Jaromír Pastorek, a prominent scientist, former director of the Institute of Virology (VÚ) of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and former president of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS), died in the early hours of Saturday morning at the age of 68. TASR was informed about this by the family of the deceased.
He was globally one of the most cited Slovak scientists and his scientific work is a contribution to global knowledge in the field of molecular biology and experimental oncology. Recently, as a co-discoverer of the tumor biomarker CA9, he devoted himself to the development of antitumor treatment, which fate did not allow him to complete.
Jaromír Pastorek was born on March 18, 1957 in Nové Zámky. From natural sciences obtained in 1982 at the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University doctor’s degree (RNDr.). He received his candidacy (CSc.) in 1988 and the title of doctor of sciences (DrSc.) in 1998 in the field of virology at VÚ SAV. He also worked as a university teacher.
In 1982, Jaromír Pastorek joined VÚ SAV, where he was first an aspirant, later head of the department of molecular biology and deputy director of VÚ SAV from 1992 to 2001. He was the director of VÚ from 2001 to 2009. From 2009 to 2014, he was the chairman of the SAS. In 2015, he became the representative of the Slovak Government for research and innovation.
He is the recipient of several awards. He received the Scientist of the Year award in 2001, in 2007 the ARRA agency ranked him among the top scientists in the Slovak Republic in biology, and in 2008 he received the Literary Fund prize for scientific acclaim. He was a member of the Learned Society of the Slovak Republic and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.
