Former Rectors

František Papánek was born on 25 March 1912 in Budapest. He studied law at the Comenius University in Bratislava and forestry at the University of Agriculture in Brno. He worked at the Directorate General of the State Forests in Bratislava and at the Directorate of the State Forests and Properties in Žarnovica. In 1948 – 1950, he held the office of the regional director of the State Forests in Slovakia. In the meantime, he acted as an external professor of forestry economy at the University of Agricultural and Forestry Engineering (VŠPLI) in Košice. He had a merit in establishing the University of Forestry and Wood Technology in Zvolen, where he was the head of the Department of Forestry Economy. Furthermore, he performed a function of the Rector from 1950 to 1955. In 1959 – 1971, he was a manager of the Department of Zoning at the Institute of Forest Management in Zvolen and in the meantime, in 1967 – 1970, also a FAO expert in the project of the Caspian forests development in Iran. Since 1970, he worked at the Research Institute of Forest Management in Zvolen in the environmental sector. In his creative scientific and research work, professor Papánek was engaged in developing teaching texts of the subjects lectured at the Faculty of Forestry. He elaborated economic aspects of forest management, investigated current and perspective timber production and consumption in Iran, and dealt with economic problems of a developing country from the standpoint of capitalist economy. Moreover, he dealt with research into all-purpose forest functions and elaborating the theoretical basics of practical application of the functionally integrated forestry management. He was an editor-in-chief Poľana journal (1945 – 1950), an editor-in-chief of the “Lesnícky časopis” journal of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (1955 – 1959), a member of the editorial board of the journal “Les” (1955 – 1957).

He is an author of the first handbooks on forestry economy (1946, 1955) and the reportage book Forest Management in the USA (1948). He contributed to several foreign journals, published about two hundred works. Professor Papánek had a good grasp of several foreign languages including also Persian, actively participated in international forestry congresses, later especially in conferences on environmental impacts of forests.

He died on 25 September 1995 and is buried in Sliač.

Víťazoslav Sprock was born on 22July 1915 in Rožňava. In 1935, he passed the final examination at the Grammar School in Rimavská Sobota. He studied forestry at the Czech Technical University in Prague and due to closing the Czech universities in 1938, he graduated from the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava, completed forest engineering in the Department of Forestry and Agriculture in 1940. In 1940 – 1942, he worked as a technologist in the state sawmill in Žarnovica, in 1942 – 1944 as an officer of the commercial and technical sector of the Directorate General  of the State Forests in Bratislava.  In 1945 – 1946 as a manager of the division of timber industry at the Commission on Industry and Commerce, in 1946 – 1948 as a regional deputy director of woodworking factories in Bratislava and in the years 1948 – 1950 as a deputy director  in the enterprise of the Czechoslovak National Timber Industry in Prague. 

In 1950, he started to work as a substituting associate professor at the University of Agricultural and Forestry Engineering in Košice. He played an important role in establishing the University of Forestry and Wood Technology (VŠLD) in Zvolen and then he held a position of the Dean of its Faculty of Wood Sciences and Technology. In the years 1955 – 1962, he held a post of the Rector of the VŠLD. 

 Professor Sprock was a prominent representative of woodworking industries, research and science, and education. He contributed to the development of modern woodworking industry in Slovakia and to organizing university teaching wood sciences and technology. He drew up a proposal for industrialization of Slovakia in the area of woodworking, participated in solving the conceptual tasks of the Czechoslovak woodworking industry. He also took part in organizing independent university study of wood sciences and technology, which was opened in the Department of Forestry of the VŠPLI in Košice. He designed the educational contents of this study, organizational structure of the Faculty of Wood Sciences and Technology at the VŠLD in Zvolen and its first curricula.

His publication activity is very wide. He wrote about the development of the modern woodworking industry, created university textbooks, scientific papers and current articles to help woodworking practice. His best-known publications are: Development of the Modern Woodworking Industries (1950), Organization and Planning of Wood Manufacturing (1962), Organization and Management of the Woodworking Industries (1963). He is a co-author of Planning, Survey and Financing in Woodworking Industry (1963) and Influence of Specialization and Cooperation on the Effectiveness of Building-joinery Production (1964). Professor Sprock is a holder of the Order of Labour and other honors conferred by the state.

He died on 3 February 1979 in Zvolen.

Elígius Hromada was born on 2 December 1927 in Ráztočno, Prievidza district. After the final examination at the Grammar School in Levice in 1947, he studied at the University of Agricultural and Forestry Engineering in Košice, and in 1948 – 1952, at the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Agriculture in Brno. In the years 1952 – 1955, he was a research candidate and an assistant professor at the University of Forestry and Wood Sciences and Technology in Zvolen, in 1956 – 1957 he was a director of the Forest Enterprise in Smolenice, in 1957 – 1959 the chief engineer of the District Forest Administration in Pezinok. In the following period, he worked as a university teacher and researcher.  In 1961, he became an associate professor, in 1965 an adjunct professor, and in 1980 a full professor. In the years 1959 – 1980, he was the head of the Department of Forest Economics, in 1960 – 1962 the Dean of the Faculty of Forestry at the VŠLD and in the years 1962 – 1965, the Rector of the VŠLD.

In his scientific and research activity, he addressed himself to economic issues of production in forest nurseries,  methodology of analyses of forest plant activities, production effectiveness, questions of relationships of forest management and timber industry, economy of timber production and consumption in the Slovak Socialist Republic and the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, using raw material resources in Slovakia.

Professor Hromada is the author of six books, ten university textbooks and about hundred and fifty articles published in journals “Les”, “Lesnícky časopis”, “Technické noviny”, “Životné prostredie”, “Forst und Jagd”, “Lesnoje chozjajstvo” and in various scientific proceedings. He was a member of the editorial boards of the proceedings of the Faculty of Forestry and “Lesnícky časopis” as well as the editorial boards of the publishing houses of “Príroda” and “Alfa”.

Since the year 1981, he lived on disability, died on 9 August 1984 in Zvolen.

Pavel Višňovský was born on 30 June 1913 in Banská Štiavnica. After the final examination at the Grammar School in Banská Štiavnica in 1931, he studied geodetic engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague.

He worked in several cadastral survey offices at the Institute of Photogrammetry for Slovakia in Bratislava. Since 1949, he worked at the University of Agricultural and Forestry Engineering in Košice as a teacher. After establishing the VŠLD in Zvolen in 1952, he became the dean of the Faculty of Forestry and in the period of 1956 – 1963, he was the vice-rector. He performed  the post of the rector in the years 1965 – 1969. He significantly contributed to the development of this school.

         In his scientific and research work, Professor Višňovský was concerned with the application of modern surveying methods, particularly the aerial photogrammetry. The results of his research work resulted in new ways of evaluating aerial pictures of mountain area and then in coming up with five inventions from among which one – the contour line interpolator MV-55 Metra-Višňovský has been broadly used in technical practice.

His publication activity is wide; it includes forty five research and specialized works containing 3, 124 pages and 2,860 illustrations. He published two nation-wide university textbooks, three university textbooks, worked on many projects and invention prototypes, final reports. For his work, he obtained twenty five awards, honorary degrees, acknowledgments, diplomas and memorial medals including also the state prize “For distinguished work”.

Professor Višňovský died on 7 January 1994 in Zvolen.

František Setnička was born on 17 April 1910 in Kbelov, Benešov district, the Czech Republic. In 1929, he passed the final examination at the Grammar School in Kutná Hora. In 1935, he graduated from the Czech Technical University in Prague with a specialization in mechanical engineering. Then, he had worked as an assistant at this University for three years. Since 1938, he had worked in Škoda factory in Prague from where he was sent to Sweden in 1943. He spent there three years as a manager of the factory assembly. Since 1947, he worked as a manager of the Technical Department at the Drevokombinát Košice and then in Smrečina Banská Bystrica, where he held the posts of the director and chief engineer. In 1954, he began to work at the University of Forestry and Wood Technology in Zvolen as a substituting professor and the head of the Department of Hydro- and Thermomechanics. In 1961, he became a full professor. He lectured on general science of machines, hydromechanics and air-conditioning, thermomechanics, and heating machines. In the years 1964 – 1967, he acted as the professor at the Haile Selasie University in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In the years 1955 – 1962, he was a vice-rector for research. He held the post of the rector in the years 1969 – 1971. He systematically dealt with research work, published many scholarly and professional articles. He has written twelve university textbooks concerning issues of hydraulic equipment and heat engineering, the handbook Heat Engineering for Wood-working Engineers and the textbook Heat Engineering. He worked out several expert opinions on behalf of the Development of Woodworking and Furniture Industry in Bratislava.

He retired on l October 1979 and lived in Zvolen. Despite his ripe old age, he co-operated with the university externally. He died in 1998.

Adolf Priesol was born on 20 September 1926 in Bystrá, Brezno district. In 1946, he graduated from the State Higher Forestry School in Banská Štiavnica. He studied at the Faculty of Forestry of the University of Agriculture in Brno. Here, he completed also the three year internal postgraduate study programme. At the VŠLD in Zvolen, he had worked immediately since its beginning in the autumn 1952.

He continued his practice in forestry as a forest trainee at the Forest District in Štiavnička in the years 1941 – 1942, as a forest trainee of the State Forests Directorate Revúca in the years 1946 – 1947, a forest assistant of the University Forest Enterprise VŠZ Brno in the years 1951 – 1952 and as a senior engineer of the University Forest Enterprise at the VŠLD in Zvolen (1960 – 1962). At the VŠLD, he became an assistant professor in 1955, an associate professor in 1960, an adjunct professor in 1969, and a full professor in 1975. The main discipline of his lectures was forest management (HÚL). He held the post of the head of the HÚL Department (1960 – 1980), the Dean of the Faculty of Forestry (1962 – 1964 and 1966 – 1971) and the Rector of the VŠLD (1971 – 1990).

In his research, he was engaged in a great range of problems within the field of biometry and forest management: the methods of determining tree increment and quality of timber supply, the methods of regulating logging and stand regeneration; solving the relationships between planning forest management and forest management; research into regularities of timber supply increment; research into information system of forest management and eventually management of the forest damaged by immissions. His copious publication activity focused on determining and checking forest produce, regularities of stand and tree growth, and new methods of forest management. He published ten books, five university textbooks, ten projects, sixty scientific works, sixty two technical articles, also published many reports, translations, and reviews.

As a corresponding member of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (ČSAV) and academician of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV), he was concerned in the activities of research advisory boards and boards of the SAV chairmanship. He was a national coordinator of the first task in the basic research “Biometry of forest tree species and theoretical basics to forest management“.

He actively worked in the international organization IUFRO as a chairman of the work team for forest management. He achieved the international recognition by means of awarding the honorary title “doctor honoris causa“at the Akademia Rolnicza in Poznan, Poland, in 1989.

Even though he retired in 1991, he still worked at the TUZVO externally. Professor Priesol died on 5 May 2005 in Bratislava.

Vilém Štefka was born on 26 April 1941 in Podvihov, Opava district. After completing the study of woodworking at the secondary school, he continued the study at the Faculty of Wood Sciences and Technology of the VŠLD in Zvolen, where he graduated in 1966. Since August of the same year, he had worked in the national enterprise Bučina in Zvolen, first in the Department of the Central Control Station, later in the Department of the Technical Development and in the Division of Technical-economic Information. The main part of his work for Bučina was focused on technical works in the Development-Construction Centre where he worked as a researcher.

In 1971, he started working at the University of Forestry and Wood Technology in Zvolen. In 1976, as

Assistant Professor in the Department of Wood Sciences at the Faculty of Wood Sciences and Technology, he obtained the PhD degree in non-ferrous materials focusing on wood anatomy and physics.

Then he continued working in the Department of Mechanical Technology of Wood, where he was appointed as Associate Professor for agglomerated board materials in 1988. In 2002, he was appointed as Professor in the field of technology of woodworking. In January 1990, he was inaugurated as Rector of the VŠLD. He had held this post until February 1994.

During his professional practice, he took part in some short-term study stays and internship programmes abroad (Hungary, Poland, former German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany). Moreover, his study stays were taken at the Technical University in Dresden and the University of Madrid.

Before retiring in 2008, he worked in the Department of Mechanical Technology of Wood at the Faculty of Wood Sciences and Technologies.

Štefan Šmelko was born on 24 March 1930 in Slavec, Rožňava district. He graduated from the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Forestry and Wood Technology in Zvolen, where he worked uninterruptedly in the Department of Forest Management and Geodesy from 1953 to 2000. In his research work, he devoted himself to the elaboration of new methods of surveying forests and contributed to the development of modelling the biometric growth patterns and increment of forest trees and crops, and monitoring of sound and productive conditions of forest ecosystems. He published his results in eight monographs and more than one hundred forty original scientific works and technical articles.

In the period 1966 – 1990, he held the positions within pedagogical activities, science, research and also in foreign contacts as the Vice-dean (1966 – 1972), the Director of the Forest Research Institute (1966 – 1980) and Vice-rector (1980 – 1990). In the years 1990 – 1994, he was head of the Department. Since February 1994, he had held the post of Rector, where he, however, finished ahead of the schedule because of health reasons in November 1994. He developed great activities in the international co-operation of the University.

His researches′ results were awarded by several ways including awarding the Prize of the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Socialist Republic (1981) and the Prize of the Foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany for development of forestry biometry (1991). In 2002, he was awarded the state prize Ľudovít Štúr Order, the 1^st class.

After retiring in 2000, he worked as a researcher at the National Forest Centre in Zvolen.

Milan Marčok was born on 5 March 1939 in Zámostie, Brezno district. In 1960, he graduated from the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the Pedagogical University in Bratislava and was specialized in physics and mathematics. First, he worked as a secondary school teacher at the Grammar School in Zvolen. In 1967, he worked as Assistant Professor and since 1980 as Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Forestry and Wood Technology in Zvolen (present-day Technical University). In 1989, he became Professor of Applied Physics and worked in the Department of Physics and Applied Mechanics, at the Faculty of Wood Sciences and Technology of the Technical University in Zvolen. He held the post of the head of the department, Vice-dean of the faculty and Vice-rector of the University. From 1995 to 2001, he held the function of the Rector of the University.

In 1978, he completed his PhD study at the Institute of Physics, the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava and obtained a scientific degree of PhD in physical and mathematical sciences at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava. In 1989, he achieved the scientific degree of DrSc. at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava. In his research work, he was concentrated on physical-acoustic properties of wood, application of ultrasonic waves to intensify liquid flow through wood, application of electromagnetic waves in studying wood structure and properties, and stochastic problems in acoustics.

In 1993, he was the chairman of the Academic Senate at the Technical University in Zvolen. He was a member of scientific boards at several universities in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, a member of the commission for defense of viva voce works, candidate and PhD theses, a chairman and a member of inauguration and habilitation commissions for appointing professors or associate professors. Further, he actively worked at the Slovak Physical Society, the Czech Acoustic Society and was also a member of the organization The New York Academy of Sciences. He is the author and co-author of many university textbooks, monographs, and numerous scientific papers.

Professor Marčok retired in 2006.

Mikuláš Šupín was born on 16 March 1953 in Ružiná, Lučenec district. He graduated from the Faculty of Wood Sciences and Technology at the VŠLD in Zvolen in 1976.  He worked in the VVÚ DNP in Bratislava. On 1 September 1977, he was accepted as an Assistant Professor in the Department of the World Forestry and Wood Technology at the DF VŠLD in Zvolen. During his acting at the university, he worked as the secretary of the KERLH, head of the OSLD. After establishing the Department of Marketing, Trade and World Forestry at the Faculty of Wood Sciences and Technology (hereinafter the DF abbreviated Slovak name of the Faculty), he became the head of the DF (1997 – 2001 and from 2005-2004). He also held the post of Vice-dean of the Faculty of Wood Sciences and Technology. In 1992, the Academic Senate of the DF elected him as Dean of the Faculty of Wood Sciences and Technology.  He held this position successfully during two terms (1992 – 1998). In December 1998, he was elected as the chairman of the AS TUZVO (1998 – 2001). In the years 2002 – 2004, he was the Vice-president of the Slovak Rectors´ Conference.

He went through the part of his scientific and research preparation at the F. R. I. C. Dehra Dun in India in the years 1983 – 1984. He defended his dissertation in the field of branch and cross-section economies at the Faculty of Forestry at the VŠZ in Brno in 1986. In 1989, he was nominated as the Associate Professor for the branch of the economy of forest management at the Faculty of Forestry, the VŠLD in Zvolen, and in 1991, he habilitated in the field of tropical wood species structure and properties at the DF, the VŠLD in Zvolen.  In 1998, he was inaugurated as Professor at Mendel University in Brno, the Czech Republic. In 2002, he has conferred the title of doctor honoris causa at the UGLTU in Jekaterinburg, Russia.

In his pedagogical work, Professor Šupín was engaged in teaching especially subjects concerning problems of the world forestry and wood technology, marketing, international marketing, international trade, timber trade, and international management. He has supervised more than 100 Bachelor and Master theses. Furthermore, he supervised twenty-two PhD students including five international ones.

Professor Šupín has a very rich research and publication activities.  As the author or co-author, he has published ten monographs, more than one hundred thirty scientific and specialized works in the Slovak Republic and abroad, seventeen textbooks and teaching texts. Further, he was the coordinator and partner of forty research projects including eight international ones. He was a member of the scientific boards at several universities and faculties in the Slovak Republic as well as abroad, international wood organizations and also a representative of the Slovak Republic in the JRC EU (Governor), FV CERN (Vice-president) Geneva, the VVTP OECD, the VTV CREST EU, the WoodEMA, i.a. (member, President). Since 2006, he had held the post of the general state adviser, General Director of the Section of Science and Technology at the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic.

He has participated in long-term foreign stays in India (1983 – 1984), Cuba (1989), the USA and Canada (1991). He has also visited the most European and significant world universities with a similar focus as the Technical University in Zvolen.

He held the post of Rector of the Technical University in Zvolen in the years 2001 –2004. Nowadays he has been working in the Department of Marketing, Trade and World Forestry at the DF.

Ján Tuček was born on 4 November 1956 in Púchov. After completing forestry study at a secondary school, he continued in his study at the Faculty of Forestry at the VŠLD in Zvolen, where he graduated from in the year 1981. Then he worked at the Forestry Research Institute in Zvolen as a project partner and coordinator at the section of forest technology and using computers in forestry.

In 1990, he started working at the University of Forestry and Wood Sciences and Technology as the assistant professor in the Department of Forest Harvesting and Mechanization in the sphere of mechanization of works in forestry, planning and assessing harvesting and transportation technologies, later GIS. In 1996, he started to deal with mainly using computers and development of applying GIS also in other spheres of forestry and ecology and he changed over to the Department of Forest Management and Geodesy.

In 1989, he obtained the degree of Candidate of Science, CSc., in the branch of Technics and Technology of Forestry and Agricultural Production. In 1999, he was awarded the academic title of Associate Professor in the branch of Forest Management, Geographic Information Systems. In 2005, he was appointed as Professor of Geoinformatics by the President of the Czech Republic.

He is the author of the publication Geographic Information Systems – Principles and Practices, Computer Press Brno 1998, which is basis for the development of the field. Moreover, he is the author of some monographs, many contributions in internal and international professional journals including impact ones, many contributions at the scientific conferences in Slovakia and abroad. He supervised a big number of Bachelor and Master theses, dissertations, research projects including international ones. He elaborated several studies and applied projects, expert opinions etc. He was one of the founders of Geoinformatics and Geographic Information Systems within the Slovak Republic, but also within the Czech Republic, mainly in forestry.

During his professional practice, he participated through several foreign stays (the United Kingdom, Netherlands, USA). He was a member of the Scientific Board of the Technical University in Zvolen, the Scientific Board of the NLC – LVÚ Zvolen, the Scientific Board of the MZLU in Brno, the Scientific Board of the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, a member of the SAPV and the SAPV Section of Forest Management, IUFRO work team, the Slovak Cartographic Society and a chairman of the Slovak Association for Geoinformatics.

In the years 1994 – 1997, he held a position of the Vice-dean of the Faculty of Forestry, in the years 2001 – 2003, he was a chairman of the Academic Senate of the Technical University in Zvolen and in the years 2003 – 2004, was the Vice-rector for research activities.

Professor Tuček held the position of Rector during two four-year terms, namely in the years 2004 – 2012.