The Essentials of Thermodynamics

Miloslav Pekar was born in 1962 in Kromeríz, Czech Republic. He received his M.Sc. in organic technology and Ph.D. in technical chemistry from the Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague (nowadays, University of Chemical Technology), Czech Republic in 1985 and 1991, respectively. After spending several years at the Czech Academy of Sciences, in a regional analytical laboratory, and industrial research he joined the Brno University of Technology in 1994. He is teaching physical and colloid chemistry courses at the Faculty of Chemistry. His current research interests include relationships between non-equilibrium thermodynamics and kinetics, physical chemistry of biocolloids and their application, particularly hydrogels, polysaccharides, and humic substances. In 1999 he was appointed associated and in 2009 full professor of physical chemistry. He is head of the Institute of Physical and Applied Chemistry and was head of Materials Research Centre in 2010-2018. He isa member of American Chemical Society, Czech Chemical Society, International Humic Substances Society, and European Colloid and Interface Society. He has authored or co-authored 3 textbooks on theoretical and practical physical chemistry, 7 book chapters, about 110 journal articles, and more than 300 conference contributions. As a co-author to Ivan Samohýl he published monograph The Thermodynamics of Linear Fluids and Fluid Mixtures (Springer 2014).