Tomáš Zima (born 2 July 1966) is a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

physician, chemist, and a teaching professor in the fields of biochemistry, clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine. He was the Rector of Charles University in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

between 2014 - 2022 and is a candidate in the

2023 Czech presidential election Presidential elections will be held in the Czech Republic on 13 and 14 January 2023. Incumbent president Miloš Zeman is not eligible to run due to the two-term limit. As was the case in the last two presidential elections, the vote will be d ...

Academic career

Zima graduated from the First Faculty of Medicine of

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in 1990. He has been a professor of

medical chemistry Medicinal or pharmaceutical chemistry is a scientific discipline at the intersection of chemistry and pharmacy involved with designing and developing pharmaceutical drugs. Medicinal chemistry involves the identification, synthesis and developmen ...

and

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

since 2001 and head of the Institute of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine of the First Faculty of Medicine and General University Hospital, Prague. He is a specialist in clinical chemistry, and European Specialist in Laboratory Medicine (EuSpLM). He was the Dean of the First Faculty of Medicine from 2005 to 2012 and then became Rector of the university. His main research interests include

oxidative stress Oxidative stress reflects an imbalance between the systemic manifestation of reactive oxygen species and a biological system's ability to readily Detoxification, detoxify the reactive intermediates or to repair the resulting damage. Disturbances ...

advanced glycation end-product Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are proteins or lipids that become glycated as a result of exposure to sugars. They are a bio-marker implicated in aging and the development, or worsening, of many degenerative diseases, such as diabetes, at ...

s (AGEs), experimental

nephrology Nephrology (from Greek'' nephros'' "kidney", combined with the suffix ''-logy'', "the study of") is a specialty of adult internal medicine and pediatric medicine that concerns the study of the kidneys, specifically normal kidney function (ren ...

tumor marker A tumor marker is a biomarker found in blood, urine, or body tissues that can be elevated by the presence of one or more types of cancer. There are many different tumor markers, each indicative of a particular disease process, and they are used in ...

s, and laboratory management and accreditation. He is the author of more than 440 articles, which are cited more than 2500 times in the

Science Citation Index The Science Citation Index Expanded – previously entitled Science Citation Index – is a citation index originally produced by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and created by Eugene Garfield. It was officially launched in 1964 and ...

, eight books and co-author of 71 chapters in books, with an

H-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as winn ...

of 35. He has given more than 130 lectures outside the Czech Republic. Zima is a member of several scientific societies, including the Czech Medical Academy and Czech Learned Society and serves on Boards including the Executive Board of EFLM, and the Conferences and Congresses Committee of the

International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine The International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine or IFCC is a global organization that promotes the fields of clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine. It was established in 1952 as the International Association of Clin ...

. He is a member of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

's Scientific Panel for Health (SPH).

Entry into politics

Tomáš Zima is a candidate in the

. According to a November 2022 poll, Zima was in 9th position in voter preferences. Tomáš Zima owns two CZ pistols and supports the

right to keep and bear arms The right to keep and bear arms (often referred to as the right to bear arms) is a right for people to possess weapons (arms) for the preservation of life, liberty, and property. The purpose of gun rights is for self-defense, including securi ...

, describing it as a "matter of principle" for him. Zima said that he trains in

defensive gun use Defensive gun use (DGU) is the use or presentation of a firearm for self-defense, defense of others or, in some cases, protecting property. The frequency of incidents involving DGU, and their effectiveness in providing safety and reducing crime ...

at a shooting range with professionals, mostly his friends who are armed forces personnel. During the 2023 presidential election campaign, he said that "any greater restrictions would be to the detriment of issues related to the protection of the freedom of individuals, but also of the state", stating that as president, he would veto restrictions on the legal possession of firearms by civilians.

Academic career

Entry into politics

References

See also