Petr Heřman
the pilot of the MLOK vehicle
The Lost Expedition Brotherhood / Sisterhood
Biophysicist Prof. Petr Heřman kindly lent his Praga RND bus, which has not been driven for a long time, for the purpose of its planned transplantation into the mobile laboratory of the Lost Expedition. I discovered information about the bus on the Internet in 2002 and immediately contacted the owner. The vehicle was parked in the forest on the Krkonoše Mountains, where Petr Heřman had to move it from Prague in the early 1990s. In Prague the bus was the victim of repeated vandalism. Bellow, in outline, we present the heroic story of MLOK (Hurvínek) compiled from memory and data on Peter's Wikipedia page.
The bus was taken to the hall of the Bubec sculptur space in Řeporyje, Prague 5 where the MLOK supposed to be repaired and put into operation conditions so that it could go on its first planned expedition around Bohemia. However, I was left alone for the repair, because I did not manage to get the necessary financial support for the project, the conversion and repair of the veterane vehicle. After a few months, the owner of the Bubec studios, Čestmír Suška, announced that we had to take the bus away, i.e. tow it, because it was still not running. We succeeded, and for a while we parked on the terrain behind the Soros center for Contemporary Art in Jelení Street, where the Rádio Jelení studio was also located. During the spring of 2003, I cleaned the bus in Jelení, glazed the broken windows and painted it pale blue. In the summer, the bus took part in the program of the Prague Quadrennial, at the exhibition hall in Holešovice served as a space for a mobile radio studio, where interviews with participants took place, which were streamed on the website of Rádio Jelení. Lloyd Dunn then created a documentary DVD from the footage, which should be somewhere to find. Then we drove or towed it back to SCCA. After complaints from the Castle, the vehicle was towed to the parking lot at the AVU campus in Holešovice, where we finally managed to start the engine with the assistance of Václav Smeykal (servismen of harvester vehicles from Hartmanice), we bleed the engine and checked the brake. Due to danger of sediments in the gastank, we temporarily connected the fuel line directly to the canister and then connected two 12V batteries. It was enough to warm up and after a few turns of the crankshaft, the engine after many years started again. Unfortunately, before the electrical installation repairs were completed, the bus had to be taken away from the AVU parking lot again. It could drive on his own, but due to the risk of driving without a valid Technical Licence, it has to be towed again this time to the campus of the Charles University in Motol, where Petr Heřman works. Even though the area is guarded by a security service, the bus was not safe and the windows were one a while smashed. In 2005, the municipality of Kladno asked to rent a bus for the 3rd Industrial Biennale, and after the bus parked on the main Kladno square as a advertisement for the program, it was finally parked in the premises of the Mayrau Mining Museum. It was stolen from there, to be after several months traced again and then returned back to Majrovka. Finaly, Petr Heřman sold the bus in deplorable state to a hotelier in Slovakia. So far, the Mlok vehicle ended his Lost Expedition anabasis. Curiculum vitae of Prof. RNDr. Petr Heřman, CSc.
work: Institute of Physics, Ke Karlovu 5
1984 – MSc. in Biophysics – Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University
1984 – RNDr. (rerum naturalium doctor) degree – Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University
1991 – PhD. – Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University
2002 – Associate Professor – Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
2004-2012 – Scientific secretary – Institute of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University
2012-2019 – Deputy director – Institute of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University
2015 – Full Professor – Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
2019-on – Director – Institute of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University Stages:
1991-1993 – University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, USA
1994 – University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, USA
1998-2001 – University of Maryland at Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
2005 – NATO Senior research fellow, Institute of Protein Biochemistry, CNR., Naples, Italy
2007 – University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, USA Professional Activities:
Current Proteomics – editorial board member since 2007
Czech Science Foundation – member of the project evaluation board 2013-2017
ASCB member
Bibliography: Patents: 1998 – Herman, P. and J. Vecer – Způsob určení spektrálního složení elektromagnetického záření a zařízení k jeho provádění – CZ 284282
2001 – Herman, P. and J. Vecer – Způsob určení spektrálního složení elektromagnetického záření a zařízení k jeho prováděn – CZ 288303
2002 – Herman, P. and J. Vecer – Method and device for the spectral analysis of light – US 6,373,569
2003 – Herman, P. and J. Vecer – Method and device for the spectral analysis of light – US 6,646,743
2004 – Vecer, J. and P. Herman – Method and device for the spectral analysis of light – US 6,721,050
2006 – Vecer, J. and P. Herman – Způsob určení barvy světla – CZ 297523
Fields of interest and research experience:
Biopolymers – interactions, energetics, structure-function relations
Biological membranes – lateral organization, adaptation
Self-organization of biopolymers and cellular components
Biomedical applications of fluorescence spectroscopy
Fluorescence sensing
Time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy
Advanced imaging techniques
