Igor Kluvánek (27 January 1931 – 24 July 1993) was a Slovak-Australian mathematician.
Academic career Igor Kluvánek obtained his first degree in electrical engineering from the Slovak Polytechnic University, Bratislava, in 1953. His first appointment was in the Department of Mathematics of the same institution. At the same time he worked for his C.Sc. degree obtained from the Slovak Academy of Sciences. In the early 60's he joined the Department of Mathematical Analysis of the University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik in Košice. During 1967–68 he held a visiting position at The Flinders University of South Australia. The events of 1968 in Czechoslovakia made it impossible for him and his family to return to their homeland. The Flinders University of South Australia was able to create a chair in applied mathematics to which he was appointed in January 1969 and occupied until his resignation in 1986.
Early years Kluvánek graduated in 1953 from the Slovak Polytechnic University with a degree in electrical engineering specialising in vacuum technology. That year, he married a former classmate from the gymnasium at Rimavská Sobota. To support himself, he became a part-time tutor/lecturer in the Department of Mathematics at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, where he remained after completing his studies. At the same time, he worked for his C.Sc. degree obtained from the Slovak Academy of Sciences. In 1961, it became known at the polytechnic that he was a practising Catholic, which was deemed to be incompatible with the position of a socialist teacher. At that time, an attempt was made to minimise ideological confrontations in the interests of economic development. The affair blew over when he joined the Department of Mathematical Analysis of ŠafárikUniversity in his birthplace, Košice.
To Australia With the approval of the Czechoslovak authorities, he arrived with his wife and five children in Adelaide in March 1967 to take up a two-year visiting position at the newly established Flinders University of South Australia. His wife and children departed Australia on 20 August 1968, in time for the children to start the new School year in September. While they were on their way, the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia took place. They landed in Zürich, but all communications with Czechoslovakia were severed. They had no entry visa to any country, so the Swiss authorities put them on a plane back to Australia that day. Thus started his twenty-year sojourn in Australia. It seems that he would have returned with his family if he had not been sentenced in Czechoslovakia, in absentia, to a two-year prison sentence after his unexpected stay in Australia was deemed illegal by the Czechoslovak authorities. The enquiries conducted by his family in Czechoslovakia on his behalf, suggest that this penalty was only quashed in the late 1980s. Besides his prison sentence, his wife had one year imprisonment imposed and all his property at home was forfeited, so they were effectively destitute and stateless. Fortunately, after his contract expired, Flinders created a chair in applied mathematics, which they offered to him. His wife died in 1981.
Back To Slovakia He resigned his chair at Flinders in 1986 and after some unsuccessful attempts to study at seminaries in Sydney (1982) and Melbourne (1987–88) followed by temporary positions at the Centre for Mathematical Analysis in Canberra, he eventually left Australia in 1989 to settle in Bratislava. His children have remained in Australia. The gradual process of liberalisation in Czechoslovakia had facilitated his departure. The velvet revolution heralded his return home, and so his third life began. He became a member of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and remarried. His persecution by the old régime had conferred upon him the status of something of a celebrity. He declined an invitation to become minister of education. There was some disillusionment with the nature and pace of the institutional reform in Slovakia and he held several positions in quick succession. It was as he was about to leave his last position at the Slovak Technical University that he died. His five children stayed in Australia after his death, initially living in Adelaide and Melbourne.
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