Czech-canadian Josef Skala, M.D./Ph.D

has been selected to receive the F.N.G. Starr Award, also known as the "Victoria Cross". It is the most prestigious prize of the Canadian Physicians Association.

He graduated from Charles University Medical College in Prague in 1929. Even though he had a successful career in his homeland, he found the political conditions too limiting and escaped to Sweden, and later moved to Vancouver, Canada where he continued his studies in medicine and physiology. Eventually he became professor at Vancouver University.

Dr. Skala is a man of many accomplishments and interests. He has always loved the theater. In Vancouver he became one of the founders of a Czech lay theater entitled "Divadlo za rohem" (Theater Around the Corner). For his accomplishments in this area he received the Czech prize Gratias Agit in 2008. After 1989 dr. Skala becomes a "visiting professor" in the Czech Republic and is helping especially in the area of transplantation of bone marrow. He established an official cooperation between Charles University and the Vancouver University UBC.

We wish dr. Skala many years of health and success on both continents.