Votoček attended business school after high school with the intention of taking over his father’s wholesale paper business, but realized that chemistry rather than accounting and management was his true love. So he transferred to the School of Chemistry at the Czech Technical University in Prague, where he graduated in 1893 with a concentration in organic chemistry.
But because Votoček was most interested in hands on laboratory research and the Czech Technical University did not have a sufficient organic chemistry laboratory, he went off to France and Germany for two years of post-graduate work. He returned to the Czech Technical University in 1895, and spent his entire academic career there as a professor’s assistant, lecturer (Docent), Assistant Professor, and Professor of Organic Chemistry.
In early 1939, at age 66, the administration forced him to retire, but he was not ready to retire from his laboratory, so he enrolled as a student!
Unfortunately, World War II intervened; Germany invaded Czechoslovakia, and, in November 1939, the German administration closed all Czech universities for the duration of the war. That really ended Votoček’s formal academic career.
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