Carnegie Mellon University
May 06, 2013

Press Release: National NMR Center in Czech Republic Named for Carnegie Mellon Emeritus Professor Josef Dadok

Dadok To Be honored in Pittsburgh on May 9 at 2013 Pittsburgh Conference Lectures

Contact: Jocelyn Duffy / 412-268-9982 / jhduffy@andrew.cmu.edu

dadokPITTSBURGH-The Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC) in Brno, Czech Republic has named their national NMR center after Carnegie Mellon University Emeritus Professor of Chemistry Josef Dadok. The Josef Dadok National NMR Centre, one of the most advanced centers of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe, focuses on using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to study the atomic structure of biologically significant molecules. The Dadok National NMR Centre was dedicated in a ceremony held in Brno earlier this year.

Dadok will be celebrated in Pittsburgh at the 2013 Pittsburgh Conference Lectures at 6 p.m., on Thursday, May 9, at the Pittsburgh Athletic Association. Dadok will deliver a lecture titled "My 50 Years in Scientific Instrumentation - Mostly NMR."

Dadok is often referred to as the "founder of NMR in Czechoslovakia." He built the country's first NMR spectrometers in the 1950s and 60s, a time when only the United States and Japan were producing commercial NMR equipment. Before trade restrictions were lifted in the 1990s, Czechoslovakia was the leading producer of NMR equipment in Eastern Europe. Czechoslovakia was divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on Jan. 1, 1993.

dadokThe CEITC and Masaryk University in Brno's new national NMR center honors Dadok for his contributions to the development of NMR instrumentation techniques in Czechoslovakia and the United States. Funded by the Central European Union, the Josef Dadok National NMR Centre is equipped with five modern high field NMR spectrometers that have operating frequencies of up to 950 MHz. The center will act in a manner similar to that of the Carnegie Mellon NMR facility, serving users from inside and outside of the university. The center was formally named in a ceremony on Jan. 23 as part of a scientific NMR symposium with more than 150 international participants.

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Pictured at top is Carnegie Mellon University Emeritus Professor of Chemistry Josef Dadok. Below, the Josef Dadok National NMR Centre was dedicated in a ceremony held in Brno, Czech Republic earlier this year. Photos courtesy of the Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC).