BAŽANT J

CZECH REPUBLIC AND SLOVAKIA (see also List of Individuals)

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20.11.1881 Prostějov/CR - 10.7.1966 Brno/CR

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Jan Bažant graduated in 1903 as a civil engineer from the Czech Technical University CVUT in Prague. He then worked in the Moravian Civil Service and there mainly contributed to the development of hydro-electricity of his country. Also, during the 1920s, he added to the flood protection of the larger rivers in Moravia. In 1930, Bažant was appointed professor of hydraulic structures at the Brno Technical University VUT, which existed besides the German speaking Institution until the end of World War II. He thereby succeeded Antonin Smrček (1859-1951).

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After Smrček had mainly contributed to the understanding of energy dissipation in hydraulic engineering, Bažant as a practicionner applied knowledge to the development of hydro-electricty in Czechoslovakia. During the closure of the Czech universities from 1940 to 1945, Bažant worked as a consultant to the Ministry of Public Works and produced the first water resources plan for Moravia and Silesia. After World War II, he returned to VUT and there set up the new hydraulic laboratory of the Brno Technical University, because the old installation had been damaged during the war. The new Brno hydraulic laboratory was taken into service in 1951, shortly before Bažant's retirement in 1954. He was a founding member of the International Association of Hydraulic research IAHR and was the Czechoslovakian representative during its first congress held in 1937 in Berlin. He also was present at the 2nd IAHR Congress in Stockholm in 1948. Bažant was recognized as an outstanding expert in dam construction and in inland navigation both at home and abroad. His particular link to the Moravia Region remained throughout his professional career.

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_{Anonymous (1937). 1 IAHR Congress Berlin: Frontispiece. P Anonymous (1948). 2 IAHR Congress Stockholm: Frontispiece. P Bažant, J. (1928). Les réservoirs d'eau en Moravie. Praha.}

_{Bažant, J. (1930). Le barrage de Kninicky. Technicky Obzor (1): 1-3; (2): 24-26. Bažant, J. (1949). Zakládání staveb. Praha.}

_{Bažant, J. (1967). Dynamic stability of saturated sand in subsoil beneath dams. 9 ICOLD Congress Istanbul Q35(R8): 149-160.}

_{Bezdíček, X. (1957). 75 let profesora Jana Bažanta. Vodní hospodářství 7(3): 84. Gabriel, P. (2006). Jan Bažant. Personal communication.}

_{Kratochvil, S. (1961). Prof. inž. Jan Bažant osmdesátníkem. Vodní hospodářství 11(11): 484. Novak, P. (2005). Jan Bažant. Personal communication. P}