Julián Podoba

Julián Podoba (9 January 191631 August 2005) was a Slovak endocrinologist. His research into iodine deficiency and endemic goitre led to the introduction of iodised salt in Slovakia.

Biography Podoba was born in 1916 in western Slovakia. His father was a farmer and a member of parliament in the First Czechoslovak Republic. Podoba began studying medicine at Comenius University in Bratislava in 1934 and graduated in 1940. During the Second World War, he was forced to resign from his post at the Martin University Hospital because he disagreed with Slovakia's alliance with Nazi Germany, and began working instead at the Hospital of the Workers Social Security Alliance in Bratislava. After the war, he studied endocrinology at Charles University in Prague under Josef Charvát, who was regarded as one of the founders of endocrinology in Czeschoslovakia, and Karel Šilink.

When Podoba returned to Slovakia, he carried out research into endemic goitre based similar field studies conducted by Šilink in Czechia. Podoba was awarded the Medal of the President of Slovak Republic in 2003 and was inducted into the Slovak Medical Society's Hall of Fame of Slovak Medicine in 2019.