Magnetic Resonance and Cryogenics
The department consists of two research groups -Magnetic Resonance Group and Cryogenics and Superconductivity Group, which both descend from a larger NMR Department, formed in late 1950s. The groups are now scientifically independent and utilize their long-term expertise in their respective areas in a mix of basic and applied research.
History
The Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Department at ISI was founded in 1960 by Josef Dadok, the constructor of the first European NMR spectrometer working at a frequency as high as 30 MHz, equipped with a resistive magnet of 0.7 Tesla. At that time, only Varian (USA) and JEOL (Japan) were reaching that high with 30 and 32 MHz, respectively, while in Europe only Trüb, Täuber & Co. AG (later absorbed by Bruker as Spectrospin, Germany) was offering 25 MHz. In 1966, industrial production of spectrometers began at TESLA Brno, and for 25 years was the only NMR producer in the Eastern European countries. These spectrometers were an extremely successful export article and several hundred instruments of various types were produced, based on the designs provided by ISI. In 1967 a laboratory for low-temperature technology focused to the design of super-conducting magnets for NMR was established by Josef Jelínek.
After J. Dadok's emigration the department was led shortly by Karel Švéda and later (until 1990) by Zenon Starčuk. In the 1970s the department began to deal with methodological problems of the rapidly developing pulsed Fourier-transform NMR spectroscopy. The most significant achievements of Z. Starčuk and his student and collaborator Vladimír Sklenář included a number of firsts in the field of NMR experiment methodology and were an inspiration for a group of young scientists who started their carriers around 1985. The institute's specialists also achieved many original results in the fields of design and generation of magnetic fields in general, data processing and experiment control, spectrometer electronics, etc.
After 1990, when the production of NMR spectrometers at Tesla Brno ceased, the department was led by Miroslav Kasal until 2002. The ongoing work has been carried out by several teams, focusing on the development of progressive electronic modules, radiofrequency and gradient coils for NMR spectrometers and tomographs, solving the problems related to NMR experiment control, data acquisition and processing in both spectroscopy and imaging, and on further methodological development, mainly oriented towards in vivo spectroscopy. Considerable research capacity started to be oriented to problems in cryogenics (A. Srnka, P. Hanzelka, V. Musilová) and to processing of biomedical signals (J. Halámek, P. Jurák). Finally, these specialized teams diverged from NMR into the field of measurement and analysis of physiological biomedical signals (now an independent department of Medical Signals) and cryogenics (now Cryogenics and Superconductivity group, part of the MRC Department). During 1990s, most young scientists went abroad or into commerce, but after 2000, some of them became the successors of the local tradition at Masaryk University (V. Sklenář, R. Fiala in the Josef Dadok National NMR Centre), at ISI (Z. Starčuk Jr.) and NMR marketing (L. Půček), while others could be found in NMR production (P. Kessler, Bruker) or other research (D. Bělohrad, CERN).
After 2000, young scientists started to re-appear in the teams of medical signals, cryogenics and magnetic resonance. In the position of the department head, M. Kasal was followed by Z. Starčuk Jr., and the medical signals group seceded, headed by P. Jurák.
Since 2002, the prevailing orientation of the MR Group has been methodology for in vivo MR imaging and spectroscopy, accompanied by MR service to biomedical research, while the CS Group has been focusing on experimental low-temperature physics.
