| SVU |
CZECHOSLOVAK SOCIETY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES |
MILOSLAV RECHCIGL, JR. - SVU President
Mila Rechcigl, as he likes to be called, a
scientist, scholar and amateur historian, is current President of the Czechoslovak
Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU). He is a native of Mlada Boleslav, Czechoslovakia, who
has lived since 1950 in the US. After receiving a scholarship, he went to Cornell
University where he studied from 1951-58, receiving his B.S., M.N.S., and Ph.D. degrees
there, specializing in biochemistry, nutrition, physiology, and food science.
He then spent two years conducting research
at the National Institutes of Health as a postdoctoral research fellow. Subsequently he
was appointed to the staff of the Laboratory of Biochemistry at the National Cancer
Institute.
During 1968-69 he was selected for one year
of training in a special USPHS executive program, in research management, grants
administration, and science policy. This led to his appointment as Special Assistant for
Nutrition and Health in the Health Services and Mental Health Administration. In 1970 he
joined the Agency for International Development as Nutrition Advisor and soon after was
promoted to the position of Chief of Research and Institutional Grants Division. Later he
became a Director with the responsibility for reviewing, administering and managing AID
research.
He is the author or editor of over thirty
books and handbooks in the field of biochemistry, physiology, nutrition, food science a
technology, agriculture, and international development, in addition to a large number of
scientific articles and book chapters.
Apart from his purely scientific endeavors as
a researcher and science administrator, Dr. Rechcigl devoted over 40 years of his life to
the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU). In 1960-62 he served as secretary of
the SVU Washington D.C. Chapter. He was responsible for the first two Society's World
Congresses, both of which were a great success and which put the Society on the world map.
He also edited the Congress lectures and
arranged for their publication, under the title The Czechoslovak Contribution to World
Culture (1964, 682 p.) and Czechoslovakia Past and Present (1968, 2 volumes, 1900 p.). The
publications received acclaim in the American academic circles and greatly contributed to
the growing prestige of the Society worldwide.
Dr. Rechcigl was also involved, one way or
another, with most of the subsequent SVU World Congresses, including the recent SVU
Congresses in Prague, Brno, and Bratislava. Prior to his current term as the SVU
President, he held similar posts during 1974-76, 1976-78, and again in 1994-96, 1996-98.
and 1998-00. In 1999, in conjunction with President Havel's visit to Minnesota, he
organized a memorable conference at the University of Minnesota on "Czech and Slovak
America: Quo Vadis?".
Together with his wife Eva, he published
seven editions of the SVU Biographical Directory, the last of which appeared in 1992, and
currently is working on the new edition. He was instrumental in launching a new English
periodical Kosmas - Czechoslovak and Central European Journal. It was also his idea to
establish the SVU Research Institute and to create the SVU Commission for Cooperation with
Czechoslovakia, and its Succession States, which played an important role in the first
years after the Velvet Revolution of 1989.
He was also instrumental in establishing the
National Heritage Commission with the aim of preserving Czech and Slovak cultural heritage
in America. Under its aegis, he has undertaken a comprehensive survey of Czech-related
historic sites and archival material in the US. Toward this end, he has already compiled a
tentative listing, "Czech-American Historic Suites, Monuments, and Memorials."
Among historians, Dr. Rechcigl is well known
for his studies on history, genealogy, and bibliography of American Czechs and Slovaks. A
number of his publications deal with the early immigrants from the Czechlands and
Slovakia, including the migration of Moravian Brethren to America. In the last few years
he has been working on the cultural contributions of American Czechs and Slovaks. A
selection of his biographical portraits of prominent Czech-Americans from the 17th
century to date has been published in Prague, under the title Postavy nasi Ameriky
(Personalities of our America) (2000; 350 p.).
In 1991, on the occasion of its 100th
anniversary, the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences awarded him the Hlavka Memorial Medal.
In 1997 he received a newly established prize "Gratias agit" from the Czech
Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1999, on the occasion of President Vaclav Havel's visit to
the US, President Havel awarded him Presidential Memorial Medal.
He and Eva have two children, Jack and Karen,
and five grandchildren.
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