Dr. Oldrich Praus: 1929 - 17 May, 2006

From: Josef Pek: jpk@ig.cas.cz
Subject: Oldrich Praus

It is with deep regret and sorrow that I have to inform the EM community that Dr. Oldrich Praus passed away last Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at the age of 77 after a period of illness.

Oldrich Praus was with the Geophysical Institute of the Czechoslovak and later Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague since its very beginnings in the early 1950s. He was a founder of the deep electromagnetic induction research in the former Czechoslovakia and one of the pioneers of magnetotellurics in Europe. He has been especially known by his outstanding collaborative work with his Polish colleagues, which resulted in revealing spectacularly consistent electrically anomalous zones at the contact of the Bohemian Massif and the Polish Paleozoic Platform with the West Carpathians. He was one of the first Czech scientist who took active part in the Antarctic research, as a member of the 5th Soviet Expedition in 1959-1961. In the early 1970s, Oldrich was one of the first in Europe to encourage the application of numerical grid modelling methods in the practice of magnetotelluric interpretations. During his scientific career, he held many significant positions in the research management, organization and scientific education.

Though retired since the early 1990s, Oldrich further continued his research, especially in his favoured field of the mantle electrical conductivity. He was coming regularly to the Institute and working actively until the very last days before he went for surgery on Tuesday, May 2, 2006.

We who knew him will miss him greatly.

Josef Pek

PS: Please do not reply to all. If you want to offer your condolences to his wife Milena, you may send a letter to her directly: Mrs Milena Prausova, Hrusicka 2524/30, CZ-14100 Prague 4, Czech Republic, or you may use the Geophysical Institute’s e-mail address: gfu@ig.cas.cz.