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Not far from the Loučná stream, in the centre of the town of Litomyšl, there stands the house formerly occupied by the zoologist father and son Viktor Janda Sr. (1880–1964) and Viktor Janda Jr. (1925–1996). There is a bronze commemorative plaque on the building.
The two Jandas, father and son, were important figures in 20th-century Czech zoology. They both became zoology professors and studied experimental physiology. After graduating from the Litomyšl grammar school Viktor Janda Sr. went on to study the natural sciences at what was then the Faculty of Arts of Charles University under František Vejdovský. After a short career as a teacher at various secondary schools he returned to university and started to specialise in the physiology of invertebrates, particularly insects. He was interested in insect regeneration, their nervous system, their colour changes and their metabolism during development. He was a pioneer in the experimental approach to physiology. In 1927 he was appointed professor and became the head of the university’s Zoological Institute. In addition to this, he was also a member of the Royal Bohemian Society of Sciences, the Czech Zoological Society and the Czechoslovak Entomological Society, amongst others. His son, Viktor Janda Jr., followed in his father’s footsteps and devoted himself to similar matters; he worked as a zoology professor at Masaryk University in Brno.
- References
OPATRNÝ, E.; PETRUŠKA, F.: Dějiny české zoologie. Stručné dějiny naší systematické zoologie a životopisy našich systematických zoologů. Olomouc 1998
KOMÁREK, J.: Zoologická věda v ČSR za posledních 10 let. Věda přírodní, 10/1929, str. 82–87 a 107–115.
WENIG, J.: Nástin vývoje a dějin zoologie v Čechách. In: VINIKLÁŘ, L. (ed.): Vývoj české přírodovědy. Jubilejní sborník na paměť 60letého trvání Přírodovědeckého klubu v Praze 1869–1929. Praha 1929, str. 69–93
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