Professor Naim Afgan was born in the town of Banja Luka on 15 June 1929. He graduated form the University of Zagreb in 1956 as a Mechanical Engineer. He obtained his Doctorate of Technical Sciences from the Electrical Engineering Faculty in 1966 from the University of Belgrade. Prof. Afgan has been a member of Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia Herzegovina since 1989.He was Scientific Adviser at the Nuclear Science Institute (Vinca), Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in the field of Heat and Mass Transfer, Energy Engineering and Nuclear Technologies (1965-1991); Director of the Association of Yugoslav Nuclear Sciences Institutes, Belgrade, Yugoslavia, responsible for planning and coordinating the program in nuclear energy sciences (1991-1993); Professor at Mechanical Engineering Faculty University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia; and Chair on Energy Engineering (1980-1993).

He was invited to become a visiting professor at the Technical University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal, as a UNESCO Chair Holder, organizing and presenting short courses on Sustainable Energy Management (1993). Dr Afgan is a member of the Scientific Council of the International Center for Heat and Mass Transfer, 1968-present, Ankara, Turkey; member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the International Journal of Experimental Heat Transfer, Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics published by Elsevier Science Inc. (1986-present). He is also Editor, bulletin of the International Center for Heat and Mass Transfer, Journal of International Center of Heat and Mass Transfer, published by Hemisphere Pub. Corporation, New York, (1986-1988). He is also a former editor of Nuclear Technology, the Serbo-Croatian Journal of the Yugoslav Nuclear Institute Association (1982-1989).

Prof. Afgan was a member of the editorial board of Nuclear Europe (the Journal of the European Nuclear Association) (1982-1990); member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Journal of the French Society of Heat Engineers (1974-1990). He is the recipient of the Belgrade Award for Scientific Achievement in 1976 for the Monograph "Boiling Liquid Superheat," Academic Press, 1976. He was elected a Fellow of the Islamic Academy of Sciences in 2000.