FORMER COMENIUS UNIVERSITY RECTOR, PROFESSOR JURAJ ŠVEC, HAS DIED
The oncologist, university teacher, and politician, Professor Juraj Švec, has died at the age of 79. From 1991 to 1997 Švec was the Comenius University Rector.
Švec’s scientific and research work focused on clinical and experimental oncology, and specifically the problem of carcinomas in the breast gland. He received important results and exceptional scientific recognition abroad for his research into the process of tumour formation and the role of hormones, chemical substances, and the genetic properties of cells in this process.
His professional career was significantly helped by study stays at oncological centres abroad; he was hosted by Professor Wacker in Frankfurt am Main, Professor Mühlbock at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, and elsewhere. Comenius University was able to re-join the network of the most important tertiary institutions in Europe during Švec’s time as the university’s rector.
Professor Juraj Švec came from the family of a university teacher. He successfully completed high school in 1955 in Bratislava. After completing his studies in medicine in June 1961 at Comenius University’s Faculty of Medicine in Bratislava, Švec started working at the TBC Sanatorium in Vyšné Hágy as a resident physician. In January 1963 he was employed as an assistant, and later as an assistant professor, at the Department of Radiology at the Institute for the Continuing Education of Doctors and Pharmacists in Bratislava. It was there that he wrote his first clinical studies, which focused on the radioisotopic diagnosis of urological complications in gynaecological oncology. In 1970 he began working as an assistant at the Department of Oncology, Radiology, and Nuclear Medicine at Comenius University’s Faculty of Medicine, where he habilitated as an Associate Professor in the discipline of oncology. After successfully defending his dissertation in 1983, he became a Doctor of Medical Sciences. From September 1986 he worked as the head of the Department of Oncology, Radiology, and Nuclear Medicine at Comenius University’s Faculty of Medicine. He held this position until 1990, when he was appointed the head of the faculty’s Oncological Institute. In April 1987 he was made a Professor of Oncology by the Czechoslovak president. From 1998 to 2004 he was the head of the Oncological Clinic at Comenius University’s Faculty of Medicine. In addition to his work in teaching and research, Švec held a number of academic offices. From 1991 to 1997 he was Comenius University’s rector.
Švec received a number of awards, including the Pope John Paul II Gold Medal for his services to the study of theology in Slovakia, the Council of Europe Gold Medal, and gold medals from a number of European universities.
(Source: Rektori Univerzity Komenského 1919 – 2009 [Comenius University Rectors 1919 – 2009], Comenius University Press, 2009)
May he rest in peace.