Historiy of the Department
From the foundation of Charles University in 1348 until the establishment of an independent Faculty of Science in 1920, natural sciences were taught mainly at the Faculty of Philosophy, but the teaching of chemistry was concentrated at the Faculty of Medicine.
The first mention of teaching chemistry at Charles University dates back to 1654, when, according to the then valid study regulations, a professor of botany in the fourth year of medical studies was also supposed to lecture on physics and chemistry. However, the provision remained on paper for almost a century; it was not until 1738 that lectures actually began. Professor John Antonin Scrinci (1697–1773) was appointed as lecturer, and was instructed to lecture “chimiam et physicam experimentalem,“ not only theoretically but also experimentally. Thus, Scrinci supplemented his lectures, held in his apartment in Karolinum, with beautiful experiments, by which he aroused such interest that even foreign listeners began to attend. From 1752 onwards, the Empress Maria Theresa herself paid him a special allowance of 200 guilders to carry out his experiments.
After Scrinci, in 1775 the teaching of chemistry was taken over by Prof. Dr. Josef Bohumil Mikan (1742–1814), an erudite teacher who kept up with the development of his field (he advocated the antiphlogiston theory). Mikan also pushed for the conversion of the Gothic rooms on the ground floor of the Karolinum (where the present-day cloakroom is) into a chemical laboratory and supervised the construction of a special chemical fireplace. A year before his retirement, a court decree of 24 September 1810 separated the lectures on chemistry from botany and extended them for the entire academic year.
The first professor of the newly established chair of general and pharmaceutical chemistry was Prof. Josef von Freymuth (1786–1819), a master of pharmacy, who was simultaneously promoted to honorary doctor of medicine upon his accession, in order to comply with the regulation that the professor of chemistry at the medical faculty must be a doctor of medicine. Freymuth is credited with having built up the original single laboratory into an independent chemistry department of the medical faculty.
His work was continued by Prof. Dr. Adolf Martin Pleyschl (1787–1867), who in 1836 secured permission to convert the so-called Stockhaus (no. 460) in the back yard of the Karolinum into a chemical institute.
His successor was Prof. Dr. Josef Redtenbacher (1810–1870), among others a pupil of the famous Just von Liebig. Redtenbacher was the first to introduce lectures on analytical chemistry in Austria. The introduction of the doctorate in chemistry, which Charles University was allowed to award from 1812, contributed significantly to the development of independent study of chemistry.
It was not until 1848 that the study of chemistry was transferred from the Faculty of Medicine to the Faculty of Philosophy. This led to the establishment of the chemical laboratory of the Faculty of Philosophy, directed in 1882–1892 by the eminent Czech natural scientist Prof. Dr. Vojtěch Šafařík (1829–1902). Šafařík came to Charles University as a professor of chemistry from the Prague Polytechnic. He studied platinocyanides, vanadium chemistry and mineralogy. He was also the first chairman of the Society of Czech Chemists.
Since 1882, this chemical laboratory was located in the house “U slovanské lípy,“ in Spálená Street (on the site of today’s courthouse). From there, it was moved in 1890 to the opposite house, “U Lebedů,” on the corner of Spálená and Myslíkova Street. It moved to its present location, the Chemical Institutes building in Albertov, in 1904.
In 1909, the chemical laboratory, or chemical institute of the Faculty of Philosophy, was divided into several departments (later institutes), including the Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, headed by Prof. Dr. Bohuslav Brauner (1855–1935). Brauner focused on the study of the atomic weights of the elements, where he became world famous, and also studied the elements and compounds of rare earth elements. He is the author of the then very modern handbook Qualitative Analysis (1919).
Finally, in 1920, an independent Faculty of Science was established, to which the study of chemistry was transferred from the faculty of philosophy. After Brauner’s retirement from the faculty in 1925, the Department of Inorganic and Analytical chemistry was divided into two separate institutes: the Institute for Analytical Chemistry and the Institute for Inorganic Chemistry.
The first director of the Institute of Analytical Chemistry and the first professor of analytical chemistry was Prof. Dr. Josef Švéda (1881–1929), who dealt with gas analysis and forensic analysis. After his premature death, the management of the Institute was taken over by Prof. Dr. Oldřich Tomíček (1891–1953). Tomíček was first devoted to organic chemistry, but later his interest became mainly in volumetric analysis. He published a number of well-known handbooks on analytical chemistry (Fundamentals of Quantitative Analysis, 1933; On Potentiometric Titrations, 1941).
In 1952, the Faculty of Science was divided and the teaching of chemistry came under the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, only to return to the Faculty of Science again seven years later, in 1959. At that time (since 1953), the head of the department was Prof. Dr. Jaroslav Zýka (1922–2010), under whose leadership the department continued its research on modern methods of volumetric analysis and electrochemical methods.
In 1971, Prof. Dr. Václav Suk, CSc. (1922–2003) became the head of the department, focusing on fluorescent, acid-base and chelatometric indicators and dyes for spectrophotometric methods. In 1982, Prof. Dr. Antonín Berka (1931–2008), who specialized in analytical determination of organic substances, became the head of the department.
During Velvet Revolution in 1989, Prof. Dr. Karel Štulík (1941–2013) was elected the head of the Department; under his leadership great development of modern chromatographic methods took place. The subject of Prof. Štulík’s scientific interest was electroanalytical chemistry, liquid chromatography, sensors, application of modern analytical methods to environmental, biological and medical components as well as general questions of analytical chemistry. In 1997–2003 he was Dean of the Faculty of Science.
Since 1997, the position of Head of the Department was held by Prof. Dr. Jiří G. K. Ševčík; he was focused on prediction models for chromatographic methods, automation and the use of numerical methods for adaptive instrumentation. He was replaced in 2001 by Prof. Karel Štulík.
In the period 2006–2012 the department was headed by Prof. Dr. Jiří Barek. The domain of his scientific work is electroanalytical determination of trace amounts of biologically active organic substances (chemical carcinogens, biomarkers, drugs, pesticides, dyes and others) and development of new electrochemical sensors and detectors.
From 2013 to 2018, the head of the department was Prof. Dr. Pavel Coufal, who focuses his research mainly on modern separation methods and their miniaturization, also in conjunction with mass spectrometry.
In the following period 2018–2024, the department was headed by Prof. Dr. Zuzana Bosáková, during whose term of office the department’s instrumentation was significantly expanded, especially with financially demanding instruments (HPLC-MS/MS? ICP-MS).
Literature: