From taking apart electronics as a boy to leading an approximately 80-strong team supporting the semiconductor industry at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Jaroslav Kadlec has built a career at the intersection of software, advanced technology and complex industrial applications. His path, shaped by his studies at the Faculty of Information Technology at Brno University of Technology (FIT BUT), is a story of persistence, fascination with computer graphics and a constant search for new challenges. The interview was published on the FIT BUT website, which, amongst other things, features interviews with interesting graduates of the Brno University of Technology.
What originally led you to choose information technology at university? Were you already passionate about computers and electronics at secondary school, or was it more of a pragmatic choice driven by the prospect of a well-paid job?
As a child, I was absolutely fascinated by all kinds of electronics. If my parents left me alone, the result was usually that some piece of household electronics had been dismantled and taken apart, even though I did not really understand how it worked. Electronics and electricity simply would not leave me alone. I went to a sports-focused primary school and did athletics. One of my classmates introduced me to his brother, who was studying at a secondary technical school of electrical engineering, specialising in microprocessor technology. The two of them had an Atari computer, and I was completely fascinated by what they could do with it. Naturally, I wanted to get into the same school. From my first year at secondary school, I was equally determined that I wanted to learn how to programme. It was such an enormous level of challenge compared with anything else I had encountered in my life up to that point that I really did turn into the proverbial nerd. I started programming in BASIC, then moved through Pascal and Assembly to C and C++, the last two later at university. So yes, from about the sixth or seventh year of primary school, my path was fairly clear.
It really sounds as though you had your path mapped out. In that case, was your first year at university much of a challenge at all, or did your long-standing interest in programming and electronics mean you got through it without major problems? How do you remember your bachelor’s studies?
I was actually part of the first generation of people to study at FIT (the faculty was established in 2002, editor’s note). In my first year, I started as a student at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (FEI) at BUT, which offered the Computer Engineering and Informatics programme. During that first year, the faculty was split into FIT and FEEC (the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication), and thanks to my academic results I was able to choose. I knew exactly that I wanted to continue at FIT. I was becoming more and more interested in computer graphics and multimedia, and in fact in all the fields that were being developed there at the time under Pavel Zemčík.
What was it about graphics and imaging methods that attracted you so much that they became your specialist focus during your studies at FIT?
I was interested in computer games and programming them. I had already put together several smaller games in Pascal. When I got to university, I wanted to improve in that area. By then, graphics cards with OpenGL already existed, and they could handle lighting and all sorts of things that I had not previously been able to calculate in Pascal. That led me to ask how such enormous computing performance actually works at processor level and so on. Again, it was a huge challenge. Graphics stayed with me throughout my studies. My master’s thesis focused on user-interface architectures in 3D environments, and its output dealt with movement and navigation in virtual environments, and so on. At the end of my master’s studies, I faced a choice: either accept an offer to continue into a PhD, or join the army, because I had already been conscripted. So I admit that my motivation for doing a PhD was twofold…
Were you also attracted to the PhD purely from a professional and academic point of view?
There were several motivations. I like explaining things, so I wanted to teach. At the same time, I wanted to learn something new myself and move further. In my case, that “further” meant moving towards automatic user-interface generation. In the end, my PhD took seven years. We had a child in the meantime, and it was demanding. And yes, because of just how demanding it was, I reached a point where I wondered whether I should give up the PhD because of the exhausting time commitment.
Even during your PhD, you started working in a rather unusual area of industry: interactive simulations for training the armed forces. How did that opportunity come about?
I was lucky. I felt that our family, with a small child, needed a financial boost. The opportunity came through another PhD student at the faculty who was already working at VR Group. I found it interesting and thought: “Simulators – that is graphics, and graphics is what I want to do.” I joined part-time, and after two years moved to full-time. In the end, I mainly worked on modelling – everything from ballistics and operating combat vehicles to simulations of the behaviour of large groups of people and the surrounding environment. We also worked with the Integrated Rescue System, providing simulations of floods and fires, for example. I also enjoyed the connection between software and hardware. More generally, I believe that connecting industry and academia is the right thing to do. That is also why, at Thermo Fisher, we try to stay in touch with FIT, work with the faculty, offer interesting topics to its students, and so on.
You have now been with Thermo Fisher Scientific for eleven years. What attracted you to working in such a large company?
I was looking for a company that would once again offer me a combination of things that made sense to me. What I liked about Thermo Fisher was that the microscopes it makes serve worthwhile purposes – drug development, the study of viruses, materials science, chip manufacturing… And humanity is incredibly important to me: good leadership and good relationships between people at work. At the time, I had heard that this was how things were set up at Thermo Fisher. Looking back, I have actually always been lucky to have the right people around me. For me, that is an enormous asset in any job.
THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC: A KEY LINK IN THE SEMICONDUCTOR VALUE CHAIN
Thermo Fisher Scientific provides purpose-built electrical and physical analysis solutions that help laboratory and semiconductor-fab engineers develop advanced processes while improving yield, productivity and cost-effectiveness. The company draws on more than 40 years of semiconductor-focused innovation and addresses the challenges created by increasingly complex technology nodes.
Its electron microscopy and analytical technologies support critical stages of the semiconductor value chain, including materials characterisation, process development, metrology, failure analysis and quality control. This gives the company an important role in modern chip development and manufacturing worldwide. Its Brno operation is also part of Czechia’s internationally recognised strength in electron microscopy and advanced instrumentation, linking the country’s engineering expertise directly to the global semiconductor ecosystem.
Source: Czech Semiconductor Centre, Annual Catalogue of the Czech Semiconductor Ecosystem 2026.
What has your career path at Thermo Fisher looked like? What does a typical project you work on today look like?
I joined as a senior software developer. It really was a baptism of fire: three days after starting, I flew to the United States to bring back the know-how of a company we had acquired at the time. As a developer, I have a very strong need for things to work and for the people who will use what we produce to be satisfied with it. After the development work was transferred here to Brno, I felt compelled to make sure everything worked. That meant not only the development and the code itself, but also, for example, making sure that the software reached production and users properly. I moved naturally into setting up processes, communicating with production, gathering requirements, and so on. I started doing things that developers do not normally do. After two years, the company approached me with an offer of a management position. At first, I led a small team and, alongside that, I learnt to view my own activity and communication differently, and to think about how my actions affected other people. I began developing beyond the technical side of software development. The team grew, I moved on to other groups, led an international team, and finally, two and a half years ago, I moved from materials science to a team working for the semiconductor industry, which today has around 80 members. That is another world again, and another enormous challenge. I no longer work on the technical side myself and I do not programme. It has become a hobby for me, but there is no room for it in my job.
Today, you lead teams of developers and are also involved in deciding who will join them. What strengths do you look for in candidates?
I have found that it works well to choose people with the right attitude and genuine enthusiasm, because curious candidates like that learn better. In an interview, I am not primarily looking for hard skills, such as whether someone can programme in a particular language. What matters is that they can communicate well, that they know how to collaborate and that they are comfortable doing so. Everything today is already so complex that no one can manage it alone. I look for people who know how to work as part of a team. And also people who, for example, are not afraid to work with hardware as well.
Looking back at your studies and career, what do you see as FIT’s contribution to your professional path? And in what ways was studying at the faculty challenging – what obstacles did you have to overcome?
The time demands were considerable in my case. Because I have a need to do things in a way that makes me convinced they are good enough before I hand them in, I spent much more time on them than was necessary. From secondary school until the end of university, I did not really have much of a social life. That was a high price to pay, and it was something I continued to struggle with later in my working life. On the other hand, FIT gives you an enormous range of opportunities, introduces you to many new topics and opens a lot of doors. You walk through some of them and only look through others. The school gives you the conditions and inspiration you need in order to learn. And FIT does that very well.
I took the open door into graphics. And I also benefited from the help of many great people: Honza Černocký, Adam Herout, Pavel Zemčík, Víťa Beran… From the perspective of my current role, I also think FIT is excellent because I feel its graduates are very well prepared for teamwork; they are less theoretical and more practical. As I said before, today no one can achieve much entirely on their own. And you can see that FIT is moving in the right direction when it comes to team projects.
Ing. Jaroslav Kadlec, Ph.D., is a graduate of FIT BUT, where he specialised in computer graphics at the Department of Computer Graphics and Multimedia. He completed his doctoral studies in 2010. He has worked at Thermo Fisher Scientific since 2014 and currently holds the position of Software Manager.
Source: FIT BUT
Photos: Martin Horný (Thermo Fisher Scientific)
