Vitek Tracz


Vitek Tracz is a London-based entrepreneur who has been involved in science publishing, pharmaceutical information and mobile phone-based navigation.

Early life

Tracz was born in 1940 in Poland. He studied Mathematics in Warsaw and Jerusalem, before studying cinema at the Slade School of Fine Art. He collaborated with Israeli writer Hanoch Levin on the 1978 feature film Fantasia Al Noseh Romanti.

Business career

In academic publishing, Tracz is known as the founder of the Current Opinion journals, and open access publisher BioMed Central.
In 2004, Tracz was invited to give oral evidence to the House of Commons Science & Technology Committee as part of its .
Tracz's Science Navigation Group previously published The Scientist, and currently publishes Faculty of 1000, Global DataPoint, Telmap and People's Archive. Other companies that have been part of SNG in the past include Current Medicine Group, which publish medical books, journals, websites and the Images.MD medical image database, Current Drugs, and Current Biology and the Current Opinion journals.
Other businesses founded by Tracz include Current Drugs, and Telmap, a mobile phone navigation company.
Tracz remains chairman of Science Navigation Group, which acts as an incubator for his new businesses. Tracz's businesses have been largely self-funded, without external investment.
Tracz's current business is now focused on activities under the Faculty of 1000/F1000 brand. Faculty of 1000 began as a literature evaluation service, but more recently has allowed the publication of original scientific posters and research articles. F1000 has generated some controversy with its use of an innovative and rapid form of peer review. Web of Stories consists of a collection of multi-hour video interviews with leading scientists and other major cultural figures, looking back at their career and work. Each video is divided into short segments which are connected together to create a "web of stories", showing differing perspectives on major themes such as the Manhattan Project.
Tracz has a reputation as an innovator in a tradition-bound industry, being described by Richard Smith as 'the Picasso of science publishing'.

Interests

Tracz is an art collector, with a focus on Expressionism.