The prestigious award Personality of Czech Chemistry 2022 was awarded in memoriam to Ing. Pavel Kubíček, who for many years was one of the most important personalities of Ústí nad Labem. The award was received by his wife Monika Kubíčková at this year’s festive November Evening with Czech Chemistry, which is organised annually by the Confederation of the Chemical Industry of the Czech Republic.
Pavel Kubíček was not only an excellent chemist, researcher and manager, but also the brains behind many key projects at SPOLCHEMIA, where he worked for 29 years until his unexpected death on the 4th of September. March 2021. He started at SPOLCHEMIA as an assistant in chemical research and gradually worked his way up to head of the research department and director of R&D in inorganics. As a man with a huge vision, he had a direct influence on the design of the company’s development strategy and it is mainly thanks to him that today SPOLCHEMIE focuses on very promising areas and belongs to the top of the market.
Thanks to Pavel Kubíček, for example, we were one of the first in the world to develop and implement the production of epichlorohydrin from the renewable raw material glycerin. For example, he was at the origin of a project for a new research centre, a project for the use of hydrogen in transport, a project for the desalination of wastewater and a project for the production of chlorinated precursors for F-gas 4. generation, which, when completed, will make a global contribution to the fight against global warming.
Pavel Kubíček was also a recognized authority among a wide range of professional organizations. In the past, he has been awarded the Ettl Prize for the most important industrial workers in the field of research and innovation and the Prague University of Technology has nominated him for the Czech Head Award several times. His sudden departure due to Covid-19 disease has affected the entire company very much – it has lost a great colleague, a good person and an expert who will no longer have the good fortune to see the successful implementation of some of the above mentioned projects that were based on his ideas, inventions and unique expertise.