The Jaroslav Heyrovský Honorary Medal for Merit in the Chemical Sciences
The Jaroslav Heyrovský Honorary Medal
for Merit in the Chemical Sciences
awarded by the Czech Academy of Sciences
This honour was established by the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences on September 2, 1965 as an Honorary Plaquette for merit in the field of chemical sciences and later on September 18, 1970 rewarding outstanding results in scientific work, especially in the field of physical chemistry. Since the second half of the year 1995, it has been awarded by the Czech Academy of Sciences as an Honorary Medal.
Name of Jaroslav Heyrovský (1890–1967), professor of physical chemistry at Charles University and director of the Polarographic Institute of the Academy of Sciences was chosen for this award in recognition of his outstanding scientific achievements. Jaroslav Heyrovský founded a new and extensive section of theoretic and applied electrochemistry – polarography – and worked out theoretic foundations for the full use of the wide applicational possibilites for polarographic methods in an entire range of social and manufacturing practices. He created a world-renowned scientific school. For his excellent scientific work, in 1959, he became the first Czechoslovakian citizen who was awarded the prestigious Nobel prize. He was a member of several top foreign academies and scientific societies and gained honorary degrees from several universities, as well. His major works are “The Use of Polarographic Methods in Analytic Chemistry” (in Czech “Použití polarografické metody v analytické chemii”), “Inorganic Chemistry” (in Czech “Chemie anorganická”), “An Introduction to Practical Polarography” (in Czech “Úvod do praktické polarografie”) and “Oscillographic Polarography” (in Czech “Oscilografická polarografie”).
The Jaroslav Heyrovský medal was designed by academic sculptor and medallist Jan Václav Straka (1918–1983), a student of Prof. Otakar Španiel.