RNDr. Jiří Grygar, CSc.

Jiří Grygar is an astronomer, an astrophysicist and one of the most prominent popularisers of science in Czech history. All his life he has sought answers to the fundamental questions about how the universe works, but he has also played a crucial role as a teacher and mentor to several generations of scientists. A researcher in the Department of Astroparticle Physics of the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, he became known not only for his research but also for his ability to talk about science to the public clearly and with enthusiasm — his legendary programme Windows of the Universe Wide Open was, for many, the moment their interest in science was kindled.

“I cannot believe it,” Jiří Grygar responded to the first news that he was receiving the Neuron Award for Fostering Love of Science. “But it is true that I have sent a lot of people into orbit,” he smiles. He means all the students in whom, thanks to his teaching and mentoring, he fired up the “engines” for the journey into space. “I always tried to be at the forefront of astronomy, but my students outgrew me,” he adds with a teacher's pride. “After all, that was my task — to guide them and motivate them,” says the man after whom the asteroid 3336 Grygar is named.

The one who looks for answers

Humanity eagerly awaits answers to a great many questions. Why should you not be the one to find the right answer to one of them! That sentence, from the book The Universe Through New Eyes, which eight-year-old Jura received for Christmas in 1944, was the big bang of his life. “It made an astronomer of me,” Grygar says. “I knew at once that I wanted to be the one who looks for answers. I understood that a great deal is still unexplored and that I had to be the one who set about it. I told my parents I would be a stargazer. For a long time they did not take it seriously.”

But it happened. “All my life I have had questions in my head. The advantage of science is that it keeps presenting you with new unanswered questions, and a scientist has the desire to look for answers to them.” Jiří Grygar became not only someone who does thorough research himself, but also someone who can explain astronomy to the general public — aptly, clearly and most entertainingly. In his legendary television programme he opened the Windows of the Universe Wide Open for every even slightly curious viewer, future scientists among them.

With endless curiosity

Today Jiří Grygar, who still attends the events of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic, no longer feels that old obsession. “Of course I know about many interesting questions, but I also know that I will not be able to solve them any more. It does not trouble me. That is beyond me now; it is up to those I sent into orbit.” He is still interested in what is new in astronomy and astrophysics. He is only sorry that he can no longer cycle. He once co-founded Ebicykl, an association of stargazers on bicycles. “That was a love. I have ridden more than a hundred thousand kilometres in my life,” says the legend of science popularisation.

After his school-leaving exams at a grammar school in Brno he studied a five-year general course in mathematics and physics at Masaryk University, then astronomy at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University in Prague. From childhood his companion was the well-known astronomer Luboš Kohoutek. Although their paths parted after Kohoutek emigrated, they remained friends and respectful colleagues at a distance. Luboš even dedicated an asteroid he had discovered to Jiří. It is called 3336 Grygar. “And imagine what happened recently! It turned out that it is not one asteroid but two! They orbit each other. It is unique,” says Jiří Grygar enthusiastically — a unique figure himself.

Written about him in the media (in Czech):

I used to be silly, but I wanted to know everything,
the honoured Jiří Grygar recalls the childhood in which he longed to be a stargazer