[1][2] He was a member of the Junák scout movement and decided to study chemistry when he read an article on invisible ink at grammar school.

[1] Having previously been considered a bad influence on his students, Zahradník was able to obtain a research position after the Khrushchev Thaw relaxed Soviet restrictions on Czechoslovakia.

[4] He studied the relations between chemical structure and biological activity at the Institute of Occupational Medicine and theory of chemical reactivity and molecular spectroscopy at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences[5] before being awarded a Doctor of Science degree by them in 1967.

[1] Between 1990 and 1993 Zahradník served as the first director of the J Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry before joining Clarkson University.

[1] During this period he has been described as "pushing forward the frontiers of quantum chemistry" and helped to bring young chemists into the field.