It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of a distinguished figure of Czech science and structural biology, Jaroslav Koča. ELIXIR CZ lost not only its chairman of the Board, but a great colleague.

Jaroslav Koča taught at universities in the USA, France, and Norway. After his return to the Czech Republic, he became a founder of the CEITEC (the Central European Institute of Technology) in Brno. He also published more than 200 original scientific papers in international journals and led dozens of doctoral students during his career.

ELIXIR CZ recognises his contribution to research infrastructures and the fields of bioinformatics, computational chemistry, and structural and computational biology. The scientific world lost an exceptional person.