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by
Jan Sokol,
Karel Stulik
& Cyril Höschl
Professor
Jan Sokol, Ph.D.,
Dean, the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University Prague, Czech
Republic
Professor
Ing. Karel Stulík, DrSc.
Dean, the Faculty of Science, Charles University Prague, Czech
Republic
Professor
Cyril Höschl, M.D., DrSc,
Director, Prague Psychiatric Centre, 3rd Medical Faculty, Charles
University Prague, Czech Republic
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EDITORIAL
2002; 23(suppl 4) :8-9
pii: NEL231002E02
PMID: 12496728
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Both the Psychiatric Centre, Prague, where Zdenek Klein worked,
and the Faculty of Humanities and Faculty of Science, Charles
University, where he lectured, welcomed with great pleasure the
decision of the world renowned journal Neuroendocrinology Letters
and its Editor-in-Chief to have established an International Prize
in honour of Dr. Zdenek Klein for the best work published within
the field of Human Ethology in the Neuroendocrinology Letters.
The names of the first laureates confirm the importance and the
great value of this award.
Moreover,
we strongly and respectfully acknowledge the achievement of Professor
Peter G. Fedor-Frebyergh, Editor-in-Chief of Neuroendocrinology
Letters and Professor Karl Grammer and Mag. Bernhard Fink, the
Editors of this Special Issue, integrating the expertise by selecting
the most representative work in this field from distinguished
and outstanding authors worldwide in order to honour the memory
of Zdenek Klein. We welcome this initiative and are proud that
the Charles University of Prague will be the host for bestowing
the annual ‘Zdenek Klein Award for Human Ethology’ on
successive Recipients.
We
all spend a limited time of life on earth. Life’s duration
is less important than how we spend it, the deeds which will be
remembered by those left behind, and what we bequeath to our successors.
In all these respects, although the life of Dr. Zdenek Klein ended
prematurely, it was amply filled with exceptional human commitment,
creative activity and high moral principles. He clearly belongs
to the good old tradition of the Czech cultural and humanistic
milieu. As representatives of the institutes mentioned below we
wish to render thanks for this acknowledgement of exceptional
professional and human qualities of our co-worker and colleague.
We remember him with reverence.
Dr.
Zdenek Klein (13.6.1944–4.9.2000), a Czech and outstanding
human ethologist and anthropologist, studied at the Faculty of
Sciences, Charles University, Prague. After graduating, he began
his professional life as a scientist at the Psychiatric Research
Institute, Prague, but promising career was interrupted by the
communist regime of that time. Secret police caught Dr. Klein
with ‘illegal literature’; he was apprehended, charged
and duly imprisoned from 1972 to 1974. Prevented from continuing
with his scientific profession after release from prison, he had
to work manually but, in his everyday life he kept observing humans
and informally carried on his studies into human non-verbal behaviour.
As a private person, he also participated in various ethological
and anthropological meetings, and maintained contacts with the
academic world. With his fine qualifications in human ethology
and his skills in observing humans, he became an outstanding authority
in the field of non-verbal communication in the former Czechoslovakia
and recent Czech Republic.
After
the 1990 “Velvet revolution”, Dr. Klein could and did
return to his research at the Psychiatric Centre, Prague (former
Psychiatric Research Institute). In addition to his studies on
human ethology, he started research of dermatoglyphes in psychotic
patients and those suffering from Alzheimer disease. He developed
an original system of markers which enabled dermatoglyphes to
be used in the diagnostic process but, unfortunately, this research
was unfinished due to his untimely death.
Dr.
Klein devoted his time and energy not only to the research but
also to teaching and publishing. He is author of several books
such as ‘Ecce Homo’ (1993), ‘Atlas of Semantic
Gestures’ (1998), a textbook on ethology (together with Professor
Franková) (1997), and a number of scientific papers in
local and international journals. He was a member of editorial
board of ‘Journal of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and
Medicine’, ‘Psychiatrie’ (Psychiatrics), and ‘Živa’
(Nature). He initiated and edited the first issue of ‘Folia
Ethologica’, an irregular journal of Czech and Slovak ethologists.
For a long period he edited also ‘A Newsletter of the Czech
and Slovak Ethological Society’.
Dr.
Klein was a talented and distinguished ethology teacher for students
of medicine, natural science and humanistic studies: He lectured
at the 3rd Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Sciences, and the
Faculty of Humanities of the Charles University and at the Czech
Postgraduate Institute of Medicine.
Dr.
Klein was a long-standing member of several Czech and international
societies. In parallel with his scientific activities, he was
active in other bodies, such as membership organisation and structure
of the ‘Society of Capek Brothers’. He founded the ‘News’
of this Society and performed the duties of Editor-in-Chief for
a long time. He deeply admired Karel Capek, a Czech writer, and
internationally-renowned novelist, playwright and essayist; reading
Karel Capek’s books also helped him to survive the glooms
of prison-life. During the last years of his life Dr. Klein took
part in the ‘Child’s Brain Foundation’, a non-incremental
institution dealing with disabled children.
Dr.
Zdenek Klein was highly appreciated and beloved not only by his
colleagues, but also by his students and friends for his moral
qualities, kind approach, decency, generosity, attitudes to others,
and permanent willingness to help. Wherever he appeared, he would
soon become a respected member of any professional or special-interest
group of people. He had a great talent to express himself with
a special kind of gentility, which was appreciated by those who
attended his lectures. At the same time this brought him respect,
and helped him to solve various problems arising amongst people
in a manner which was strifeless and diplomatic.
When
he unexpectedly passed away after a short and serious disease,
we all realised that we lost an unforgettable great person. We
will miss him intensely.
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NEUROENDOCRINOLOGY
LETTERS
including Psychoneuroimmunology, Neuropsychopharmacology,
Reproductive Medicine, Chronobiology
and Human Ethology
ISSN 0172–780X
A peer-reviewed
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Neuropsychopharmacology, Reproductive Medicine, Chronobiology
and Human Ethology for RAPID publication of Original
Papers, Review Articles, State-of-the-Art, Clinical Reports, Meta-Analyses
and other contributions from all the fields covered by Neuroendocrinology
Letters.
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