Nicolaus Konkoly-Thege Medal
Prof. Viktor Kanický
Prof. RNDr. Viktor Kanický, DrSc. (*17. 6. 1953) received his master’s degree in chemistry from J. E. Purkyne University in Brno (UJEP Brno, former and now again Masaryk University) in 1977. In 1978 he defended rigorosum thesis and obtained from UJEP Brno the degree of RNDr. (Rerum Naturalium Doctor) in analytical chemistry. He started his professional career in 1978 at Geological Survey Ostrava at laboratories in Brno as a research scientist. He was involved in development of analytical methods and analysis of geological materials using ICP-OES. In 1989 he worked 3 months as a consulting specialist for analytical methods in geology at laboratories of Natural Resources Authority, Amman, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. In 1990 he defended his doctoral thesis and graduated at the Faculty of Science, Masaryk University (MU) as candidatus scientiarum, CSc. (equiv. to Ph.D.). Since 1990 he held in Geological Survey the position of senior researcher, and in 1991 became the head of laboratory of spectral analysis (XRF, ICP-OES, and arc spectrography). In 1991 he left Geological Survey and became assistant professor at the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Education, MU, where he taught and built new laboratories (1991- 1994). In 1994 he was appointed assistant professor at the Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Science, and habilitated in analytical chemistry as associate professor in 1996.
In 1997 Laboratory of Plasma Sources for Chemical Analysis (LPCA), later renamed as Laboratory of Atomic Spectrochemistry (LAS), was founded at the Faculty of Science, MU. Viktor Kanicky then started his research on LA-ICP-OES experiments focused on laser ablation of powdered materials, alloys, geological and environmental materials. In 2001 he defended doctoral dissertation focused on laser ablation LA-ICP-OES and analysis of solutions by ICP-OES at University of Pardubice, Czech Republic and was awarded a scientific degree of DrSc. (Doctor of Sciences). In 2003 he was appointed full professor of analytical chemistry and in 2004 became a head of LAS. He was also the head of the Department of Analytical Chemistry between 2005 and 2007.
His teaching activities concern atomic and molecular spectrometry, analytical chemistry, and ICP-OES/MS. In the period 2000-2002 and since 2010 he is the member of the scientific council of the Faculty of Science, MU. From 2000 to 2002 he held the position of the vice-dean for organizational matters, and since 2010 to 2018 he has been in the position of the vice-dean for research, doctoral studies, and international relations. He was a member of Czech Commission for UNESCO, and in 2005, 2010 and 2015 he was elected the Chairman of Ioannes Marcus Marci Spectroscopic Society. In 2016 he was awarded Honour membership of the Slovak Spectroscopic Society and in 2017 he was awarded Tibor Török Medal, the appreciation of Hungarian Spectrochemical society of Hungarian Chemical Society for his contribution and achievements in analytical spectroscopy. Viktor Kanický is author and co-author of 160 original scientific papers with about 2600 citations and h-index 25.