On 27 th October 1959, Professor Jaroslav Heyrovský received a telegram from Stockholm which read as follows: "Swedish Academy of Science today decided to award you for your polarographic method the 1959 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Letter follows - Rudberg, Secretary." This was the first and so far the only Nobel prize awarded for the sciences to this small country in the centre of Europe.
Jaroslav Heyrovský was born on 20 th December 1890 into the family of Professor JUDr. Leopold Heyrovský (1852 - 1924), Professor of Roman Law at the Law Faculty of the Czech university in Prague. After completing his secondary school studies in 1909, he enrolled at the Philosophy Faculty of the Czech university, leaving one year later for London, where he continued his studies at University College and graduated as a Bachelor of Science in 1913. At the end of World War I in 1918 he sat the final examination at the Prague university and on 26 th September he was awarded a PhD. In 1920, he was awarded a second doctorate as the first reader in Physical Chemistry at Charles University and the following year he was awarded a science doctorate by London University. The most prominent of his professors included Bohuslav Brauner, František Záviška and Bohumil Kučera on the Czech side, and Sir W. Ramsay, F. G. Donnan, W. Mc Lewis, F. T. Trouton, A. Porter and L. N. G. Filon in England.
From 1921, Heyrovský applied himself to the intensive study and interpretation of electrocapillary curves. On 10 th February 1922, he used a mercury dropping electrode for electrolysis in his researches, which had been inspired by Prof. B. Kučera back in 1918, and so laid the foundations for a new scientific discipline - polarography. Shortly thereafter, with his Japanese colleague, Masuzo Shikata, he constructed the first instrument for the automatic recording of polarographic curves, which became world famous later as the polarograph.
On 6 th April 1922, Jaroslav Heyrovský was appointed assistant professor and in March 1926 professor ordinarius in Physical Chemistry at Charles University. Concurrently, in 1922 he became Director of the newly established Institute of Physical Chemistry at Charles University and in 1924 he was elected associate and 14 years later full member of the CASA; in 1925 he became member of the CSNRC, in 1926 he acquired associate membership and in 1932 full membership of the RBLS. In 1928, together with his friend, Emil Votoček, he founded "Collection of Czechoslovak Chemical Communications", a magazine published in English and French, which soon became one of the most important platforms for international contacts with Czechoslovak chemists. He also worked as President of the Scientific Section at the American Institute in Prague.
All of this was bound up with and based on in his extremely intensive scientific work, publishing, lecturing and organizational skills which he applied to the field of science, thanks to which his international reputation grew rapidly. In 1926, he worked for six months in Professor G. Urbain's laboratory at the Sorbonne and seven years later he had another six-month study and lecture tour at Ivy League American universities with a grant from the Carnegie Foundation, and for the entire period up to World War II he was an active member of a number of foreign scientific societies and institutes (e.g. American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C., Kaiserlich Deutsche Akademie der Naturwissenschaften, Academia scientiarum Germanica Berolinensis, Societas Regia Scientiarum Hauniensis, Regalis Societas Londini pro Scientia Naturali and others).
His scientific work was not even interrupted by the Nazi occupation. Thanks to his friend, the German antifascist professor, Johann Böhm, who made his laboratory available to him at the German University in Prague, he was able to complete his extensive monography on polarography and to start on a new line of research, involving in particular oscillographic polarography. In 1940, the first nomination to award him the Nobel prize was made (later to be repeated in 1947, 1956 and conclusively in 1959).
After the war and the conciliatory end to the affair over allegations of his collaboration with the Germans, Jaroslav Heyrovský became, inter alia, Director of the newly established Central Institute of Polarography; as a member of the Government Commission for the Construction of the CSAS he had a share in its establishment and on 12 th November 1952 he was appointed one of its first full members - or academicians. The aforementioned Central Institute of Polarography then moved into the CSAS under the name of the CSAS Polarographic Institute. Heyrovský headed this Institute for another 11 years (until 30 th September 1963) and frequented it thereafter almost literally until his death on 27 th March 1967.
Written by Vaclav Podany
American-Czech relations
Exceptionally extensive and varied documentation on J. Heyrovský's scientific contacts with American scientific institutes and eminent figures.
Among others:
Membership diplomas, e.g. American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 10. 5. 1933, Boston
National Geographic Society, 17. 12. 1936, Washington, D. C. Sign. I, ser. no. 19, 20, b. 2.
Memoirs of a visit to the USA, undated (1960s). Sign. I, ser. no. 55, b. 2.
Correspondence, e.g. Jerome Alexander (19+10), 1948 - 1954, ser. no. 92, Marston Taylor Bogert (21+23), 1928 - 1951, some undated, ser. no. 269, William C. Bray (4+2), 1933 - 1934, ser. no. 314, M. Calvin (1), 1955, ser. no. 368, Paul Delahey (37+12), 1950 - 1966, some undated, ser. no. 451, I. M. Kolthoff (63+29+3 incomplete letters+5 enclosures), 1937 - 1966, some undated, ser. no. 1192, H. J. Muller (1), 1965, ser. no. 1567, Arthur A. Noyes (3+3), 1932 - 1933, ser. no. 1655, Linus C. Pauling (13+17+ 4 enclosures), 1947 - 1967, some undated, ser. no. 1716. All sign. II, b. 4, 6, 7, 14, 18-20.
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, New York (24+17), 1932 - 1933, ser. no. 2571, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, New York (4), 1951, ser. no. 2720, Lousiana State University, Baton Rouge (18+13), 1947 - 1960, some undated, ser. no. 2882, Princeton University, Princeton (2), 1932, 1953, ser. no. 3008, Rockefeller Foundation, New York (2), 1934, 1937, ser. no. 3038, Stanford University, Stanford (4), 1933 - 1958, ser. no. 3088, University of California, Berkeley (4), 1933 - 1957, ser. no. 3155. All sign. II, b. 29 31, 32, 34, 35, 38.
Congratulations on the award of the Nobel Prize - USA (65+11), 1959. Sign. II, ser. no. 3346, b. 38.
Notes on lectures and seminars on the theoretical problems of polarography in the USA, 11-page manuscript, English + 2 items, manuscripts, English, 1933. Sign. III, ser. no. 3459, b. 46.
Scientific notes on study visit to USA, 1 item, English,1933. Sign. III, ser. no. 3714, b. 53.
Laboratory diary from collaboration with the American scientist, Prof. William C. Bray, 1 notebook, English, 1934. Sign. III, ser. no. 3716, b. 53.
Extensive documentation involving J. Heyrovský's membership of scientific societies, academies and other institutes, e.g. American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston, American Chemical Society, Washington, American Institute in Prague (J. Heyrovský was President of the Scientific Section of this Institute), Electrochemical Society, New York, International Planned Parenthood Federation, New York. Sign. IV, ser. no. 3747 - 3749, 3760, 3767, b. 56, 60.
Lecture tour on a Carnegie Endowment grant. Fragments of notes from the tour, reports on the tour, poster advertising a lecture, 1933. Sign. IV, ser. no. 3806, b. 68. Cuttings from the daily press on this tour, 1933. Sign. V, ser. no. 3956, b. 73.
Photos - visit of I. M. Kolthoff to Prague, 3 items, 1948. J. Heyrovský's trip to the USA, 6 items, 1933. Sign. V, ser. no. 3858 a 3874, b. 70.
Report on a trip to the USA, 1934. Appendix (published works), ser. no. 39, b. 80.
In addition to these documents, the personal papers of J. Heyrovský include his works published in the USA, patent documents, patent applications etc.