In May this year there was the celebration of the Life Jubilee of Prof Ing Peter Grgac, CSc., university teacher from the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, acting at the faculty of Materials Science and Technology STU in Trnava. He was born on the 20th May 1952 in Trencin. His high school education was at the Secondary Industrial School of Machining in Bratislava. In 1971 he was accepted at the Faculty of Machining of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava. In 1966 he finished his studies in the field of Machining Technology, his field of study was in Welding and he gained the title of Engineer. After finishing his military service in 1977 he was accepted at the Mechanical faculty in Bratislava for the study of Internal Scientific Postgraduate study where he worked under the leadership of doc.Ing. Ladislav Krizan, CSc. in the scientific field of Physical Metallurgy and marginal states of materials. In 1986 he defended his dissertation and at this time he had already worked as a senior assistant at the Department of physical metallurgy, welding and casting at SjF SVST in Bratislava. The topic of the dissertation was oriented towards the preparation and study of High-alloy materials on the basis of iron prepared with the use of rapid solidification of hot melt in the process of its dispersion by pressurized gas. In 1986 he was relocated to the Machining Technological Faculty of SVST in Trnava. In the year 1992 he finished his habilitation in the field of Materials Engineering and gained a scientific-pedagogical degree- Associate professor. In 1999 he was appointed as a university professor in the field of Materials Engineering. During the years 2000-2006 he was the head of the department of Materials Engineering at the Faculty of Materials Science and Technology STU in Trnava. From the year 2006 he became vice dean of the MTF STU and is responsible for scientific research activities, foreign affairs and qualification growth of academics. During his scientific pedagogical work at the STU, he supervises more than 80 diploma works and supervises 8 scientific doctoral students from which one has already gained the title of University Professor and three gained the title of Associate Professor. His pedagogical activity is aimed especially at teaching subjects from the field of metal materials and their processing. Presently he specializes in works with doctoral students. He is the author and co author of several university text books, reviews and technical reports for use in practice. His research activities are based on high alloy tools of the ledeburitic type and the study of results of the dispersion of rapid melt. Prof Grgac, CSc. was the head of four projects which gained grants from the scientific grant agency of the SR Ministry of Education and the Slovak academy of Science, he worked and presently works as a co-author of several projects which have also gained financial support from the grant agency. There are several foreign science journals which contain some of his scientific works. He has been responsible for giving dozens of presentations at scientific conferences and professional seminars. Since 1996 he has been a regular active participant of an international scientific conference called Rapidly Quenched and Metastable Materials which takes place every three years around the word (in 1996 it was in Bratislava). From 2003-2011 Prof. Grgac, CSc. was a member of the Scientific board of the STU in Bratislava, presently he is Vice President of the Scientific board of the MTF STU in Trnava and is also a member of the Scientific board of the Institute of Materials and the Mechanics of Machines in the SAV in Bratislava. In the materials field he works as Vice President for the process of habilitations of associate professors and he is also responsible for designating full professors. He has also worked on monographies, university text books, scientific and professional journalist publications and he gives reviews about project proposals for different grant agencies. For seven years he was the president of the MTF STU Academic Senate in Trnava. He was elected twice in Bratislava as a member of the STU Academic Senate. This is now his fifth year as the President of the advisory board of the journal “Zvaranie-Svarovani”. He is the holder of the Jansky Plaquette, Paton Institute of welding in Kyjev and a commemorative medal of the STU in Bratislava. Due to his past works and experiences, he was ably to effectively join the pedagogical and research activities in the University environment.
We wish Prof. Grgac, CSc., good health, many happy years and joy from gardening, hiking and sport. The management of VUZ PI SR and editorial staff.
Translation: Anthony James Ronald Atkinson
