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Jubilee of Professor Ing. Ján Plesník, DSc
Professor Dr. h.c. Ing. Ján Plesník, DSc celebrated an important jubilee – 85th birthday - a few days ago. The anniversary of such a valuable personality gives the opportunity to contemplate the life and its values, the arts, science and their mutual interaction in connection with the work of Professor Plesník as a man, an intellectual, an organizer of science, a lover of nature and arts.
Professor Ján Plesník was born on 23rd April, 1925 in Krajné, near the town Myjava, in a national-conscious and educated farmer’s family. After the study at a technical school, he graduated from the University of Agriculture in Brno and passed through a one-year study of veterinary specialization, which gave him good foundations for scientific-research works.
Later on he passed with success all forms of scientific and pedagogical qualifications (CSc at the age of 32 years, corresponding member of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences at the age of 36 years, corresponding member of the Slovak Academy of Sciences at the age of 39 years, a professor of special zootechnics at the age of 42 years, DSc at the age of 45 years; in 1980 an academician of SAS and in 1982 an academician of CSAS). Besides these, Prof. Plesník, DSc, is a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences and of other important European and global scientific associations. Professor Plesník is recipient of the highest award of the European Zootechnical Association - the “Distinguished Service Award” for his deserts in development and personal contribution into the reservoir of world knowledge in the sphere of zootechnical research.
The personality of Prof. Plesník is mainly connected with the building up the Research Institute for Animal Production in Nitra. He was its director for 32 years (1959-1991). The Research Institute for Animal Production under his leadership became an internationally acknowledged institution primarily in relation to the development of zootechnical sciences as well as school of ethics, morality and aesthetic education. The Research Institute for Animal Production is nearly three decades a place in which the international film festival Agrofilm, recognized all round the world, is organized, and a place in which dozens of encounters of art and science took place, the initiator of which was Professor Plesník.
Professional orientation of Prof. Plesník was mainly towards the sphere of genetics, selection and breeding systems of cattle. However, his ideas and thoughts encountered all areas of animal production, when elaborating conceptions and prognostic materials.
Under his leadership a generation of professors, associate professors, doctors and candidates of sciences grew up, who bear the reputation of their teacher and confirm the correctness of Plesník’s school.
Professor Plesník is at the top of social and scientific pyramid for a long time, to which he was not carried up but he himself climbed it and he knows that the ascent of each of its walls leads to the same top, from which it is possible to touch the stars, where it is possible to have desires and where it is allowed to dream. Extraordinary diligence connected with flight of the spirit and intellect, demandingness and strictness to himself, permanent identification with moral and ethical values, decency under all circumstances, kindness and broad-mindedness, love for people and all living creatures, admiration for beauty and strength of spirit, which Professor Plesník professes universally irrespective of time and personal status make his look back and ahead easier and they became the most characteristic feature of the personality of Professor Ján Plesník.
Dear Professor Plesník, I wish you in my name, in the name of all colleagues and friends good health, joy of life to encourage us and make us happy with your presence, to make our common days better and more beautiful.
Prof.Ing. Ladislav Hetényi, PhD.
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