In memoriam Prof. RNDr. Fedor Macasek, DrSc

In this 'In memorial' paper is described the life and creative activity of the Professor Fedor Macasek (1937-2015). Professor Macasek spent more than four decades of his professional life as a member of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia (1963-2004). After completing his doctoral degree in Physical Chemistry and Radiochemistry at Lomonosov Moscow State University (1962), he began his career at the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at Comenius University. Born to be a leader, with a small team of colleagues he soon became a co-founder (1966) and later a Head of the Department of Nuclear Chemistry, where he co-authored several teaching texts, developed and taught courses in Nuclear and Radiochemistry and a graduate course in Separation Chemistry. His research activity started with studies of the chemistry of protactinium, sorption of radionuclides on bentonite clays, and application of radiotracers for the transport studies in groundwater. After a visiting position at Chalmers University with Prof. Jan Rydberg (1973), he carried out research on mechanisms of solvent extraction processes and radiation chemistry of biphasic systems, environmental speciation and analysis of radionuclides. As a renowned radiochemist, he was awarded with numerous national research grants and several international projects (IAEA, NATO). During his long academic and research career he authored and co-authored more than 110 well-cited scientific papers, 20 monographs and 14 author certificates. Later in his academic career (1994-2004) he intensively worked on the IAEA supported project of the Cyclotron Center within the Slovak Office of Standards, Metrology and Testing in Bratislava. He served as a National Coordinator of this project and a Chair of the Chemico-Pharmaceutical Section. He established the system of quality management for the design, development and production of medical radionuclides and radiopharmaceuticals for positron emission tomography. In 2004 he retired from Comenius University as a Professor Emeritus and became a Manager of Quality at the BIONT, the joint-stock company linked to Cyclotron Center. He founded and chaired the biennial international conference 'Separation of Ionic Solutes' (SIS, 1985-2003), served on editorial boards of a few peer-reviewed international journals, was a member of the IUPAC Commission on Radiochemistry and Nuclear Techniques, and cofounder and a board chair of the Curie Foundation. In the 1980's he also served as the Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the Comenius University, and the State Secretary of the Ministry of Education (1986-1989 and 1994). He lectured at many places home and abroad: Munich, Gent, Lyon, Denver, Kyoto, Clemson, Moscow, Cairo, Mumbai. He received many highly respected awards and several prestigious medals. He was a member of several scientific societies, among them the Slovak Chemical Society (SCHS) at the Slovak Academy of Sciences. In 1997, he received the Gold medal of the SCHS and in 2013 became an honorary member of SCHS.