I was born in Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic. I graduated from Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno with biochemistry as a major. After obtaining a RNDr. degree I worked two years in a hospital in Rychnov nad Kneznou. Than I returned to Brno and spent sixteen years working in the Institute of Analytical Chemistry, the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Brno where I got my PhD. in analytical chemistry. I spent as a postdoc/research associate three years in Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana where I worked in the Milos Novotny group. In 1995 I joined a California company Molecular Dynamics, which produced MegaBACE 1000, a capillary electrophoresis DNA sequencer. I developed the capillary wall coating in this instrument. In 2002 I started Alcor BioSeparations, a company devoted to bioanalysis and am working here even today. My wife Jana is an anesthesiologist at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California. We have two adult sons, David and Adam and three grandkids Tatiana, Kristyna and Max.