 Dean Emeritus of the Bata University Zlin, Czech republic, Petr Hlavacek, died at the age of 63 on January 10, 2014.
Doc. Petr Hlaváček, CSc., was the dean of the Faculty of technology on Tomas Bata University in Zlín until the year 2007. He was an associate professor on the Physics and Material Engineering Institution of the Faculty of technology.
Petr Hlaváček graduated from the Brno University of Technology in 1977, he specialized on textile, leather and plastic technologies. On the same university he finished his PhD studies in 1987 obtaining the title “candidate of sciences”. His specialization was the science of non-metallic and building materials. In 1997 he was habilitated to become an associated professor in technology of leather, plastic and rubber on the same university.  Petr Hlaváček was the vice president of Czech Shoe and Leather Association for science and research. He spent most of his professional life at Bata’s University Zlin as a teacher but also conducting research. He specialized on children and diabetic footwear. In 2005, Hlavacek received a prestigious award of the International Union of Shoe Industry Technicians (UITIC) for developing and realization of prophylactic footwear for diabetics.
Apart from scientific work on footwear for people with diabetes, he was interested in shoe history. Together with his team he was able to create replicas of the 5000-year-old Alpine Mummy (Ötzi) and was nominated for the Top 100 discoveries of the year 2003. He also conducted the Terracotta Warriors’ Footwear research (2006–2009) as part of the UNESCO’s World Heritage. Hlavacek´s team from Thomas Bata University investigated directly in Chinese city Xi-An. His group of Czech researchers was the only one to receive the permit to see the Terracotta´s Warriors in the pit competing for this privilege with German and Dutch specialists. As the UNIDO Leather Panel Member he coorganised UNIDO Leather Panel in Zlin (2000) and actively participated several UNIDO Leather Panels. “His positive, constructive approach, and his commitment, integrity and competence, set standards hard to maintain,” commented Ivan Král, Industrial Development Officer, UNIDO. “Petr Hlavacek leaves behind an amazing legacy and for that he will be always fondly remembered.” Hlavacek also prepared joint research projects with University of Oregon, Tübingen Universitaet, ETH Zürich, EGE University Izmir, BMI Valentia. He actively participated on literary conference about wine in Buchlovice together with associate professor Mr. Blaha. We honour his memory! 
(22/1/2014) |
