ALEXANDER TKAC

Prof. Alexander Tkac, RNDr.,Ing.chem., DrSc was born May 17, 1922 in Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia in the former Czechoslovakia. His father worked as a chemist in a pharmacy for many years, spending much time in laboratories preparing medicines. Perhaps this fact was the inspiration for his son to be engaged in chemistry.

He studied at the Slovak Technical University (STU) and graduated in 1947 as Dipl.Ing Chem.and then was accepted as an assistant at the Institute of Physical Chemistry at the Faculty of Chemical Technology. He obtained his doctor degree of physical chemistry (RNDr.) at Comenius University in Bratislava (1949). For his dissertation he chose "Molecular Compounds Indicated by Rush Membrane and their Interpretation through Hydrogen-Bridge Formation," which he defended under the well-known theoretical physicist Prof. Dionyz Ilkovic.

On March 17, 1951 he married Milada from Prague and for the following almost 50 years she has helped him in his scientific activities as his "unpaid secretary" and mother of their three children. (Katarina -1952, Ivan - 1954, Eva - 1956.)

In 1965 he received the degree of the Doctor of Sciences, DrSc.from Charles University in Prague on the basis of the dissertation "Thermally Generated Macroradicals and their Indication by Infrared and EPR Method." In the same year he was nominated for the Czechoslovak State Prize for Sciences. He was promoted to full professor of physical chemistry of STU in the eventful year 1968. Then, after 20 years that culminated with the "Velvet Revolution" in 1989, in the time of democratic reforms, he accepted the position of Vice-Rector for Sciences and International Relations of STU (1990,1991).

He contributed some 165 original papers to international journals and another 45  papers in Slovak journals, in addition to being the author of five scientific monographs, including the textbook on Physical Chemistry (800pp.), published in 3 editions. He is also credited with 54 patents.

An unforgettable honor for him was the receiving of the "Gold Medal of Jaroslav Heyrovsky" from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Prague in 1992 and the "Medal of Emil Votocek " for merit in sciences and technology development from the University of Chemical Technology in Prague.

After his retirement in 1993 he still continues to work in his laboratory as a Professor Emeritus and after the division of Czechoslovakia he was elected President of the Slovak Chapter of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU). He was responsible for organizing two SVU Conferences in Slovakia, one on 19-21 Oct 1994  in Smolenice, "Veda a umenie nepoznaju hranice," and another on 20-25.Aug 1995 in Kosice, "Technologia - Humanita - Umenie -Tolerancia." He also played a significant role in the 19th SVU World Congress in Bratislava on 5-10 July 1998, "Aktualne problemy vedy a umenia na prahu 21.storocia. In the 1993-2000 in the frame of regular SVU Chapter meetings in Bratislava he organized about 60 presentations by various scientists, artists and humanists.

In 1996 he was accepted as a new member of the "Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea" (headquarters in Salzburg, Austria) and in 1998 he received the Golden Roland Prize from the Mayor of Bratislava for his lifelong scientific contributions.

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