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About Faculty

History of the Institution of the Faculty of Materials, Metallurgy and Recycling

Pursuant to the Governmental Decree No. 30 as of June 8, 1952 founded was the Technical University of Košice with its first three Faculties: Faculty of Mining, Faculty of Metallurgy and Faculty of Heavy Machinery. This legal act was preceded by the institution of the Technical University of the General Milan Rastislav Štefánik in Košice pursuant to the Act of National Assembly of the Czechoslovak Republic 1937, effective since the Academic Year 1938/39. Due to the events in the autumn 1938 (Munich Treaty, Vienna Arbitration) when Košice was incorporated into Hungary, this first technically oriented university in Slovakia had moved via Prešov and Martin to Bratislava. There it started to act as the Slovak Technical University, today’s Slovak Technical University of Bratislava (SVŠT). In the 40th of the last century, there was at SVŠT the field of the special sciences, which had the division of mining and metallurgy engineering, however start of the complete study of the metallurgical sciences did not happen. However the attempt to renew the metallurgical education at the university level in Slovakia in the times of the first Czechoslovak Republic did not succeed and in the year 1952, for the first time after 33 years from the termination of the Mining Academy in Banská Štiavnica in the year 1919, the education and training of the metallurgy engineers in Slovakia started. The first dean became professor Horák. One professor, one associated professor, one assistant professor and six assistants started their activity at two departments and 89 students started their studies. Historic moment for Faculty of Metallurgy came, when after 65 years since its foundation, faculty changed its name to Faculty of Materials, Metallurgy and Recycling with effect from 1 July 2017.

Developing industrialisation of the East Slovakia and in particular the construction of new metallurgical steelworks HUKO, later known as VSŽ Košice as well as other metallurgical plants, contributed significantly to the metallurgical studies at the university level renewed introduction. The known experts and graduates from the Faculty of Metallurgy of VŠB in Ostrava and Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of SVŠT in Bratislava, as well as many other top experts from whole Czechoslovakia became the teachers at the Faculty of Metallurgy. The first departments at the Faculty of Metallurgy were Department of Chemistry and Department of Metallurgy. In the first half of fifties further departments were established and four departments formed the Faculty: Department of Chemistry, Department of Metal Science, Thermal Processing and Metals Forming, Department of Non-Ferrous Metals and Department of Furnaces and Metallurgical Energetics. In the year 1959 established was the Department of Ferrous Metals and in the year 1965 – Department of Metals Forming. The foundry had undergone the separate development. It has moved from the Department of Non-Ferrous Metals via joint institution of the Faculty of Metallurgy and Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, to the Institute of Foundry of the Faculty of Metallurgy, which was established in the year 1968 and this was allocated to the Department of Ferrous Metallurgy in the year 1973. Department of Chemistry was in the year 1966 divided in the Department of the Chemical Principles of Metallurgy and Department of Analytical Chemistry, however in compliance with the Faculty further development it was again unified in the renewed Department of Chemistry at the beginning of 70th. At that time, the division oriented in automatic control systems was detached from the Department of Furnaces and Metallurgical Energetics. This became the base for the recent Institute of Information Technology of TU Košice. In the year 1972 established was the another Faculty division – Laboratory of Metallurgy of Non-Ferrous Metals, which was subject to several transformations and name changes and existed until the year 2003 as the Institute of Metallurgy and Materials of the Faculty of Metallurgy. In the year 2003 the Institute of Metallurgy and Materials was transformed in two new departments: Department of Integrated Management and Department of Ceramics, formed partially of the members of former Institute and the Ceramic Division of the Department of Chemistry. Mentioned should also be the fact, that in course of the years 1963 – 71 the Laboratory of the Metallurgical Technology was the part of Faculty, oriented in powder metallurgy problems. This was the nucleus of the today’s Institute of Material Research of the Slovak Academy of Science in Košice.

From 1st January 2016, the faculty changed the organizational structure, where the departments were transformed into three institutes, namely:

  • Institute of Metallurgy (Department of Ferrous and Foundry Metallurgy, Department of Furnaces and Thermal Technology, Department of Ceramics)
  • Institute of Materials and Quality Engineering (Department of Materials Science, Department of Metal Forming, Department of Integrated Management)
  • Institute of recycling Technologies (Department of Non-Ferrous Metals and Waste Treatment, Department of Chemistry)

In course of its first years the Faculty has educated metallurgical engineers in two fields: in the field of Materials Science and Metal Thermal Processing and in the field of Metallurgy of Non-Ferrous Metals and Foundry. The principal metallurgical profile of education has been completed in 60th of the last century by introducing the new fields: Metallurgy of Iron and Steel, Industrial Furnaces and Thermal Technology and Metal Forming.

Gradually implemented have been further organisational changes and the restructuring of the study fields and specialisations as well as departments until the recent status has been achieved. Now, it is possible to study in 6 bachelor’s, 11 engineering and 9 post-diploma study programs at 8 Departments of the Faculty. They include the metallurgy of iron and steel, metallurgy of non-ferrous metals, foundry, material engineering, metal forming, thermal energy related problems, industrial furnaces and gas industry, refractories and technical ceramics, waste processing and recycling, integrated management in metallurgy oriented in quality control, environment, occupational safety and industrial risks as well as human resources. In doctoral level of studies, Faculty assumes the education in the field of analytical chemistry as well. The Faculty has undergone a long way from the time of its primary premises located in the wooden barracks in village Veľká Ida up to the recent location within the premises of the Technical University of Košice along with complicated and even not once bothersome development. However essential is the fact that the Faculty has rapidly developed into the renowned scientific and educational institution with high level of educational and research activities as well as an effective collaboration with the metallurgical industry.

In the time of its 55th anniversary of existence in the year 2007, the Faculty of Metallurgy has educated more that 4500 metallurgical engineers, out of it 100 were foreign graduates from Algeria, Angola, Equator, Ethiopia, Yemen, Jordan, Korea, Cuba, Laos, Madagascar, Mongolia, Nigeria, Peru, Syria, Vietnam and Libya. Until recent days at the Faculty graduated have 283 Candidates of Science and 56 PhD students. Along with their educational activity, the teachers and researchers of the Faculty have published 81 monographs and textbooks, 205 scripts, more than 6000 scientific and expert papers. Staff of Faculty participated in solution of more than 1700 scientific projects and they were granted more that 120 Author’s Certificates of the Czechoslovak and Slovak patents.

Faculty has maintained and still maintains fruitful collaboration with the renowned Universities among which named may be RWTH Aachen, Tohoku University Sendai, University of technology Helsinki-Espoo, Laval University Québec, Imperial College of London, NTH Trondheim, TU Berlin, BergAkademie Freiberg, MISIS Moscow, TU Stuttgart, AGH Cracow and many other. In particular mentioned should be contacts and co-operation with the Universities which are, similarly as the Faculty of Metallurgy the cultural heirs and spiritual followers of the Academy of Mining of Banská Štiavnica: University of Miskolc, VŽB Technical University of Ostrava and Montanuniversität in Leoben.

Faculty of Materials, Metallurgy and Recycling maintains permanent co-operation with industry and the most significant partners are the companies as U. S. Steel Košice, Železiarne Podbrezová, OFZ Istebné, Slovalco, a.s., SPP, a.s., Žiarska hutnícka spoločnosť, Rautenbach Slovakia, SMZ Jelšava, Outokumpu Finland, Třinecké železárny, Vítkovice Steel, Alcan Dečín and so on.

Many of Faculty’s scientific outputs have exceeded the frame of former Czechoslovakia as well as the limits of their era, and significantly and in pioneer-like manner moved the development of knowledge in their field and influenced its further development.

Mentioned should be in particular:

  • the thermodynamic school of pyro-metallurgical production of copper and in world for the first time patented process of continuous copper production by authors – professor Juraj Schmiedl and associate professors František Sehnálek and Július Holéczy
  • Košice phractography school of professor Vojtech Karel
  • analytical spectrochemical school of professor Mikuláš Matherny
  • the school of furnaces thermodynamics led by professor Svatopluk Černoch.

Many professors, associate professors, assistants and researchers imprinted their distinctive trace into the history of Faculty of Metallurgy. Along with the 13 deans of the Faculty, exhibited in the Dean’s Gallery at the Dean’s Office of the Faculty of Metallurgy, there were in particular the professors of the Faculty, who by their personal qualities, scientific outputs and pedagogical commitment contributed significantly to the Faculty development.

Mentioned should be namely the personalities of the first – older generation:

  • Svatopluk Černoch, Jaroslav Kubelík, Miroslav Brzobohatý, Bedřich Zimmerman, Otakar Kaštánek, Ludvík Brož, Jaroslav Horák, Eduard Kozina, Jaroslav Malkovský, Jindřich Spal, Eduard Červený, Martin Koleda and Václav Malý. In the second – middle generation, these were in particular the following professors: Milan Šlesár, Juraj Buša, Viktor Zábavník, Jaroslav Kocich, Pavol Veles, Juraj Schmiedl, Dagmar Kmeťová, Štefan Majerčák, Vojtech Karel, Mikuláš Matherny, Ivan Lukáč, Ján Micheľ, Júliu Hidvéghy and Erika Krakovská.

Current generation of the Faculty professors has in the activity of their ancestors sufficient inspiration for the Faculty development and further progress.

Thanks to the effort and invention of all scientific and pedagogical staff, the Faculty of Materials, Metallurgy and Recycling became the reliable part of the Technical University of Košice and prominent scientific and educational institution oriented in metallurgy and material technologies, exceeding by its significance and results the boarders of Slovakia and Middle Europe.

I wish the Faculty of Materials, Metallurgy and Recycling further success, development and progress.

With metallurgical greeting “Zdar Boh”

Presentation about faculty (pdf) – download

Presentation about faculty (pptx) – download