Dr. Navratil has four patents to his credit and has given more than 450 presentations, including lectures in more than 100 countries. He has coedited or coauthored nineteen books (most recently with Fedor Macasek, Separations Chemistry, and with Jiri Hala, Radioactivity, Ionizing Radiation, and Nuclear Energy), published more than 250 scientific publications, and served on the editorial boards of over a dozen journals. He has been instrumental in the founding of the journals Solvent Extraction and Ion Exchange (serving as coeditor for many years) and Preparative Chromatography (serving as editor), as well as the ACS's Subdivision of Separation Science and Technology and its award in Separation Science and Technology and DOE's actinide separation conferences and its Glenn Seaborg Award in Actinide Separations. Dr. Navratil has also organized or co-organized many conferences, symposiums, and meetings for the ACS, DOE, and IAEA. He is a diamond member of the Traveler's Century Club (www.travelerscenturyclub.org), having visited 305 countries and territories on the club list of 327. He also conceived the plots and assisted his wife, Sylvia, in writing The Bare Essentials and The Bear Hug and edited her book Chemistry Trivia. Sylvia Tascher has died on July 4, 2009, from pancreatitis. Her husband, James Navratil, has used some of her early writings, e-mails, and letters as well as excerpts from his e-mails and personal diary for writing The Final Bear Hug. He also thinks she has assisted him via mental telepathy to finish this book. He feels he could not have written such material as he is accustomed to only writing technical papers. Sylvia was a very prolific writer, producing two other novels, several books for children, a couple of technical books, and many musical scores and poems. Her talent for creative writing was inherited from her parents, both of whom were respected authors. More about Sylvia can be found in The Bear Hug.
