T-shirt Wichterle

After earning his doctorate at the university, he worked as an assistant professor. After the universities closed in 1939, he began working in Zlín for Bata, where he also invented the famous silon. After the war he returned to the university environment, renewing and innovating chemistry teaching, creating scripts and changing the examination system. In 1958 he was dismissed during a political purge and had to leave for the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (CSAS).

Wichterl's most famous invention is the contact lens. Despite initial attempts that were not 100% successful, he managed to create the lenses at home in 1961 - using a machine built from a Merkur kit and a motorcycle made from a bicycle and later a gramophone. A licensing deal for the groundbreaking invention was then awarded to American companies.

Wichterle supported the Two Thousand Words manifesto in 1968, became an MP, but was persecuted during the normalisation period. After 1989 he received two honorary doctorates in the USA and one at Charles University. He was president of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, and an asteroid bears his name. He loved tennis and gardening. He died in 1998 at his summer residence.