Invited speakers

Patrik Španěl

Patrik Španěl graduated in plasma physics (RNDr, 1990) at the Mathematics and Physics faculty of Charles University in Prague. He then continued with PhD studies at the Institute for Ion Physics of the University of Innsbruck, Austria, (Dr., 1994) researching interstellar ion chemistry. Patrik Španěl is currently Head of the Department of Ion and Cluster Chemistry and Chairman of the Board of the J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague Czech Republic. Together with his colleagues he is researching ion chemistry related to analytical techniques for monitoring and quantification of volatile compounds. In collaboration with life scientists and clinicians they also carry out interdisciplinary studies including exhaled breath analysis and diagnostics of bacterial infections. He is also working as a part-time Professor in the Institute for Science and Technology in the Medical School at Keele University, UK. He is a co-founder, together with David Smith, of the selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry, SIFT-MS, analytical technique. Prior to university studies, Patrik Španěl was placed first at the International Physics Olympiad held in Portorose, Slovenia (1985). He serves as an advisory board member of the Journal of Breath Research and is author of more than 200 research and review papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals that have been cited more than 5800 times.