UTM remembers Josef Svoboda, an early pioneer in study of global warming
Order of Canada Officer and UTM biology Professor Emeritus Josef Svoboda, an internationally recognized expert in Arctic ecology, has died at the age of 93.
Svoboda, who grew up during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and was arrested for his political opinions when he was a student, overcame great personal hardship to pursue research in the Arctic and build a successful academic career. He was imprisoned at the age of 20 and spent nine years in jails and labour camps – included three years of hard labour in a uranium mine. He defected to Canada when the Soviet Army invaded his homeland in 1968.
“I asked him often how he survived the deprivations of nine year’s incarceration in communist prison camps when a young man during the 1950s,” says Gary Sprules, a fellow UTM biology professor emeritus, who first met Svoboda when Svoboda joined UTM as an assistant professor in 1974. “The answer that surprised me most, so typical of Josef finding the good in the bad, was that many of his prison mates were from the intelligentsia of Czechoslovakia and provided him with an outstanding education.”
His imprisonment had interrupted his university studies, so, having arrived in Canada at the age of 40 without a degree or job, Svoboda finished his bachelor of science at Western University and completed a PhD at the University of Alberta in Arctic plant ecology. This set him on a lifelong path of study of the effects of global climate change.
“(He was) as an early pioneer in researching the ecology and climate of the delicate ecosystems in Canada’s far north,” says Sprules, who is also a longtime friend of the Svoboda family. “He was physically and spiritually strong – a humble man as people of great depth often are.”
Svoboda’s work included examining the effects of muskox grazing on the plant communities, developing Green igloo farms which allowed northern communities to produce beets, turnips, parsnips, broccoli, potatoes and a variety of other vegetables, and documenting the reach of radioactive fallout in remote regions. He received the Northern Science Award and Centenary Medal from the Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs.
The Josef Svoboda Czech Arctic Research Station in Norway was named in his honour in 2016. In 2017, he published his autobiography, Wine from Raisins: A Life Transformed through Communist Gulag to Canadian Arctic. He was appointed to The Order of Canada in 2019 for “his pioneering research on tundra ecosystems and for his lifelong mentorship of scientists studying the Arctic.”
Svoboda is survived by his wife of 46 years, Lewina, and son Michael. He is predeceased by his son Andrew.
Visitation will be held at Smith’s Funeral Home, 1167 Guelph Line in Burlington, on Thursday, Dec. 1, from 6 to 9 p.m. Funeral mass will be celebrated at St. John the Baptist on Friday, Dec. 2 at 10 a.m. with a reception in the church hall following interment at Holy Sepulchre Catholic Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made in memory of Josef Svoboda to the University of Toronto Mississauga at uoft.me/JSvoboda. Visit www.smithsfh.com to sign an online book of condolences.