Professor Olga Hudlická passed away

Photo: BSM Archive

 

She continued to work as Professor Emeritus and it took her many years before her activity slowed down, so we often joked that it was only her salary that had retired! Her main interest was on the role of various factors connected with increased blood flow (the monograph ‘Muscle blood flow’ was published in 1973), and capillary growth in normal and ischaemic skeletal and cardiac muscle (the hugely influential ‘ Angiogenesis’ appeared in 1986). She published over 200 papers, chapters and reviews (the last one in 2011), and 3 edited monographs.
 

Before she came to Britain, Olga was Honorary Secretary of the Czechoslovak Physiological Society (1960–1969), and played important roles in the British Microcirculation Society as Honorary Secretary (1985–1992) and President (1996–1999). At BMS meetings she could always be relied upon to ask some penetrating questions; she greatly enjoyed attending the MCS meetings in the USA, especially interacting with Brian Duling there. It is a great shock to lose both these highly respected members of the microcirculation community within a matter of months. Her influence on this field was recognised as a Visiting Professor at universities in Frankfurt/Main, California (Davis), and Caracas (Venezuela). She also received several prestigious awards including The Zweifach Award (Microcirculatory Society USA, 1996), the Malpighi Award (European Society for Microcirculation, 2008), and was Annual Review Lecturer of the Physiological Society in 1990.
 

Her enthusiasm for the subject never waned, and well into her retirement she could be seen at seminars interested to find out where the new trends were leading. For those in her lab her breadth of knowledge was inspiring, while her uncanny ability to remember bibliographic details of papers she had read years earlier was rather intimidating – woe betide anyone with a vague recollection of ‘something’! Although teaching across many aspects of physiology for many years, with a traditional style that didn’t tolerate lazy students, her passion was always research. She lived life at a pace, whether it was tiring out younger visitors as she acted as tour guide around Prague, or stints in surgery that would daunt anyone half her age. When we last met she was still active in research, this time testing out recipes and writing a cookbook, and content with the knowledge that her scientific legacy was being continued. I personally owe her a tremendous amount, and consider it a privilege to have known and worked with her.