Vladimir Batagelj

Timeline

1. 1948–1986

   A doctorate on graphs

   A Slovenian mathematician, he is born in Idrija in June 1948. He studies technical mathematics at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology of the University of Ljubljana, completes a diploma in 1973 and a master's degree in 1985, and in 1986 completes a doctorate on inductive classes of graphs under Tomaž Pisanski.

2. 1975–2015

   Professor in Ljubljana

   From 1975 he works at the University of Ljubljana, and in 1999 he becomes a full professor of discrete and computer mathematics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics and the Faculty of Computer and Information Science. His work covers discrete mathematics and the analysis of social networks and other large networks, including blockmodeling, and he teaches as a visiting professor at the University of Pittsburgh in 1990 and 1991 and at the University of Konstanz in 2002. In 2015 the university names him an emeritus professor.

3. 1996

   Starting the software Pajek

   He begins work on Pajek in 1996 with Andrej Mrvar, then his PhD student. Pajek is freely available software for the analysis and visualization of large networks.

4. 2005

   Two Cambridge network books

   Cambridge University Press publishes Generalized Blockmodeling in 2005, by Vladimir Batagelj, Anuška Ferligoj and Patrick Doreian. In 2005 the press publishes Exploratory Social Network Analysis with Pajek, by Wouter de Nooy, Andrej Mrvar and Vladimir Batagelj. The book is translated into Chinese and Japanese.

5. 2007

   Simmel and book prizes

   In 2007 he and Anuška Ferligoj receive the Simmel Award from the International Network for Social Network Analysis. In 2007 Generalized Blockmodeling receives the Harrison White Outstanding Book Award from the Mathematical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association.

6. 2011–2013

   Lifetime and software awards

   In 2011 he receives the Donald Michie and Alan Turing Prize for life achievements in the Slovenian information society. In 2013 he and Andrej Mrvar receive the William D. Richards Software Award from the International Network for Social Network Analysis for their work on Pajek.

7. As of October 2026

   An emeritus research role

   He is an emeritus professor at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the University of Ljubljana, a member of the Institute of Mathematics, Physics and Mechanics, and a member of the Department of Information Sciences and Technologies at UP FAMNIT. Research at UP FAMNIT covers discrete mathematics, data analysis, network analysis and algorithms. In April 2025 he lectures at the University of Primorska on OpenAlex and the OpenAlex2Pajek library in R for bibliographic networks, and in May 2025 he presents new functions in the R package OpenAlex2Pajek at the computer mathematics seminar of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics.