OTTO WICHTERLE

1913-1998

INFO

He was born on 27.10.1913 in Prostějov in Austria-Hungary.

He died on 18 August 1998. He was a Czech chemist, best known for his

invention of modern soft contact lenses.

CHILDHOOD AND FAMILY

He came from a rich family. When he was young, he wasn´t happy, he

didn´t have many friends. He had a bad injury and he was at hospital

for a long time. He loved maths, medicine and chemistry. He studied at the Czech Technical University. He also started to study Medicine, but in

1939 all universities in Czechoslovakia were closed.

CAREER

In 1940 he worked in chemical laboratory and with few scientists invented nylon, in czech called silon.

In 1958 he became a member of ČSAV (Czechoslovakian Academy of Science)

Since 1952 he started to work on preparation of contact lenses.

Nobody believed him. State gave him no money for research. In1961 he made his first lenses at home. Since 1965 his lenses have been made in

USA.

One small planet has his name. Since 2002 ČSAV has benn awarding the

Otto Wichterle Award for young talented scientists.

His name was also given as name of the Ostrava´s high school.

USED PAGES:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Wichterle www.google.com http://ottowichterle.ic.cz/zivotopis.html