Richard Kvetnansky
Richard Kvetnansky has been a pioneer in elucidating the neurochemical basis of physiological responses to stress, especially in catecholaminergic systems. His early studies on the effects of various durations or repetition of stress on catecholamines and their biosynthetic enzymes carried out in the 1970s at the National Institutes of Health at Bethesda with Irwin Kopin are classics.
As a prolific and extraordinarily productive scientist, Dr Kvetnansky has published over 500 scientific papers and edited or co-edited nine books. He has made major contributions to understanding the role of catecholamines in the response to stress, and the importance of catecholamine biosynthesis with prolonged or repeated stress. Other key contributions include the interaction between the hypothalamo-pituitary–adrenal axis and catecholaminergic systems. Dr Kvetnansky has taken advantage of changing technologies and mastered modern molecular biology and imaging techniques as they became available. Among his recent findings are the expression of the epinephrine biosynthetic enzyme phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase (PNMT) in the heart and its regulation by stress.
In addition, Richard has a sustained interested in the physiological effects of the stress of space travel and over 70 of his papers deal with space research. He has been active in the planning of biological studies in space through his participation in the International Academy of Astronautics, and the International Astronautical Federation, and as their liaison officer to the World Health Organization in the 1980s and recently in coordinating the scientific program of the first Slovak cosmonaut.
Richard Kvetnansky has made seminal contributions to stress also by providing the venue for International Symposia on Catecholamines and Other Neurotransmitters in Stress, held every four years in the idyllic setting of the Smolenice Castle in Slovakia, with the 9th planned for June, 2007. This meeting with a unique group of outstanding scientists, many who have returned multiple times, has provided the venue for many collaborations and crucial discussions and has greatly facilitated advances in the field of stress research.
In addition to the Smolenice meeting, Dr Kvetnansky organized the First World Congress on Stress and participated in the planning of each subsequent meeting of the World Congress on Stress and other international meetings relating to catecholamine and stress research.
His outstanding administrative and organization skills were also put to good use as Director of the Institute of Experimental Endocrinology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (1995–2003) during which time he steered its designation as a European Union Centre of Excellence.
Dr Kvetnansky has also done much to advance science in Czechoslovakia, and was chairman of the Czech and Slovak Society for Neurochemisty for a decade (1986–1996). In recognition of his important contributions to Slovak science, Dr Kvetnansky was awarded the prestigious honor of the “Pribina Cross” from the President of the Republic of Slovakia in 2005.
The most prevalent characteristics of Richard's scientific approach, which are consistently cited with admiration by his many colleagues include his “industrious, energetic and enthusiastic approach taken with great charm and scientific integrity and curiosity.” Richard's organizational skills and attention to every detail are legendary.
Although organizing this Festschrift was a pleasure, one of the difficulties in planning this issue of Stress was how to restrict the contributions of Richard's colleagues within the limited pages allocated to the journal. It was necessary to ask Richard to provide a list limited to only the colleagues who had worked most closely with him. To Richard's great credit and a mark of the admiration of these collaborators, this Festschrift is bulging with papers from the many colleagues who were delighted to join in honoring Richard on the occasion of his 70th birthday and his 9th Smolenice Symposium.