The fiasco of our national team at the World Cup he saw as the mirror of a country that still doesn’t have a hymn to provide motivation when it is needed most, at the start.
In the world of science Dr Miodrag Stojković enjoys a reputation that few researchers can claim. When layperson asks what it is that he does, our collocutor replies, "I am attempting to resolve biological mechanisms of early human development, to discover what causes some diseases and how to prevent their occurrence."
Early human development was a cue to ask Dr Miodrag Stojković about his childhood, what he remembers as his most beautiful moments, and if he holds bad memories.
– My childhood was splendid because I spent time in my hometown of Leskovac, while I spent winter and summer holidays, sometimes state holiday, in the native village of my mother in the far south of Macedonia. It was excellent because as a child I shared everything with my buddies. We played football and basketball together, went swimming together, climbed mountains and the surrounding hills, worked in the fields, helped with domestic animals… Had I not had such a childhood, today I wouldn’t feel such great love and respect for nature. What bad memories do I have from childhood? What springs to the mind is that even then I often witnessed situations when people weren’t able to communicate among themselves.
What do you think today about your education and its importance for your future life, in the world of science?
– I can freely say that my education was decisive for my future vocation. My parents never forced me to learn, they somehow succeeded in making me see school as a place where I could satisfy my curiosity and a place where I could get answers to my questions. I never had the impression that I had to attend school. Today it is similar with my occupation. The day when I say I must go to work, I’ll stop doing what I’m doing now.
Is there a moment in your youth that you remember as being decisive, when you decided what you would do in life? Did you ever want to do anything else?
– If my dream had come true, I would now be a retired basketball player. Actually, there were many decisive moments, accidental and intentional. However, what was decisive was my fascination with microscopes. As a kid my dream was to have a microscope, to work with it. Naturally, at that time, those were dreams about children’s microscopes and only later, when I began to work on my doctor’s thesis in Germany, I began working with the real plaything. That was a decisive moment in my life, that beginning of working with embryos and cells in Munich. I that realised that that was my love, my obsession, the world that fascinated me and to which I belonged.
What was your main motivation in leaving the country when, after you finished your veterinary studies in Belgrade, you left for Germany?
– I left primarily because of the catastrophic situation in our country at that time. I wanted to go somewhere where I could have the chance to prove myself and where I would be given the opportunity to turn my first love into the love of my life.
Did you have a hard life, did you suffer poverty?
– When I recall my childhood, my studies, I realise that life was hard both for me and my family. However, I don’t know if I would call it suffering or the school of life. Poverty was always there, especially during my studies and later while I worked on my doctor’s theses in Munich. To survive in that expensive city and to help to my family back home, I sometimes had to work, odd jobs (in order to validate my Belgrade’s Veterinary Faculty’s diploma in Germany I had to study four more terms) parallel to my studies. On weekends I worked as a medical technician and nursed old people, during the week I helped out at the nearby University farm… However, I’ve never regretted this part of my life because it helped me recognise life’s values.
Did you feel you were handicapped being as a Serb at the beginning of your scientific career? Do you think it would have been easier for you if you were an American, German or British citizen?
– Those were really difficult and unhappy years for us Serbs but I used to meet many of my fellow countrymen who proved through their hard-work and results that we were not at all inferior compared to others. It was very difficult to obtain a student visa, to overcome the red-tape and to realise rights that others are automatically granted to owing to their descent.
Is the first animal you cloned in Germany still alive?
– It was at the end of the nineties. According to my knowledge that cow had many young…
How did you feel when Time Magazine included you among the twelve most perspective scientists in the world?
– Motivated. Every acknowledgment motivates.
What is it that you do today in Valencia? – Currently I am deputy director at the Principe Felipe Research Center in Valencia. It is a superb modern institute that spreads over 32,000 square metres and employs three hundred people. My task is to convey my experience and knowledge acquired in Germany and Great Britain to those working here, to direct all groups at the Institute towards the objective of speeding up the deployment of scientific results in medicine. This means to transmit stem cells as soon as possible from the laboratory to patients. I also have a group of young scientists engaged in differentiating stem cells and researching the complex but still undiscovered mechanism of early human development.
How would you describe your ordinary working day?
– I am extremely happy not to have an ordinary working day. Every day is different because the science in which we are engaged progresses extremely quickly. There are some changes every day – we obtain fascinating results, we begin new projects. My working day begins early in the morning at home. First I read my e-mail to check if I have any important messages. Then I continue working in the car where my wife and I discuss what is on our daily agendas. At work, however, I realise that the day was too short and so I continue working at home until late in the night. Over the last several years it has become a regular practice to continue working at home, at a computer. | 
