ESPCR Honorary Member Prof. Jan Borovansky (1943-2015)
Tuesday, September 1st, 2015
ESPCR Honorary Member Prof. Jan Borovansky (1943-2015)

Professor MUDr. Jan Borovansky, CSc.
Patrick Riley, 26 August 2015

Jan Borovansky (right) with Patrick Riley, at the 14th ESPCR meeting in Bari (Italy), in 2007
Comments received
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I am deeply saddened to hear about the loss of Professor Borovansky. I will always remember his smile and gentle demeanor. His contributions to our field of pigment cell research are enormous. I will miss meeting him at IPCC meetings. My condolences to his family, his friends, and to the IFPCS community.
Sincerely,
Zalfa Abdel-Malek
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I am a relative late-comer to PASPCR, but I did have the chance to meet Prof. Borovansky at the international conference some years ago. He was a gentleman and a scholar!
I will miss him.
Julian Menter
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The entire ESPCR and IFPCS families are saddened with the loss of Prof. Jan Borovansky. I met him several times at ESPCR and IPCC meetings and I could always learn from him. His comments and remarks will be missed in our pigment cell conferences. We will remember him in our ESPCR meeting in Edinburgh, due in two weeks. My most sincere condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.
Lluis Montoliu
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Jan and I were close friends and we spent much time together at meetings. I will miss him.
John Pawelek
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What sad news this is. Truly a great and much-loved member of our pigment cell research community has passed. My condolences to his family, and to his close colleagues, including Stan Pavel and Pat Riley.
Caroline Le Poole
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It is the deep sadness to hear that Prof. Jan Borovansky passed away. Jan and me were friends and colleagues at the same University in Prague for a very long time. My condolences to his family, friends, colleagues and pigment cell researchers.
Jiri Vachtenheim
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I am so sorry.
I met Prof. Jan Borovansky at a ESPCR meeting in Amsterdam the first time many any years ago and I will always remember him as a gentleman and a brilliant scientist
Alida Depase
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Indeed a very sad news. I had known Jan personally for almost 35 years. I remember him as a friendly, warm person and a great scientist, who made significant contributions to melanosome biology and melanin biochemistry. This is a huge loss to melanin research.
Tadeusz Sarna
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I have similar sentiments and he was a major reason that I spent a lot of time I in Prague pre 1989 helping them keep science alive
Frank Meyskens
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It is very sad. My heart felt condolences goes to his family and friends
Manickam Sugumaran
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I had the opportunity of meeting Borovansky at scientific conferences and I was impressed by this enthusiasm, and by his encyclopaedic knowledge of the pigmentation field.
A sad loss indeed.
Marisol Soengas
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I am saddened with Jan’s passing. I had many opportunities to appreciate his scientific capabilities and extreme kindness. I have very enjoyable memories of his participation at the ESPCR meeting in Rome that I will cherish.
Mauro Picardo
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It is with great sadness to hear that Professor Jan Borovansky passed away. I have personally known him since early 1980 when I and my wife visited Late Professor Dushane, another pioneer of pigment cell research in Charles Univeristy, Praha. During this visit, Dr. Dushane introduced me Professor Borovansky as his future successor. One of great contributions of Professor Borobansky to pigment cell reaseach is to introduce the importance of metals in melanosomes. He was kind enough to visit Sapporo when I organized IPCC in 1988.
May his soul rest in peace! And may his spirit always live!
Kowichi Jimbow, MD, PhD, FRCPC
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I am also saddened with Jan’s passing. I had many opportunities to appreciate his scientific capabilities and extreme kindness. I have very enjoyable memories meeting him on numerous scientific conferences where we discussed science and politics or politics and science, depending what was more exciting. He was also a friend of my mentor Dr Andrzej Bomirski.
This is a big loss for Pigment Cell Community
Andrzej Slominski
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I think to Jan when playing a CD of traditional Christmas music from Bohemia he gave me at the occasion of the IPCC in Bordeaux. My grandchildren love the this nice set of XVIIIth century pieces with drums and wind instruments which give an atmosphere of fairy happiness. We met at several pigment cell societies and unfortunately I missed the Prague meeting. He will be remembered both for his kindness and mentoring achievements. Please transmit my sincere condolences to his family and friends.
Alain Taieb
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Still in shock over Jan Borovansky’s death. We email often and the last email I received 2 months ago, he was very pleased about the results he was getting with the chemo. He was very optimistic. I have known him for a long time (since 1985) and I would send him items (for example,color film) that he could not get in stores while the Communists ruled. I also did a 6 month sabbatical with him in 2004. We worked in his lab and then he would take my wife and I all around to see the country. As those of you that knew him, he was a wonderful person to be around. He had a very sly since of humor. He was very proud of his Czech Republic. My wife and I were planning to go to Prague to see him this Fall. I truly regret we waited too long to go. He will be greatly missed. Prayers for him, his wife Jana, daughter Jitka and son Jan (Honsig).
Roger Bowers
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I am very sad about the Jan Borovansky passing.I had met Jan for many ESPCR meetings. He was a friendly person and always spoke about his work with modesty. I remember particularly of the 8th meeting of ESPCR organized in 1998 in Prague by Jan and Matous in honour of the 650th anniversary of the “Charles University”. The introductory lecture was done by his mentor Jiri Duchon on “Charles University and pigment cell research”. I had the opportunity to collect some lectures of this meeting as guest editor in a special issue of “Cellular and Molecular Biology” 1999, vol.45, N°7, 877-1129.
Robert Aquaron
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What sad news to hear that Jan Borovansky has passed away. He was a lovely man and will be missed by so many.
Tony Thody
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