The roots of the Faculty of Chemical Technology at the University of Pardubice run deep. It all began in 1950 with the founding of the Institute of Chemistry, which was soon renamed the University of Chemical Technology in Pardubice. A significant impulse for the founding of the university in Pardubice was a strong need for university-educated professionals for the region’s rapidly developing chemical industry. Another reason was the high concentration of important experts (scientists) in Pardubice who worked primarily at the Research Institute for Organic Synthesis in Rybitví and prepared the establishment of a university during the Second World War, at a time when schools were closed.
In 1950, their efforts became a reality, and the first 120 students attended the university in the first year. The University of Chemical Technology became highly renowned in the fields of education and science, and its existence is inseparably associated with enterprises such as Synthesia or the Research Institute for Organic Synthesis. A historical milestone came in 1991, when the original single-faculty University of Chemical Technology was transformed into the Faculty of Chemical Technology, first under the wing of the University of Chemical Technology in Pardubice, and later the University of Pardubice in 1994.
The Faculty of Chemical Technology is the “flagship” of the University of Pardubice, which is perceived both at home and abroad as a university with high-quality education and outstanding results of scientific work. The faculty still has a dominant share in the scientific output of the entire university. In its modern history, it has triumphed several times in the “Faculty of the Year” competition in the field of chemistry in the Czech Republic.
Since 2009, the faculty has been based in a modern complex built by the University of Pardubice on the university campus in the city district of Polabiny. The faculty’s success would not be possible without modern laboratories ranging from elementary teaching labs to state-of-the-art scientific facilities.
In 2015, the university completed reconstruction work and finished the construction of the remaining parts of the original faculty complex on Czechoslovak Legions Square in the centre of the town, where the modern laboratories of the cutting-edge Centre of Materials and Nanotechnologies were created. The buildings of the technological departments at the Technology Centre in Doubravice were also gradually reconstructed. The instrumentation of the institutes, which is comparable with similar workplaces in advanced countries and which is constantly developing, is also very important.
Over the 70 years of its existence, particularly in the last 30 years, the faculty has developed into a modern university facility with overlapping and sustainable potential for the future. The Faculty of Chemical Technology shapes and will continue to influence the face of education, science and traditional values of the University of Pardubice.
