Petr Vaníček

Petr Vaníček (born 1935 in Sušice, Czechoslovakia, today in Czech Republic) is a Czech Canadian geodesist and theoretical geophysicist who has made important breakthroughs in theory of spectral analysis and geoid computation.

Petr Vaníček
Born1935
Sušice, Czechoslovakia
NationalityCzech-Canadian
CitizenshipCanadian
Alma materAcademy of Sciences
Institute of Technology
Known forVaníček method
Precise Geoid
Canadian Geophysical Union
UN GALOS
AwardsJ. Tuzo Wilson Medal
Scientific career
FieldsGeodesy & Geophysics
Institutions
ThesisAnharmonic Analysis and Its Applications in Geophysics (1967)
Academic advisorsEmil Buchar
Notable studentsAttila Komjathy, Caltech
Steven DeLoach, USACE HQ[1]
HE Galo Carrera
Websitewww2.unb.ca/gge/Personnel/Vanicek/Vanicek.html

Main contributions

He initiated the establishing of the Canadian Geophysical Union in 1974, and served as the Union's president between 1986 and 1988.

He was the first chairman of the United Nations committee for Geodetic Aspects of the Law of the Sea (GALOS), founded in Edinburgh, Scotland by the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) in 1989.[2]

His book Geodesy: The Concepts,[3] now translated into several languages, is a standard text for both undergraduate and graduate courses in geodesy worldwide.[4][5] He also served as Editor-in-Chief and a reviewer for several scientific journals as well as on numerous scientific boards and committees.[6]

Research
Further information: List of works by Petr Vaníček

One of his main contributions of general relevance is least-squares spectral analysis,[7] also called the Vaníček method,[8] a frequency spectrum computation method published in 1969[9] and 1971.[10] The method is based on a least-squares fit of sinusoids to the data samples, and mitigates the drawbacks of applying Fourier analysis for analyzing long incomplete data records such as most natural datasets.[11]

His discoveries in theoretical geophysics, the "precise geoid solution"[12] in particular, enable millimetre-to-centimetre accuracy in geoid computation, an-order-of-magnitude improvement from previous solutions.[13][14][15]

Awards and recognitions

He was awarded the J. Tuzo Wilson Medal in 1996 for outstanding contributions to Canadian geophysics.[16] He is a fellow of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, of the American Geophysical Union, and of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU).

He was the first Canadian awarded the Senior Distinguished Scientist Fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and was a Senior Visiting Scientist with the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Over the course of his career, he taught or performed research at universities and labs across six continents, including the Royal Institute of Technology and the USGS.

Personal life

Since he was born into a typical bourgeois family, his wife and children requested to leave Communist Czechoslovakia during the brief but liberal times of Prague Spring. They were granted exit visa just before the Soviet invasion of 1968. The family reunited in England where he was staying on a 1967 Senior Research Fellowship at the University of Liverpool. Together, they immigrated to Canada in 1969. He has one daughter and two sons.

He retired as Professor Emeritus in 2002, after more than thirty years of teaching at the University of Toronto and the University of New Brunswick. He lives in Fredericton, Canada.[17]

References
  1. Stephen R. DeLoach, PE, LS, Deputy Chief, Engineering and Construction, Headquarters U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Featured Guest, Insights. American Society of Civil Engineers Industry Leaders Council.
  2. B.G. Harsson. "GALOS". International Association of Geodesy. (Current IAG website). Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 3 October 2007. External link in |website= (help)
  3. Geodesy: The Concepts. Petr Vanicek and E.J. Krakiwsky. Amsterdam: Elsevier. 1982 (first ed.): ISBN 0-444-86149-1, ISBN 978-0-444-86149-8. 1986 (third ed.): ISBN 0-444-87777-0, ISBN 978-0-444-87777-2. ASIN 0444877770.
  4. WorldCat Identities for: Vaníček, Petr 1935-
  5. "J. Tuzo Wilson Medal citation for Petr Vaníček".
  6. Petr Vaníček, Nikolaos T. Christou (1994). Geoid and Its Geophysical Interpretations. CRC Press. ISBN 978-0-8493-4227-1.
  7. Pagiatakis, S. Stochastic significance of peaks in the least-squares spectrum, J of Geodesy 73, p.67-78 (1999).
  8. Taylor J., Hamilton S. Some tests of the Vaníček method of spectral analysis, Astrophysics and Space Science, International Journal of Cosmic Physics, D. Reidel Publishing Co., Dordrecht, Holland (1972)
  9. Vaníček P. Approximate Spectral Analysis by Least-squares Fit, Astrophysics and Space Science, Pages 387-391, Volume 4 (1969)
  10. Vaníček P. Further development and properties of the spectral analysis by least-squares fit, Astrophysics and Space Science, Pages 10-33, Volume 12 (1971)
  11. Press; et al. (2007). Numerical Recipes (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-88068-8.
  12. UNB Precise Geoid Determination Package, page accessed 2 January 2014
  13. Vaníček, P., Kleusberg, A. The Canadian geoid-Stokesian approach, Pages 86-98, Manuscripta Geodaetica, Volume 12, Number 2 (1987)
  14. Vaníček P., Martinec Z. Compilation of a precise regional geoid, Pages 119-128, Manuscripta Geodaetica, Volume 19 (1994)
  15. Vaníček et al. Compilation of a precise regional geoid, pp.45, Report for Geodetic Survey Division - DSS Contract: #23244-1-4405/01-SS, Ottawa (1995)
  16. Past Wilson Medalists: Petr Vanicek (1996). "J. Tuzo Wilson Medal". Canadian Geophysical Union. Archived from the original on 29 February 2012.
  17. "Biographical Database entry for Petr Vaníček, Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU)". Archived from the original on 4 July 2011.
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