František Patočka (22 October 1904,

Turnov Turnov (; german: Turnau) is a town in Semily District in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 14,000 inhabitants. It is a traditional centre for gemstone polishing, glass craftsmanship and arts. The town centre is well preserve ...

– 14 March 1985,

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

) was a Czechoslovak microbiologist and serologist. He established the study of

virology Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, th ...

in Czechoslovakia. Patočka studied medicine (specialised in microbiology) at the

Charles University in Prague ) , image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg , image_size = 200px , established = , type = Public, Ancient , budget = 8.9 billion CZK , rector = Milena Králíčková , faculty = 4,057 , administrative_staff = 4,026 , students = 51,438 , undergr ...

(graduated in 1928). In 1936 he became head of the Czech Bacteriological Institute (after Ivan Honl). At the end of World War II, together with epidemiologist Karel Raška, he was personally leading measures to stop the spread of epidemic typhus in the Terezín concentration camp. Together they wrote a report describing the appalling conditions and mistreatment of German civilians incarcerated in the Small Fortress after the war ended. During the 1960s he worked as an expert for the

WHO Who or WHO may refer to: * Who (pronoun), an interrogative or relative pronoun * Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism * World Health Organization Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Who, a creature in the Dr. Seuss book '' Horton He ...

in India and Zaire. His brother

Jan Patočka Jan Patočka (; 1 June 1907 – 13 March 1977) was a Czech philosopher. Having studied in Prague, Paris, Berlin, and Freiburg, he was one of the last pupils of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. In Freiburg he also developed a lifelong philos ...

was a well-known Czechoslovak philosopher.

References

External links

Biography (in Czech)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Patocka, Frantisek 1904 births 1985 deaths People from Turnov People from the Kingdom of Bohemia Serologists Czechoslovak microbiologists Czechoslovak epidemiologists Charles University alumni Academic staff of Charles University Czechoslovak physicians World Health Organization officials