Patrik Španěl

Patrik Španěl studied plasma physics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University and obtained his doctorate in ion physics in Innsbruck (1994). As a high school student, he won the International Physics Olympiad. He researches ion-molecule reactions in the gas phase, focusing on mass spectrometry for the analysis of trace gases and volatile organic compounds. He contributed to developing the SIFT–MS method, which is used in the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries, and he actively collaborates on its application in interdisciplinary biological, medical, environmental, veterinary, and food research.

Patrik Španěl is the Head of the Department of Gas Phase Ion Chemistry at the J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, where he also serves as Deputy Director and Chairman of the Board. He was the principal investigator of several successful projects funded by the Czech Science Foundation (GA ČR) and has experience participating in international projects, including Marie Curie International Training Networks.

In 2007, he was appointed as a Professor of Chemical Physics at Keele University in England, where he previously spent two years (1996–1997) as a postdoctoral research fellow and then worked part-time at the Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine (until 2016). He supervises master’s and doctoral students and has taught “Mass Spectrometry” at the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague and Keele University. He is a member of the Committee for the Ethics of Scientific Work of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Scientific Council of the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, the Editorial Board of the Journal of Breath Research, and several doctoral committees. He regularly speaks at international conferences and participates in their organisation. He has produced several hundred peer reviews for scientific journals, domestic and international grant agencies, the Research, Development and Innovation Council, as well as for dissertations and habilitation theses.

He has co-authored six book chapters and more than 300 articles in peer-reviewed journals, which were cited over 13,000 times. His research has been recognised with the Czech Academy of Sciences Award for Young Researchers (1999), the Otto Wichterle Award (2002), and the Czech Academy of Sciences Academic Premium (2021).

At the Czech Science Foundation, he served as Chairman of Panel P206 (2015–2019) and as Chairman of the Discipline Committee OK2 (2018–2019). He was appointed as a member of the Praesidium of the Czech Science Foundation in January 2025.