Building Long-Term Scientific Collaborations with Central Europe

April 12, 2013

Tibor Pechan, an assistant research professor at the IGBB, grew up in what is now known as the Slovak Republic or Slovakia. He left Slovakia in 1995 to conduct postdoctoral research at MSU, and roughly 14 months later managed to bring his wife and children to Mississippi. Starkville has been home to the Pechan family ever since. However, Dr. Pechan and his family still visit the Slovak Republic and its surrounding Central European nations frequently. It is important to Pechan to keep in touch with his Slovakian family and friends while keeping himself and his family connected to their heritage.

Over the years, Dr. Pechan has become renown for his expertise in mass spectrometry and its use in exploring important questions in biology, chemistry, and physics. Since 2008, he has used his expertise as a bridge through which he has increased the range and scope of MSU's international research collaborations. Of note, Dr. Pechan has developed grass-root international collaborations with scientists from Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, and the Slovak Republic. Dr. Pechan has worked to create synergistic research partnerships with accomplished Central European research groups that lack mass spectrometry instrumentation and expertise. To date, his international collaborations have resulted in four peer-reviewed publications, three invited presentations, and two travel grants; one of these travel grants from the European Union allows multiple exchange visits over the span of three years. In 2012, Pechan and his colleagues were awarded the prestigious Arnold Beckman Prize by the Czech Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. The award recognized the group's 2011 publication as the best proteomics publication involving Central European scientists. Of note, all the proteomics work was performed by Pechan at the IGBB and paid for by his Central European collaborators, i.e., these collaborations have brought financial resources to MSU.

Dr. Pechan and his colleagues in Central Europe have several more publications in preparation. Moreover, Dr. Pechan has invitations to visit several additional Central European universities that are eager to work with him.

Dr. Pechan's biography and research articles.