Doc. Ing. Jan Chudoba DrSc.
16. 3. 1936 – 13. 1. 1992
"Doc. Ing. Jan Chudoba, DrSc. left an unforgettable mark on the history of the department and in the memories of water professionals, especially former students, who referred to him simply as 'The Teacher'. For him, teaching was not just about lecturing and imparting knowledge — he engaged in lively discussions with students, maintained a warm and friendly relationship with them, and had a gift for sparking their interest in the subject matter.
He completed his master’s studies at the Department of Water Technology at UCT Prague in 1960. He defended his candidate dissertation (CSc.) in 1966, and after a long (forced) pause in his academic and professional advancement, he was appointed Associate Professor in 1990. He defended his doctoral dissertation in 1991. Sadly, he was able to enjoy these two well-deserved titles for only a short time — on January 13, 1992, he passed away suddenly at his desk at the age of 56.
In research and academic work, Doc. Chudoba ranked among the most active members of the department. This is evidenced by an extraordinary number of published works for that time — a total of 165, including 46 peer-reviewed papers that continue to be cited today.
He was one of the first to demonstrate that most residual dissolved substances in effluents from activated sludge systems are waste products of the mixed microbial culture formed during the process. On this topic, he published 31 papers — both independently and with collaborators — which are widely cited in international literature. Based on these studies, he formulated key purification limits for the activated sludge process.
His greatest recognition came with the invention of the selector, which he patented together with co-authors P. Grau and M. Dohányos in 1972. This innovation has since been adopted worldwide to suppress sludge bulking in activated sludge systems. On this subject, he and his colleagues published 20 papers, some of which are now considered classics and are regularly cited in global literature.
Among his book publications, two stand out as foundational textbooks in the field:
- Tuček F., Chudoba J., Koníček Z.: Basic Processes and Calculations in Water Technology, SNTL, Prague 1977 and 1988.
- Chudoba J., Dohányos M., Wanner J.: Biological Wastewater Treatment, SNTL, Prague 1991.