Karel Kolomaznik

Short Bio:

Professor Karel Kolomazník was born in Kromeriz, Czech Republic. He took up an academic position in Zlín in 1970 at the Faculty of Technology of Brno University of Technology (which was later changed to Faculty of Technology of Tomas Bata University in Zlín). Since 2006 he has been working at the newly established Faculty of Applied Informatics. His research group deals with optimization of technological processes particularly in the field of processing waste generated by tanning, leather and food processing industries into valuable products. He has led and participated in many successful projects funded e.g. by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, Ministry of Industry and Trade or the Ministry of Agriculture, the Czech Science Foundation, the US-Asia Environmental Partnership program, etc. In addition to that, he has put most of his results into industrial practice in cooperation with commercial partners from both the Czech Republic and abroad. He has had a long-term cooperation with the Eastern Regional Research Center of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wyndmoor, PA where he successfully applied the ammonia-free deliming of white hide. In the NIKE Inc. (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) he implemented a patented technology for the processing of manipulation waste from leather industry including the application of the products. He has been also active in industrial applications within the Czech Republic, e.g. implementation of a patented technology of a protein hydrolyzate production from animal-based organic waste in the Kortan, s.r.o. in Hrádek nad Nisou, Czech Republic. Prof. Kolomazník was awarded in 1998 the “Rolex Award for Enterprise”, for the technology of processing and recycling of potentially hazardous chrome-tanned waste produced by the leather industry. In 2009 he received the ALSOP Award of the American Leather Chemists Association for his long-term contribution to the association and the leather industry. In 2014 he received the most prestigious Czech scientific recognition Česká hlava in 2014 within the category Award for Invention – natural sciences. In October 2018, Prof. Kolomazník was decorated the Medal of Merit by the President of the Czech Republic.