It is with deep sadness that we report the passing of our esteemed colleague and friend, Prof. Ivan Rektor, on 14 June 2026, at the age of 77. Prof. Rektor was not only a distinguished neurologist and neurophysiologist, emeritus vice-rector of Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, and a central figure in the development of Czech and eastern Europe neuroscience, but also a highly respected presence within our academy.
He spent his early scientific career in Gif sur Yvette and Paris, France, before founding the Brno Epilepsy Centre, in Brno, Czechia, in 1992 and establishing its epilepsy surgery programme. He served as Chair of the Neurology Department at St. Anna University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine (1992- 2012) and vice-rector of the Masaryk University, Brno (2006-2011).
Prof. Rektor’s early research focused on basic neurophysiological studies in epilepsy at the French INSERM institutes and clinical care development. In times of strict east/west separation, he created a strong relation between French and Czech neurosciences. As vice-rector of Masaryk University in Brno he became one of the founding members of the Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC). Prof Rektor played a major role in establishing Epilepsy research and epileptic surgery in Czechia and many other mainly eastern European countries. In the 1990s, he introduced botulinum toxin treatment for dystonias in Eastern Europe and played a key role in bringing eastern and western research together. In recent years, his focus shifted to the neurobiology of stress. He led notable research into the intergenerational transmission of trauma among Holocaust survivors and their descendants, later expanding this methodology to study the psychological and biological impacts of war traumata on Ukrainian refugees. In 2021, his team published a widely recognised study on the so-called ‘Mozart effect’, which indicated the antiepileptic effects of Mozart’s harmonies on the EEG.
Prof. Rektor was a truly prolific educator. He established high-profile neurological education in Czechia. He trained generations of Czech neurologists, had dozens of PhD-students and trained the majority of Czech neurology leaders. The Brno ILAE School on Pre-Surgical Evaluation for Epilepsy and Epilepsy Surgery (EPODES) courses were well-known and attracted faculty and participants from across the world.
He travelled the globe sharing his expertise with students and congress audiences across Europe and far beyond, including frequent appearances as a lecturer at EAN Congresses.
Prof. Rektor was a consistent advocate for European neurology and a long-standing contributor to our community. He played a major role during the existence of the iron curtain which he helped to overcome with his international relations, his major engagement in epileptology and finally with his warm and friendly personality. His scientific and organisational achievements have been recognised with several awards. At the EAN Congress 2025 in Helsinki, he was awarded Honorary Membership of the European Academy of Neurology in recognition of his lifetime contributions and service to European neurology.
He also served as a member of the Movement Disorders Society Liaison Committee and of the executive Board of the Movement Disorders Society – European Section (2003-2006) and was a member of the European Board of the International Federation on Clinical Neurophysiology (IFCN) from 2015 – 2019. In 2010, he was the first Czech neurologist to be elected as a Fellow of the American Neurological Association.
Ivan Rektor was a personality of extraordinary kindness and entertaining originality. He was deeply anchored in his family with many of them having their background in academic psychiatry. Ivan as an internationally profiled neurologist was sometimes teased by them as the “black sheep” of the family. He shared life with his wife, Prof. Irena Rektorova and their daughter Katka. Besides the personal ties, the two professors also had a close professional collaboration and many common scientific interests. When he started suffering from a severe neurodegenerative disease, he was surrounded and supported by his family and friends and still enjoyed life positively.
His loss is felt profoundly across our field. We extend our deepest condolences to his wife Irena, his daughter Katka, his son Tomas and the wider family. We are mourning with the many colleagues around the world who have lost an outstanding scientist and clinical leader, a great mentor, a dear friend and a fine, humorous colleague. He will be remembered with affection and warmth.
Prof. Günther Deuschl, former EAN President (2014-2018)
Prof. Claudio Bassetti, former EAN President (2020-2022)
Prof. Elena Moro, EAN President
EAN Scientific Panel on Epilepsy Panel Remembers Ivan Rektor
Professor Ivan Rektor MD, CSc., FANA, FEAN, one of the most internationally recognised Czech neurologists and clinical neurophysiologists of his generation, died on 14 June 2026 at the age of 77. He was born on 5 November 1948 in Levoča, then Czechoslovakia.
Prof. Rektor devoted his career to neurology, brain research, and the training of future clinicians. From 1984 to 1989 he worked in France on experimental epilepsy research and subsequently on epilepsy surgery, and he brought that expertise back to build modern neurology in the Czech setting. From 1992 to 2012 he led the 1st Department of Neurology at St. Anne’s University Hospital (FNUSA) in Brno, a joint workplace of the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University and FNUSA, which under his direction acquired an international reputation by tightly coupling clinical care with research and education.
Scientifically, he subspecialised in epilepsy and movement disorders, alongside functional brain imaging and the relationship between the brain, music, and cognition. He was an early proponent of intracerebral (depth-electrode) recordings and functional neuroimaging in localising epileptogenic networks and characterising cortico-subcortical circuitry, including the role of the basal ganglia in both seizures and disorders of movement.
A lifelong lover of music, Rektor brought that passion directly into the laboratory. He freely described himself as musically untrained, yet a devoted listener to classical music and jazz, and he turned the question of how the trained and untrained brain process music into a genuine line of neuroscientific inquiry. Furthermore, he loved his wine cellar, which he lovingly maintained.
Of Jewish heritage, Rektor gave his later work a deeply personal dimension. He turned increasingly to the neurobiology of stress and the intergenerational transmission of trauma, gaining wide attention for MRI studies of Holocaust survivors and their descendants, work he subsequently extended to war-affected populations including Ukrainian refugees.
As an institution-builder, Rektor served as vice-rector of Masaryk University for development from 2006 to 2011 and helped establish the Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC), where he led a research group in the Centre of Neurosciences. In October 2010 he became the first Czech scientist elected a corresponding member of the American Neurological Association. His distinctions include the Silver Medal and Rector’s Award of Masaryk University (2019), the City of Brno Award (2020), and the University’s Gold Medal (January 2025); in September 2025 the European Academy of Neurology granted him Honorary Membership, the first such honour awarded to a scientist from Eastern Europe.
Prof. Rektor is remembered as a clinician-scientist who united world-class research with profound humanity, and who trained generations of neurologists now continuing his work. Our condolences go to his family.
Margitta Seeck and Stefano Meletti on behalf of the EAN Scientific Panel on Epilepsy
Masaryk University obituary: Farewell to Ivan Rektor, a giant of Czech neurology | News | em.muni.cz
CEITEC obituary: Remembering Professor Ivan Rektor – A Scientist Who Searched for the Traces of Human Stories in the Brain | CEITEC – výzkumné centrum
