dr. ivan rubeška: 1931-2001

1572 Volume 55, Number 11, 2001 APPLIED SPECTROSCOPY0003-7028 / 01 / 5511-1572$2.00 / 0q 2001 Society for Applied Spectroscopy

OBITUARY

DR. IVAN RUBESÏ KA: 1931–2001

Dr. Ivan RubesÏ ka of Prague, died of cancer on June 10th at the ageof 69. He graduated from Charles University in 1954 with a degree inphysical chemistry and worked for a short time at the Agriculture Testand Control Institute in Prague. Dr. RubesÏ ka joined the Chemical Lab-oratory of the Geological Survey of Czechoslovakia in 1956 and shortlythereafter received his Ph.D. in chemistry. The title of his thesis was‘‘The use of the photometric line width method in emission spectrog-raphy’’.

Dr. RubesÏ ka’s involvement with atomic emission spectrography andthe Geological Survey marked the beginning of a long and illustriouscareer in analytical spectroscopy. Upon receiving his doctorate, Dr. Ru-besÏ ka began work in atomic absorption spectrometry using an instru-ment of his own design and construction. He was one of the � rst toapply atomic absorption spectrometry to the analysis of geological ma-terials and promoted its use as an analytical tool both at home andabroad. In 1976, he introduced ICP emission spectrometry to the Geo-logical Survey. During his career, he also made signi� cant contributionsto the development and use of standard reference materials in geoana-lysis.

Dr. RubesÏ ka was a leader in atomic spectroscopy and his internationalreputation in the � eld was con� rmed by his appointment as a UnitedNations Expert in analytical chemistry. In this capacity he served overthe next twenty years on projects in Iraq, India, the Philippines, Laos,and Myanmar. Dr. RubesÏ ka was a member of Commission V/4 of theInternational Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry and a member ofthe editorial advisory boards of several journals including The Analyst,Geostandards Newsletter, the Journal of Geostandards and Geoanal-ysis, Progress in Analytical Atomic Spectroscopy, Annual Reports onAnalytical Atomic Spectroscopy, and the Canadian Journal of Analyti-cal Sciences and Spectroscopy.

Dr. Ivan RubesÏ ka published more than 70 papers and is the author

or co-author of several books including Atomic Absorption Spectrom-etry (1969), Flame Photometry (1970), and Atomic Fluorescence Spec-trometry (1975).

For many years Dr. RubesÏ ka served as the Scienti� c Secretar y forthe Czechoslovak Spectroscopy Society (Ioannes Marcus Marci Spec-troscopy Society) and was responsible for the organization of severalimportant international conferences. These included the � rst ever inter-national conference on atomic spectroscopy (1967) and the XX CSI andthe 7th ICAS in 1977. In that year, Dr. RubesÏ ka was awarded the JanMarek Marchi Award, the highest honor attainable from the CzechSpectroscopic Society, for his contributions in spectroscopy. He wasalso made an honorary member of the Society.

Ivan RubesÏ ka was a remarkable person. He spoke English, French,German , Russian, and some Spanish in addition to his native Czech.He was a tireless supporter of the spectroscopic sciences and continuedthroughout his life to organize conferences (national and international)and to attract international speakers to the Czech Republic.

Ivan RubesÏ ka was a great teacher and in� uenced the lives of manyyoung people as well as his contemporaries. He was an amateur his-torian and delighted in placing current events into historical perspectiveand in giving the origins of words and customs. One of the historicalfacts he loved to promote was the contributions of Marcus Marci, aCzech native, who nearly � ve centuries ago � rst (before Newton!) de-scribed the nature of diffraction and other optical phenomena. Ivan hada sophisticated sense of humor and this together with his generous andkind nature made him a friend to all.

We will greatly miss Ivan RubesÏ ka—the scientist, teacher, author,historian, family man, and friend. His spirit will live on in the heartsof the many people that he has touched and in� uenced throughout hislife.

D. CONRAD GREGOIRE

Ottawa, Canada