The parent company PARDAM NANO4FIBERS was a highly publicized company during the pandemic (it became one of the three companies supplying the state), so there is no need to introduce it much. With its innovations, it won the favor of the jury during 2020 and won 1st place for the most innovative company of the year in the Ústí Region in the category of small and medium-sized enterprises. We interviewed the director of the company, Jan Buk. He has been leading the company since 2009 and thus stood by the rise of the Czech Republic in the field of nanotechnology. In addition, a Nano Hub is to be established in the Ústí Region, specifically in Lovosice, which would bring together the products of nanotechnology manufacturers in one place. Our region is well positioned to rise to the forefront in this field.

Hon, what does nanotechnology mean to you? What attracted you to the field?

For me, nanotechnology means a field with huge potential, in which there are a lot of amazing people with brilliant ideas. You can imagine almost anything under the term nano and this gives room for great creativity. In addition, for me, nanotechnology means 10 years of living in the company of amazing personalities, projects and technologies. In the beginning, it was an interesting challenge for me, which turned into my hobby and job.

But your path to nanotechnology was not straightforward. You started professionally in academia as an English and PE teacher. Describe to us the journey when you gradually became one of the main faces of the Czech nano industry?

The road is even more winding than it seems. I studied high-current electrical engineering in Kladno. Then I started studying engineering at CTU, where I stayed for a year. Somehow it did not satisfy me, so I wanted to go abroad. Gain new experiences and improve your language. And I managed to do that by moving to England, where I lived for 2 years and earned my living by doing various part-time jobs.

And after returning to the Czech Republic, I returned to the place I like - in the north of Bohemia to Roudnice nad Labem. And right away, my friend and I started a football farm, which serves as a kind of sports center at the high school. By the way, it works so far. At the same time, I also graduated from the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports at Charles University. But after 8 years of learning, I thought that I would like to try something new again. So that I don't rest on my laurels.

Even before entering the field of nanotechnology, I worked for Czech Television as the head of the project office. And for me, in the fateful year of 2009, I received an offer to be part of a project focused on the production of nanofibrous materials.

Okay, so you started in a company and industry that you didn't understand at the time. Is that so?

Yes, that's right. We simply didn't know anything about it. We just had a vision together with the investors that we would produce nanofibrous materials and sell them all over the world. But then there was such an epiphany.

For what insight?

At that time, many people were interested in nanofibrous materials. There was a lot of talk about it. Only nobody knew what to do with it practically.

And how did you cope with it?

Sincerely? One option was to close the business completely. The entire field was not yet ready for industrial production. Fortunately, that did not happen. We did not close the company, on the contrary, we started building everything from scratch. Again. After three years of hard work following this reboot, we just got to the point where we could actually produce the coveted nanofiber materials.

We established cooperation with other partners and customers who were interested in products based on nanofibers. And that's actually what this company does to this day - we develop and design products with nanofiber materials for the needs of our customers and partners. Today, we have registered patents, utility models and products that are already on the market and have found their customers.

Can we take this to mean that PARDAM NANO4FIBERS is currently using its know-how in the field of nanofibers to produce protective equipment? Because you were a highly publicized company in the field of supplying respirators for the state.

Exactly! For us, production of respirators was on the back burner. We know how to make a nanofibrous membrane with great properties. And we also use this membrane for respirators. We started producing respirators about 3 years ago, when we wanted to test the properties of one of our membranes, which was suitable for protecting the respiratory organs. But the respirator was expensive and had features that nobody cared about at the time. We even thought that by the end of 2019 we would stop producing respirators altogether.

So the situation at the turn of January and February 2020 must have been quite a shock for you.

It was a shock. The extreme demand for protective equipment caught the entire market by surprise. Not only Czech, but also worldwide. From requests that ranged in the lower thousands, we reached millions of pieces of protective equipment. And so we responded by increasing production capacities. Currently (June 2021) we are able to produce around 2 million respirators (FFP2 and FFP3) per month. At the same time, of course, the production of the given nanofibrous membrane also had to increase. It was a hectic and nerve-wracking few months, but we made it through thanks to the commitment of the whole team.

As a company, you won the award for the most innovative company of 2020. What does such an award mean to you?

I must also add that we entered this competition in November 2020 with our BreaSAFE ANTI-COVID-19 FFP2 protection class respirator. And in a few months (February 2021), we came to the market as the first in the world with the BreaSAFE CLASSIC FFP3 nanofiber antimicrobial reusable valveless respirator, and then the PRO-MASK FFP3. Both products are unique in their class! In addition, in less than a year, we managed to bring 3 product lines of respirators (PRO, EVERYDAY and INDUSTRY) to the market. Why am I saying this? Because we try to be constantly innovative and not rest on our laurels, so not only I, but also the whole team, are very grateful that someone can appreciate this innovative approach. It's such a pat on the corporate soul.

You like to say that money spoils creativity, why do you think this is?

Yes, that sounds like me (laughs). Being under financial pressure means you have to improvise! Play with the details. Overall, you have to think about things more and a little differently than when you have enough resources and just outsource everything to a team to produce regardless of cost. Those are the golden Czech hands, when with common sense and a practical approach we can find many innovations that others would not have thought of. And innovation is about creativity.

You yourself were at the birth of the Nanotechnology Industry Association. How did you perceive the creation of such an organization?

I admit I was very skeptical at first. Somehow I could not believe that such an institution could function on the basis of charity and enthusiasm of the people involved in the association. But over time I began to realize that I was thinking about it wrongly at the time. Today, the association is a great tool for all its members. It helps make nanotechnology visible not only in the Czech Republic, but also in the world.

How do you think the coronavirus pandemic will change the nanotechnology field? Do you think that, for example, nanofibers will gain more importance?

The pandemic has helped tremendously raise the profile of nanotechnology and population protection solutions. In the Czech Republic, there are a number of companies that are able to jointly offer a complete solution for the protection of the population using products based on nanotechnology. We are even trying to offer these solutions to the government to help build a unique platform for protecting the health of the population. Thanks to the pandemic, Czech nanotechnologies have become visible in the world and are perceived as a real field with a very significant added value. In the future, people from other fields will also begin to perceive the potential of nanotechnology as one of the important paths for product innovation.

Honzo, we wish you and your whole team a lot of strength and good luck.