
  49. Slađana and Dragan Ilić ("Tesla Serbini Jewelry" brand)
  50. Dragan Mihajlović (the last Serbian Orthodox priest in Smiljan, the birthplace of Nikola Tesla)
  51. Čedomir Kovačević Čekov (94 years old, author of the conceptual project Teslinum-beacon of humanity, a memorial complex dedicated to Nikola Tesla)
  52. Marina Bulatović, journalist, member of the Board of Directors of the Tesla Memorial Society New York, advocate for declaring the global international Tesla Day
  53. Dr Manesh Deka, founder and chairman of the Swami Vivekananda and Nikola Tesla Foundation
  54. The World Philosophical Forum in Athens, which adopted the "Declaration on Nikola Tesla", on the occasion of the UNESCO World Philosophy Day, promoting "Tesla as a philosophy of life"
  55. Academician Matija Bećković, full member of SANU, member of the Editorial Board of "Teslarica", a literary almanac of the Association of Writers of Serbia
  56. Ethan Hawke, Hollywood actor for the role of Nikola Tesla
  57. Radmila Komazec (director of the "Jedinstvo" newspaper in Kosovo and Metohija), author of a report about the tragic fate of the Tesla family in his hometown of Smiljan
  58. Violeta Dimitrić ("TV Kopernikus" journalist)  
  59. Željko Mirković (director of the film "Tesla Nation")
  60. Jack Dimich (Hollywood actor for the role of Tesla in the Oscar-nominated documentary „Tesla Nation“)
  61. Slađana Tesla (fashion producer and former top model for fashion houses: Valentino, Vivienne Westwood, Sefora Farinacci), descendant of Nikola Tesla (Tesla was her great-uncle)
  62. Roksanda Ilinčić (top world fashion designer, London), author of the "Tesla scarf", as part of the "NT Tesla Style" fashion campaign
  63. Suzana Perić (world-renowned fashion designer and editor of the leading illustrated fashion magazine "Bazar"), author of fashion collections: Glam Galaxy; Tesla Universe
  64. Saša Milojković (top fashion designer, haute couture), author of a unique fashion collection: "NT Tesla Style by Sasha"
  65. RTS, Science Program Editorial Office, Milena Vujović, editor
  66. Mila Pivnički Mulroney, designer of Tesla Style coral jewelry
  67. Rade Komazec (owner of Komazec Winery and author of the wine brand "Tesla in Vino Veritas", geographical origin Serbia)
  68. Danica Karić (Director of the BK Foundation)
  69. Prima donna Jadranka Jovanović
  70. Rebecca McDonald, founder of ”Just Energy“ company, Canada
  71. Marina Gavanski Zisis, academic portrait painter, author of the "Golden Serbs" portrait collection, which includes a portrait of Nikola Tesla made with the technique of 24 carat gilding
  72. Jelena Bibić, academic painter and author of a series of oil portraits of Nikola Tesla
  73. Igor Veljković, graphic designer with a university degree, art director of "Tesla Bulletin", born in 1999
  74. Class VI-5 "Vladislav Ribnikar" elementary school, promoter of the "My brick for Tesla" campaign for the reconstruction of Tesla's laboratory at Wardenclyffe  
  75. Michael Freund, president of the Serbia-Israel Friendship Society, columnist of the leading daily newspaper "Jerusalem Post", writing a cult-status column "Fundamentally Freund", author of a series of newspaper articles about the fate of Tesla's people
  76. Tesla Universe, founder and editor Cameron Prince, USA, partners of the Smithsonian Museum, National Geographic & Discovery, leading science-research TV channels
  77. St. Regis Beograd, hotel-endowment of the Astor and Nikola Tesla family friendship, (”Midnight Supper“, an exclusive dinner on the occasion of the opening of the first hotel of this luxury brand, "St. Regis", was held at the Geozavod in Belgrade and was dedicated to the friendship between the founders of the "St. Regis" hotel John Jacob & Caroline Astor and the famous scientist Nikola Tesla)

IN MEMORIAM - POSTHUMOUSLY

  1. Ambassador Sava Kosanović, Nikola Tesla's nephew, son of his youngest sister Marica, who deserves credit for preserving Nikola Tesla's archive and transferring it to Belgrade
  2. Fiorello La Guardia, the mayor of the city of New York, who bid farewell to Nikola Tesla in 1943, as a New Yorker and a man whose life was a triumph of our civilization
  3. Prof. Ljubo Vujović, posthumously, founder and president of the first society in the U.S. dedicated to Nikola Tesla, the Tesla Memorial Society