Prof. Ing. Petr Grau, DrSc.
born 4.4. 1932
He graduated from the University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague (UCT Prague) in 1956, earned his CSc. degree in 1963, and his DrSc. in 1978. In 1979, he was appointed professor of water technology (succeeding the founder of the field, Prof. Ferdinand Schulz, and professors Maděra, Hamáčková, and Kohout). He served as head of the Department of Water and Environmental Technology and as Vice-Rector for the university’s development. His professional focus was primarily on substrate kinetics, population dynamics of mixed cultures, and suspension separation. He is the author and co-author of 26 patents and utility models (his first patent was granted two years after graduating from university) and numerous scientific publications. His academic and teaching activities—including guest lectureships at leading global universities such as the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Adelaide, Australia—were recognized with the Annual Award of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors of the USA and Canada in 1989, university awards, and—quite unusually for our region—a commendation from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He was elected a member of The International Water Academy in Oslo. For his long-standing work with the Stockholm Water Foundation, he received an honorary award from the City of Stockholm, including a silver model of Stockholm City Hall. He is also a recipient of the Gold Medal of the Australian Water and Wastewater Association (1993).
His international activities were exceptional, particularly within the International Association on Water Quality (now the International Water Association), where he served as President from 1990 to 1994. He worked as an expert for international organizations such as WHO, UNIDO, OECD, the World Bank, and the European Commission, and was also a personal advisor to the Swedish King, Carl XVI Gustav.
For approximately ten years, he worked as an invited independent consultant on projects and operational management of wastewater treatment plants in South America—including São Paulo (22 million inhabitants, five treatment plants with a combined average inflow of 18 m³/s), Rio de Janeiro (6 million inhabitants), Buenos Aires (13 million inhabitants), and Santiago de Chile (Santiago Sur WWTP, 2.8 million inhabitants), among others.
In recent years, he achieved outstanding results in the restoration of the Venetian Lagoon in collaboration with Italian universities.
His friends know that he is passionate about automobile rallying, having served for many years as a technical expert for the Subaru Czech Rally Team, which notably won two silver medals in the production car category at the famous Monte Carlo Rally.