Ervin Sejdic – was born in Gradacac in 1979 and was forced to leave the country during the war.  The refugee route led him from Croatia, Hungary to Canada and finally to the United States, where he specialized and received his doctorate.

Today Sejdic leads his own laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh, where he’s an Assistant Professor and deals with modeling the aging process. He is researching modeling the aging process especially regarding the function of swallowing and human locomotion. Sejdic and his colleagues are trying to mathematically model the process of walking in order to advance prediction of when a person will fall.

As a successful scientist in the field of health and health service delivery, Sejdic won the “Presidential Award for young scientists and engineers”, awarded by President Barack Obama. Thousands of young researchers were nominated by government agencies including NASA. Sejdic was recognized for outstanding contributions to the scientific field of bioengineering and the use of information technology in health care.

The scientist originally from Bosnia and Herzegovina has published numerous scientific papers during his career as well as registering numerous patents. Sejdic has been honored for his scientific contributions several times