\tJaroslav Heyrovsky
Heyrovsky, Jaroslay (1890-1967), a Czech chemist, won the 1959 Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing polarography, an electrochemical method of analyzing complex chemical solutions. Heyrovsky was the first Czech citizen to win a Nobel Prize.
Heyrovsky was born in Prague, in what is now the Czech Republic. He studied mathematics, physics, and chemistry at Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague before transferring to University College in London, from which he received a bachelor of science degree in 1913. During World War I (1914-1918), Heyrovsky served as a chemist and radiologist at a military hospital from 1915 to 1918. He earned a doctorate from Charles University in 1918 and a doctor of science degree from University College in 1921.
Heyrovsky served on the faculty at Charles University from 1919 to 1963. He was named director of the university's new Institute of Physical Chemistry in 1924, and in 1928 he became a full professor of physical chemistry. In 1926, he and Marie Koránova married. They had two children.
Before 1920, Heyrovsky began the work that led to the development of polarography. In 1924, with help from a colleague, the Japanese chemist Masuzo Shikata, Heyrovsky invented an instrument called the Polarograph to record on paper the analysis of chemical solutions. Heyrovsky's machine and method gradually gained worldwide recognition.
In 1950, the Central Polarographic Institute was established as part of Charles University. Heyrovsky was named its director, a position he held until his retirement in 1963. The institute was renamed the J. Heyrovsky Institute of Polarography in 1964. It is now called the J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry.