In Memoriam: Miroslav Grmela (1939-2025)
JUL 25, 2026
The Canadian Society of Rheology / Société Canadienne de Rhéologie Executive Team is deeply saddened to announce the passing of Professor Miroslav Grmela.
Professor Miroslav Grmela
Grmela was a faculty member in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Polytechnique Montréal, where he made substantial contributions to the fields of thermodynamics, rheology and geometry. He amassed over 280 academic publications, including articles as recently as March 2026. In 2018, Grmela published a book about his theories and received the S.G. Mason Award from The Canadian Society of Rheology .
Grmela’s greatest professional achievement was his discovery of how geometry simplifies Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics. He was a founding researcher to discover the General Equation for Non-Equilibrium Reversible-Irreversible Coupling, a framework and formula for material evolution more commonly known as GENERIC. GENERIC is now a near-universal framework for understanding how physical systems evolve.
Miroslav was one of the greatest figures in the field of non-equilibrium thermodynamics.
He brought the concepts of geometry and a ‘multiscale deductive paradigm’ to [non-equilibrium thermodynamics]. Before him, the mainstream approach was inductive -- scientists took known equations for the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy, and tried to stretch them to include microscopic details. Miroslav shifted the field toward a deductive approach.”
— Michal Pavelka | physicist at Charles University who was Grmela’s former student and then his frequent co-author.
Grmela’s research was his passion and his raison d’etre, even in his old age. He was in the process of writing several articles when he abruptly died of a brain hemorrhage.
Grmela was born on May 30, 1939 and grew up in Prostějov, in the former Czechoslovakia during World War II. He earned his PhD in Prague at the Czech Academy of Sciences. Afterwards, he met his wife while completing mandatory military service. Miroslav’s two children were born in Czechoslovakia before the family immigrated to Canada in 1969 and eventually settled in Montreal.
Grmela was a scientist, a mountaineer, a world-traveler, a chef, and a family man. He saw beauty and philosophy in abstract mathematics in a similar way to his appreciation for music, literature and art.
Grmela is survived by the love of his life — his wife — Viera Grmela, along with his two loving daughters and his four grandsons.
Professor Grmela and his wife, Viera Grmela.