On September 28, 2021, at the age of 82, our former colleague prom. Josef Holakovský, CSc. passed away. After graduating from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the Charles University in Prague as a theoretical physicist, he joined the Department of Dielectrics in 1968 and ten years later defended his dissertation "Ferroelectric and Antiferroelectric Phase Transition of the Order Type in Mixed Crystals", submitted in 1973).
Josef Holakovský
He focused on the phenomenology of ferroelectric phase transitions in crystals and at the beginning of his career became famous for the first description and thermodynamic theory of a new type of so-called triggered ferroelectric phase transition, where a transition parameter with a different symmetry, which would lead to a non-ferroelectric structural phase transition, secondarily triggers also a ferroelectric transition [1]. An interesting and the most common case is when both phase transitions occur at the same temperature in the form of a phase transition of the first type. This work has become widely cited, especially in recent years, when hybrid ferroelectric phase transitions triggered by magnetic transitions appeared.
In later years, together with his colleagues, he also dealt with phase transitions to incommensurably modulated structures and in liquid crystals, but he was very reluctant to publish himself. Nevertheless, he was declared the most versatile and original physicist in the entire department, so a lot of colleagues liked getting involved in discussions with him, although they not always fully understood him.
At the time of the development of computer technology, he even built a simple computer himself. Since 2002, he had worked part-time, but he applied for a pension only when he voluntarily terminated his employment in 2007. In the following years, however, we enjoyed meeting him at Christmas parties.
As it is obvious from the above, Jožka lived very modestly, all his life alone without a family, but he was very popular among his colleagues, and also in the group of his classmates from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, who after their studies bought a cottage together, a former rectory in a small village in the area of Český Kras. His main hobby, apart from his work, was bridge, which he had been playing in competitions since the 1970s, and where he was also very popular. We will all miss him.
Reference
[1] J. Holakovský, A New Type of the Ferroelectric Phase Transition, phys. stat. sol. (b) 56, 615 (1973).