Masaryk University Honorary Doctorate Award Ceremony and Lecture of prof. John P. Giesy

The Rector and the Scientific Council of Masaryk University, the Dean and the Scientific Council of the Faculty of Science of Masaryk University would like to cordially invite you to the ceremony of awarding

honorary scientific degree doctor honoris causa in the field of environmental sciences

to

Johnu Paulu Giesy,

which will take place on December 5, 2019 at 10.00 am in the Assembly Hall of the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University (Joštova 10, Brno).

The capacity of the hall is limited, so confirmation of your participation in the ceremony is necessary by 25 November 2019 at the latest. Please also inform us about your possible absence (in the link above).

Lecture

At 2.00 pm, we will continue with the lecture of prof. Giesy on the topic Toxicological evaluation of Perfluorooctan in the environment. It will be held in University Campus in pavilon A11/334.​

Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) has been found in tissues of humans and wildlife species in many parts of the world. Because of its low vapor pressure and the fact that it was used in polymers that were thought to be inert it was not expected to move in the environment or be accumulated into animals. Furthermore, accurate and sensitive analytical methods were unavailable until they were developed by my group. For these reasons. little information on the environmental fate of PFOS was available.

In this lecture, prof. Giesy will present the story of how he discovered this chemical in the environment, and then conducted a global survey and worked out the mechanism of action and thresholds for toxicity. He will provide chemical-physical properties of PFOS and discuss how it is different from more traditionally studied neutral, di-aromatic halogenated compounds, and discuss the reasons for why this global catastrophe occurred through a failure to understand the chemistry and toxicology of a whole class of chemicals.