Angela Merkel was a diligent student, recalls chemist gardener

You will be ninety years old this October. Plánujete velkou oslavu? Oslavím to, ale nemyslím, že moje narozeniny, byť i ctihodné, by zasloužily jakoukoliv širší pozornost.It is possible that some villains organize something, but I will not have fingers in it.I threatened that if they bother me with it, I would drive them out.

You started with chemistry as a little boy. Co vás k ní přilákalo?Všelijaká chemická zařízení, která jsem zahlédl u sousedů z dálky, se mi zdála velmi půvabná.Then on the threshold of adulthood, I got a magazine in which there were instructions on how to make invisible inks and explosive balls, which was very interested in.

Způsobil jste někdy doma výbuch? Ano, jednou, naštěstí jsem z toho neměl průšvih.And at that time I got a passion for chemistry.I do not understand how my parents could be so infinitely gentle to me.When I was about thirteen years old, they left me at home next to the kitchen in a room called a maid room, created a laboratory.I never fired the things I got into it, and it was good, because about three years ago I thought of donating them to the Institute of Physical Chemistry Jaroslav Heyrovský.

Jak se vám jako vědci pracovalo za socialismu? Odmítl jsem opakovaně vstoupit do strany, přes dva roky jsem měl proto zákaz přednášet.The official reason was that I would spoil the youth.Thanks to this, however, I wrote my first publication.There is always enough work with a lecture, it is not enough to know the field, it must be thought out to the end.So when I wasn't allowed to give lectures, I had more time to write.

Co vám tehdy nejvíc jako chemikovi chybělo?Musím říct, že přes všechny trampoty jsem měl kus štěstí - když jsem měl přání, co se týkalo nějakého vybavení nebo chemikálie, vždycky se našel někdo, kdo měl lepší pozici a ten mi to sehnal.

Neměl jste někdy chuť emigrovat? Neměl.I have always been of the opinion that the place in which one is born is to serve.Many may have had me for a little eccentric or perhaps a goofy.When the excellent Dutch chemist returned after a year in America, he offered me a job in Amsterdam.Offered me a place including two secretaries and good salary ratios.But I immediately told him that I was determined not to leave Czechoslovakia.Moreover, even at the time of the sharpest persecution I was not annoyed, I still liked to passionate science, chemistry and my loved ones.

One time you led a study group in which Angela Merkel was also. Jak na ni vzpomínáte?Její manžel, Joachim Sauer, k nám přijel dřív.Was energetic, he signed up for us for practice.I confessed to him, after five minutes I knew it was absolutely first -class head.I agreed to get to us.Then Angela Merkel arrived.She is a smart lady, a hardworking student, a fair person.My wife Milena and I loved her very much.It was a natural being and my whole life is the same, I appreciate it very much, it is a sign of character.

Jak vzpomínáte na rok 1993, kdy jste se stal předsedou Akademie věd?Tehdy za mnou přišlo snad dvacet kolegů, obsadili velkou místnost a požádali mě, abych vedl Akademii věd, což jsem rád udělal.I did it with a taste, I remember it in good.I had some ideas and I went to them and managed to fill.

Co si myslíte, že věda dnes nejvíc potřebuje? Řeknu něco hrozně banálního - peníze.Operation is expensive, who saves on it, can't make money.There's no point in trying about anything in science when there is no financial security.

Fandil jste Jiřímu Drahošovi, když se rozhodl kandidovat na prezidenta? Samozřejmě.Had the same idea as me, so I asked him to go for it toughly and whenever he felt I could serve from the background unobtrusively that I would be available.This country is entitled to have one significant personality at the head of the state, a person with a format that would be clear what the state needs, and it would earn from the local sources and from the world.A person who wants to convince people who decide on money.

Vy jste nikdy neměl politické ambice?To ne.My neighborhood wanted me to try it, and I knew I wouldn't try it.It would mean to put myself in that such an extent as I put myself in science years ago, theoretical chemistry.I would have to go with such a commitment, and that would mean that I would have to leave everything else.And I wasn't ready for that.

Science has long been underfunded in the Czech Republic, science in the Czech Republic is considerably undersized compared to the EU average.Average in the EU is 2 percent, in the Czech Republic in 2016, of which the last statistics are 1.68 and this number has been decreasing in recent years.We were approaching the European average a few years ago. V čem je problém?Protože politici jsou spokojeni, když to nějak jde, jezdí k nám světoví odborníci, myslí si, že je všechno dobré.It's not true.

Myslíte, že aktuální systém, na základě kterého se přerozdělují peníze, je správně nastaven?Ideální to není.The biggest problem is that when someone looks at how much science costs annually, they think we are rich.On the contrary, we are poor.Would like to invest even more in the future.

Kdo by měl rozhodovat o financování vědy?Jako porotci by měli být čelní představitelé vysokých škol a Akademie věd.We are not in the position to be pushed away, but if someone could not stand it in these relatively modest conditions, they must go elsewhere.I have never been willing to do it, I thought that one was to serve home.

Proč vás zaujala zrovna kvantová chemie? Ze školy jsem věděl, jak fungují zkumavky, baňky, že se do nich něco slívá a byla hrozná legrace, když se čirá tekutina zabarvila dočervena.But I soon found out that there was much more in that.

Myslíte si, že české vědě v současnosti chybí výrazná osobnost?Myslím, že to není špatné, pořád je dost výrazných osobností.It is, for example, chemist Josef Michl, who emigrated to America, Petr Čárský or Pavel Hobza.

Co si myslíte, že umožní chemie do budoucnosti?To je mazaná otázka, protože jednotlivé části věd se sbližují, říká se tomu integrovaná věda.Today pure physics, pure chemistry or botany do not exist.Of course somewhere will be dominated above the other, but otherwise they are integrated natural sciences.The disciplines themselves have no chance.And I think integration will proceed.It would be wonderful if we had a uniform natural science.

Na co jste nejvíce hrdý? Mám radost, že se v této zemi uhnízdila dobře kvantová chemie, že zdejší týmy kvantově chemické mají ve světě velmi dobrou pověst, že tu vyrostlo tucet velice výrazných osobností.It is nice that people from another focus are aware that the pattern of integration that occurred in chemistry may also be valid.

We met in your study at the Academy of Sciences. Jak často tu ještě býváte? Pravidelně pondělí a čtvrtky, ale můžu tu být kdy chci.But I don't work on anything big anymore, I made it years ago.I want to make people make sure that this part of mathematics, physics and chemistry must be supported, but it must be a breathing system.

Like Jiří Drahoš, you and your wife have been all your life...It smiled at me once happiness.She always had for what I was doing, complete understanding, she never blamed me.She has always talked about it with respect.

Snažil jste se ji přivést k chemii? Když jsem byl mladý a pitomý, byla to moje touha, ale ona už měla naštěstí tenkrát rozum.She stayed a woman, which is far better than if she were a chemist.

Jaké životní období pro vás bylo nejšťastnější?(Obrací se pro radu na svoji ženu).So you see, my wife always knows it best.When we got rid of the Bolsheviks.But this is true (laughs).

Co považujete za největší pokrok v české vědě za posledních sto let?Určitě zmíním Jaroslava Heyrovského a objev polarografie.Not only because he received the Nobel Prize for that.I am happy that I had a few times the opportunity to talk to the master, I was still quite young at that time, I remember it with love and respect, he was a noble man.Was marked by the British style.He studied in England, worked.His son, who recently died, was a similar type - simply refined people and big scholars.