He began his university career as assistant to Professor B. Brauner in the Institute of Analytical Chemistry of Prague’s Charles University. He became the first Professor of Physical Chemistry at this University in 1926. Heyrovsky’s invention of the polarographic method dates from 1922 and he concentrated his further scientific activity on the development of this new branch of electrochemistry. The instrument designed for recording polarization curves was called a polarograph and from that the new method got the name polarography. In 1950, he was appointed director of the newly established Polarographic Institute which was incorporated into the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences from 1952 to 1992 and since then into the AS CR. and Květa Stejskalová.