Editing Anton Melik

{{more footnotes|date=January 2013}}
[[File:Anton Melik 1930s.jpg|thumb|Anton Melik (photographer Veličan Bešter)]]

'''Anton Melik''' (January 1, 1890 &ndash; June 8, 1966) was a [[Slovenes|Slovene]] [[geographer]].

==Biography==
Melik was born in the village of [[Črna Vas]] in [[Carniola]], part of [[Austria-Hungary]]. Before and during [[World War I]], he studied at the [[University of Vienna]], graduating in 1916 in [[history]] and [[geography]]. Later he was employed as a [[secondary school]] teacher. In 1926–1927 he became an associate professor at the [[Faculty of Arts]] of the [[University of Ljubljana]], in 1932 a senior lecturer, and then in 1938 a professor.

In 1927 he received his PhD from the Faculty of Arts with his [[dissertation]] on the settlement of the [[Ljubljana Marsh]]. Between 1938 and 1966, he was a professor of [[geomorphology]] at the Department of Geography at the [[University of Ljubljana]], succeeding professor [[Artur Gavazzi]] in 1938. With his work in this field he established his well-known geomorphological school.

In 1935–1936, the publishing house ''[[Slovenska matica]]'' published his monumental work ''Geografija Slovenije'' (The Geography of Slovenia) in two volumes with a general regional part, later extended with four additional books between 1954 and 1960, with a detailed regional description of particular areas of [[Slovenia]]: the [[Alps]], [[Lower Styria|Styria]] with [[Prekmurje]] and the [[Meža|Meža Valley]], the [[Lower Sava Valley]], and the [[Slovenian Littoral]].

Between 1947 and 1960, Melik was head of the Department of Geography at the Faculty of Arts. Between 1948 and 1966, he was head of the Geographical Institute of the [[Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts]]. Between 1946/1947 and 1949/1950, he was chancellor of the University of Ljubljana, and he served twice as dean of the Faculty of Arts in 1940/1941 and 1945/1946. He retired in 1966. He died in Ljubljana.

In 1976, the Geographical Institute of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, founded in 1946, was renamed the [[Anton Melik Geographical Institute]] in his honor.

==Family==
His two brothers Franc Melik (born 1885), and Ivan Melik (born 1894) were killed in a grove known as Kosler's Thicket ({{langx|sl|Kozlerjeva gošča}}, named after its former owner [[Peter Kosler]]), on November 25, 1943<ref>{{cite web|url=http://image2.findagrave.com/photos/2014/73/126423513_1394948175.jpg|title=Grave of Franc Melik|publisher=|access-date=2014-03-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140316153019/http://image2.findagrave.com/photos/2014/73/126423513_1394948175.jpg|archive-date=2014-03-16|url-status=dead}}</ref> together with 12 other victims by a unit of the collaborationist [[Slovenian Home Guard]] militia under the command of [[Franc Frakelj]].

For his work on the geography of Slovenia and [[Yugoslavia]], Melik received the [[Prešeren Award]] in 1947, 1949, and 1951. His son, [[Vasilij Melik]], was a [[historian]]; his two other sons, Anton (1918) and Andrej (1927–1930), died as children.

==Sources==
*[https://giam.zrc-sazu.si/en/strani/who-is-anton-melik#v/ Who was Anton Melik] 
*[[Ivan Gams]], [[William Morris Davis]], [https://web.archive.org/web/20041221210915/http://www.zrc-sazu.si/giam/zbornik/gams41.pdf Anton Melik, slemenski nivoji in pobočni procesi v Sloveniji / William Morris Davis, Anton Melik, Level Top Ridges and Slope Processes in Slovenia, ''Geografski zbornik'' 41 (2001).]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20021101031419/http://www.ff.uni-lj.si/hp/ff/zbornik/geografi.html Primož Jakopin, ''Zbornik ob 80-letnici FF, 1919-1999, Oddelek za geografijo'' (''Collection Marking the 80th Anniversary of the Faculty of Arts, 1919-1999, Department of Geography'').]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category-inline}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Anton Melik}}
* [http://giam.zrc-sazu.si Anton Melik Geographical Institute]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Melik, Anton}}
[[Category:1890 births]]
[[Category:1966 deaths]]
[[Category:People from the Urban Municipality of Ljubljana]]
[[Category:Slovenian geographers]]
[[Category:Regional geographers]]
[[Category:Prešeren Award laureates]]
[[Category:University of Vienna alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Ljubljana]]
[[Category:20th-century geographers]]