A Tribute to Milan Novák

A Tribute to Milan Novák – The Canadian Mineralogist Vol. 56, part 4

Guest Editors: Radek Škoda, Pietro Vignola, Axel Müller
Editor: Lee A. Groat

The latest thematic issue of The Canadian Mineralogist comprises contributions from the 8th International Symposium of Granitic Pegmatites (PEG2017), which was held in Kristiansand (Norway).

The issue is dedicated to Milan Novák, a distinguished Czech Republic researcher in the field of pegmatite mineralogy and petrology.

Milan spent his research career at two institutions. Between 1977 and 1999, he worked at the Moravian Museum in Brno (Czech Republic) as a curator of the mineralogical collections, rising to become Head of the Department of Mineralogy and Petrology. Between 1999 and 2003, he was employed at Masaryk University in Brno as Director of the Department of Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry. After the merging of two geological departments at the university, he was Director of the Department of Geological Sciences (2003–2007; 2016–2017) until his partial retirement in 2017. His research in the field of granitic pegmatites benefited from his early experiences of collecting and field surveying for the Moravian Museum and from his teachers during the 1970s and 1980s: J. Staněk, P. Povondra, F. Čech, M. Rieder, D. Němec, and, in particular, Petr Černý.

Milan’s research activities broadly fell into three categories:

1. The mineralogy, petrology, and geochemistry of granitic pegmatites generally. The granitic pegmatites of the Czech Republic (Moldanubian Zone, Silesicum, Lugicum) were favorites of Milan, along with localities from Canada, USA, Slovakia, Madagascar, Argentina, Sweden, and Poland.
2. The crystal chemistry, petrology, and geochemistry of minerals of the tourmaline supergroup and other boron-bearing minerals. His research was enhanced by the abundance of tourmaline in the Bohemian Massif and cooperation with Prof. Frank Hawthorne (and his Canadian students Winnipeg).
3. Topics related to petrology, geology, and descriptive mineralogy. His experience of working at the Moravian Museum in Brno drove his study of the processes and minerals that form different, but highly attractive, forms of pegmatites, such as non-granitic pegmatites, eclogites, the evolution of Carboniferous clastic sediments, the geological setting of melagranites, environmental minerals, and secondary minerals.

Softcover. 334 pages. 2017.