Proffesor dr Laza Stanojević (1861-1951), was born in Sombor in 1861 and died in Sremska Kamenica in 1951. After being the Head of Mental Hospital Stenjevac, close to Zagreb, he was appointed the first director of the newly instituted Clinic of Mental and Nervous Diseases, School of Medicine, Belgrade, on October 10, 1923.

He delivered his first lecture in psychiatry on October 12, in the same year. He was a director of the Clinic of Neuropsychiatry from 1923 to 1945, i.e. until his retirement. Department of Psychiatry and Neurology was established when Prof. Dr. Laza Stanojevic came from Psychiatric Hospital Stenjevac close to Zagreb, in 1923, and he was the first Head of this Department. His pioneering role as the first manager, head of Department and educator, was added by a large number, for that time, of published works. Other than his regular duties at the Clinic, Professor Laza Stanojevic published 47 scientific and research works in national and foreign journals, out of which 11 in the field of clinical psychiatry, 11 in forensic psychiatry, 6 in experimental pharmaco-psychiatry, 5 in social psychiatry and 14 papers in neurology. Professor Laza Stanojevic was remembered as great connoisseur of general medicine, highly skilled physician-pedagogue, a lover of written words and above all, founder of Serbian neurology and psychiatry. As professor of neuropsychiatry, creator and head of the Clinic of mental and nervous diseases of the School of Medicine, he completed his specialist training in neuropsychiatry at the Clinic of Nervous and Mental Diseases in Vienna, under Professor Julius Wagner-Jauregg, a Nobel Prize winner. Since 1918, he worked in the Mental Hospital Stenjevac near Zagreb. Dr. Laza Stanojevic was appointed an extraordinary (part-time) professor of neurology and psychiatry at the School of Medicine, Belgrade, on May 9, 1922. He was a Head of the Clinic of Mental and Nervous Diseases from its institution to his retirement in 1945.

At the time of foundation, the Clinic was not situated in its own building but it was located within the Hospital of Mental Diseases at Guberevac. Because of poor accommodation, Professor Stanojevic was faced with many problems in his work. Since there were no adequate classrooms, he was often compelled to give lectures somewhere else (in the lecture halls of the former I Clinic of Surgery and Forensic Medicine Institute, in the hospital shack, etc.). In spite of these difficulties, Professor Stanojevic succeeded in that the treatment, lectures, practical training and, to a certain degree, scientific work, were appropriately completed.
The following papers of his were noticeable: The impact of gastrointestinal disease to disposition of mentally ill patients, The issue of nystagmus in tabes dorsalis, Suicide in the light of criminal psychology and psychiatry, Is it possible and how much surgery may influence the schizophrenia? What is the way of memory impairment in paralytics? Why mental hospital should be and has to be managed by psychiatrist only? etc. He was enlisted in the World Medical Encyclopedia, published in London in 1939. At the School of Medicine in Belgrade, Professor Dr. Laza Stanojevic was well known as extraordinary connoisseur of general medicine, excellent doctor, talented lecturer, successful publicist in the country and abroad, one who remains recognized as one of meritorious people for foundation of Serbian neuropsychiatry. Prof. Dr. Laza Stanojevic died in Sremska Kamenica on August 15, 1951, and buried in his native Sombor on August 18.