Last week, Dean Tomáš Kašparovský personally presented the Dean’s Awards for Best Students at the Faculty of Science of Masaryk University. This year, he presented the Dean’s Awards to a total of 12 laureates in the Best Student category in the Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs, and 14 promising researchers in the Best Student category in the Doctoral degree program. At the same time, he also solemnly congratulated last year’s winners, who would otherwise have been deprived of their own ceremony due to the epidemiological situation. Congratulations to all the winners!
The Dean’s Awards at the Faculty of Science, Masaryk University (MU), are announced annually with the aim of supporting the creative activities of outstanding students in the Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral study programs. Proposals for the awards are submitted by the Directors of the individual departments. The Dean then assesses how successful each of the nominated students have been in their activities and, after discussions with the Dean’s Board, decides on the final number of winners.
Diana Csontosová
Diana Csontosová, a student in the Physics Doctoral study program, specialises in condensed matter physics. She deals with demanding quantum-mechanical calculations of the electronic structure of quantum dots using advanced numerical methods and extensive computer coding. She has been actively involved in international cooperation with the Jan Kepler University in Linz and her success is highlighted by two publications in the prestigious journal ‘Physical Review B’.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Berenika Georgievová
Berenika Georgievová, a student in the Zoology Master’s degree program, prepared an article manuscript based on her highly-rated Bachelors thesis, which was then published in the prestigious journal ‘International Review of Hydrobiology’. She has presented her results at the Zoological Days 2020 conference in Olomouc, and has completed two internships abroad, both of which she initiated, one at the University of Łódz, Poland, the other at a research institute in Spain. Berenika Georgievová is an exceptionally motivated student of Zoology.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Zuzana Husáková
Zuzana Husáková, a student in the Chemistry Master’s study program, specialises in Analytical Chemistry. She studies the distribution of elements in biological tissues using laser ablation mass spectrometry of inductively coupled plasma, a method that can distinguish between species and nanoparticle forms. So far, she has published two publications in prestigious impact journals such as ‘ACS Nano’. She has won awards in a national competition for the best student scientific work and at a professional conference.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Aneta Kozeleková
Aneta Kozeleková, a student in the Chemistry Master’s degree program, specialises in Biomolecular Chemistry. After achieving excellent academic results, Aneta discovered a completely new way to phosphorylate specific "14-3-3" proteins in her research, which could be the starting point for new research into the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Aneta is the co-author of an article manuscript, is participating in international cooperation with Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and has completed an internship at the biotechnology company AXON Neurosciences.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Ondřej Kvarda
Ondřej Kvarda, a student in the Doctoral study program, studying Cartography, Geoinformatics and Remote Sensing of the Earth, where he is focussing on a relatively new scientific area examining the use of virtual reality in cartography. Despite the limitations imposed by the pandemic, he has successfully implemented a pilot study focused on transferability from the virtual world to real environments. He has actively participated in completing a project of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, and early results of his work have already been published in an international journal.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Tereza Malá
Tereza Malá, a student in the Geology Master’s study program, is one of top 1% of students in the program, based on her study average. Her Bachelor’s thesis, focused on the palaeontology of Devonian fauna, was prepared in English and received an excellent evaluation from a foreign opponent. Her results are now being prepared for publication in an international journal. Tereza actively participated in the organisation of the ‘Palaeozoic 2020’ conference, has completed an internship in Great Britain and is dedicated to popularisation of science for gifted high school students.
Eliška Odstrčilíková
Eliška Odstrčilíková, a student in the Biochemistry Master’s degree program, specialises in the demanding field of biochemical and bioanalytical techniques, especially in the fields of development, preparation and characterisation of nanoparticles, and the bioanalysis of human and bee diseases. She has already published two articles in prestigious Q1 journals.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Klára Plačková
Klára Plačková, a student in the Botany Master’s degree program, specialises in Plant Biosystematics. In her Bachelor’s thesis, she combined extensive field research with experimental approaches, such as fluorescence analysis and flow cytometry. Her study on the stress response of plants to increased UV-B radiation were published in the prestigious Q1 (WoS) journal, ‘Annals of Botany’. She has completed an internship in Germany, established cooperation with CEITEC MU laboratories, has completed her own GAMU project and is presently involved in a GACR grant project.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Roman Přibyl
Roman Přibyl is a graduate of the Physics Master’s degree program and specialises in plasma physics. He is currently involved in the construction of a new deposition apparatus and in its optimisation for the development of new types of multifunctional protective layers with antibacterial properties. He is also involved in the study of dielectric barrier discharges. Roman has also participated in the development of proven technology for plasma-assisted nanofibre treatment and has presented his results in several high-quality foreign journals and conferences.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Kristína Sámelová
Kristína Sámelová specialised in Financial Mathematics and graduated from the Mathematics Master’s study program with an excellent study average, having provided a comprehensive insight into the theory of extreme values. In addition to standard approaches, she also dealt with point processes and their connection with the theory of extreme values. In the practical part of her Masters, she described the historical flows of the River Morava. Kristína won a divided 1st place in the international mathematical competition ‘Uniqa Forward Math Challenge’.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Jana Šebestíková
Jana Šebestíková is a student in the Master’s degree program in Experimental Animal Biology and Immunology, specialising in Physiology. Her Bachelor’s thesis, which she wrote in English, was excellently evaluated for her ability to understand and explain the complex interactions controlling circadian rhythms of animals and their sensitivity to magnetic fields. During her project she acquired an extensive portfolio of molecular biological methods and, thanks to her systematic and careful nature, has become an irreplaceable member of research teams involved in a number of grant-funded projects.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Lukáš Veselý
Lukáš Veselý, a student in the Chemistry Master’s study program, is known for working proactively, independently and precisely on research projects. This has led to three accepted articles (one as first-author), with another three manuscripts in preparation. He has mastered a number of demanding experimental techniques, and is known for his critical and logical thinking and his ability to analyse a problem and find solutions. He also contributes to the motivation, implementation and studies of other students.
Andrea Celá
Andrea Celá is a graduate of the Biochemistry Doctoral study program. In her dissertation, she dealt with the use of metabolomics for non-invasive determination of the implantation potential of human embryos in vasistic reproduction. She also achieved excellent results and publications thanks to an internship and cooperation with the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. Dr. Celá also uses her experience to help younger students through FRMU projects.
Stanislava Debnárová
Stanislava Debnárová, a student in the Physics Doctoral study program, focuses on Plasma Physics. The topic of her work is the preparation of new thin layers that combine seemingly incompatible properties, i.e. high hardness and fracture toughness. Thanks to internships in Germany and the Netherlands, and thanks to support from an IGA MU grant, she has so far managed to publish three articles in top journals. Mgr. Debnárová actively participates in teaching and helps Bachelor’s students with collaborative work.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Šimon Ďžatko
Šimon Ďžatko is a graduate of the Doctoral study program in Biomolecular Chemistry and Bioinformatics, where he studied how the intracellular environment affects the behaviour of selected structural DNA and RNA motifs associated with the development of cancer. He also explored the possibilities of regulating biological processes involving DNA / RNA in vivo using drugs. He was nominated for the award for his major contribution to three manuscripts published in prestigious peer-reviewed journals. Each of these had an IF > 12 and were placed in the first decile on the Web of Science.
Kadir Emir
Kadir Emir is a Doctoral student at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. He mainly deals with orthomodular structures that act as a model of quantum mechanics. So far, he has participated significantly in several research projects, as well as an ongoing project of the National Science Foundation. He was also a member of the organising committees of the SSAOS 2019 summer school and the WSAOS 2020 workshop, which were jointly organised by Masaryk University and Palacký University in Olomouc.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Romana Grossová
Romana Grossová is a student in the Physics Doctoral study program, specialising in Astrophysics. As part of her work, she participated in the discovery of new information on the life cycle of active galactic nuclei in giant elliptical galaxies, whose activity plays a significant role in the functioning of our Universe. Part of her work has been based on data obtained from the Very Large Array Observatory in New Mexico, and she has completed internships at the University of Turin and at the Harvard & Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics in Boston. Romana has published four articles in peer-reviewed journals, two as first author.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Jan Kavan
Jan Kavan is a graduate of the Physical Geography Doctoral study program. He received an excellent mark for his dissertation defence, which was based on five first-author or mono-author impacted articles examining the transfer of material from glaciers to the coastal zones of the polar regions, specifically Svalbard in the High Arctic and James Ross Island in Antarctica. Jan also has nine other impacted publications. He was a co-organiser of the international SPARC conference and, in addition to his scientific activities, he has been involved in the education of the next generation of students, including field teaching in polar areas.
Martina Nechvátalová (roz. Komendová)
Martina Nechvátalová is a graduate of the Chemistry Doctoral study program, where she worked on the preparation of monolithic stationary phases for the analysis of neurotransmitters and their targeted surface treatment. As part of an international cooperation agreement with the University of Amsterdam, she prepared an integrated analytical system using, among other things, 3D printing and miniaturised electrochemical detection. She has published the results of her work in four excellent articles with impact factors in the 1st quartile of WoS. Dr. Komendová is the author of eight publications and has won a number of awards, including first place in the national round of the Shimadzu Prize and awards at the University of Pardubice and an international conference in Poland. She has presented her results at a number of conferences, including one in Washington D.C., USA.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Ondřej Michálek
Ondřej Michálek, a graduate of the Doctoral study program in Ecological and Evolutionary Biology, has become one of the few experts on spider venom in the world. As part of his work, Ondřej has used innovative approaches to test the effects of spider venom and analyse its composition. He has participated in field research in Portugal, Israel and the Republic of South Africa and has completed internships in Israel and Switzerland. To date, he has been first author on five impacted publications and co-author of another three. He participated in the international project ‘COST’ and received a Research Fellowship grant from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action. Ondřej is also involved in photography and the editors of the British Journal of Animal Ecology chose one of his photographs to be used on the cover of their journal.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Tomasz Radaszkiewicz
Tomasz Radaszkiewicz has recently graduated from the Doctoral program in Physiology, Immunology and Developmental Biology, during which his studies and research on cell signalling pathways was supported by a European grant from the Innovative Training Network under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action. As a researcher, Dr. Radaskiewicz has proved himself capable of leading several independent projects and he worked abroad several times. His dissertation followed three prestigious publications in high impact journals, including the EMBO Journal, and he has since published eleven further articles.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Sonali Sharma
Sonali Sharma is a recent graduate of the Life Sciences Doctoral program at the CEITEC PhD School. During her studies, she focused on the role of non-coding and coding RNA networks in B cell leukaemias and lymphomas. Her study, which she published as first author in the prestigious journal ‘Blood’ (impact factor 17.8), has practical implications for potential therapy. She has also participated in several other publications, which she presented at the Annual Congress of the European Haematological Association and at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. She will be able to continue her leukaemia research thanks to a post-doctoral position at the University of Rochester in the USA.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Jan Štourač
Jan Štourač, a student in the Environment and Health Doctoral study program, specialises in Mathematical Biology, Bioinformatics and Modelling. His work at the Loschmidt Laboratories deals with the design and development of web tools that make computationally intensive bioinformatic analysis more accessible. More than 100,000 analyses from users around the world, and more than 750 citations, is an indicator of just how popular the tools are. Jan is an co-author on 15 publications in international journals. He has presented his work at international congresses, is involved in the international ELIXIR network and participates in teaching and guiding students.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Marie Šulcová
Marie Šulcová is a Doctoral student studying the Physiology, Immunology and Developmental Biology of Animals. Her studies deal with the development of teeth in vertebrates, with a focus on the interactions between the tooth and bone. In the laboratory, she works with a number of model species, including transgenic mice and reptiles. She is first author on two articles, and co-author on four others, published in high impact journals, including Nature Communications. She has presented her results at a number of congresses, participated in the organisation of the V4SDB international congress, and completed an internship at the Medical University of Vienna. She is also actively involved in teaching and training students and in science popularisation activities.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Ondřej Vávra
Ondřej Vávra is a student in the Environment and Health Doctoral study program, specialising in Mathematical Biology, Bioinformatics and Modelling, where he studies relationships between access pathways and enzyme activity using molecular modelling methods. As an author or co-author, he has participated in the preparation of six publications in prominent international journals, including Nucleic Acids Research (IF = 11.1). He has presented his results at a number of conferences, received a PhD Talent award and completed an internship at the European Bioinformatics Institute (Hinxton, UK). He is also active in teaching and guiding students.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Hedvika Weinerová
Hedvika Weinerová is a student in the Geology Doctoral study program, specialising in stratigraphic geology, palaeontology and sedimentology. Her dissertation deals with the stratigraphy and analysis of historic sediments. The high professional level of her work is highlighted by six impacted publications, three of which are as first author. She has actively participated in international conferences, some of which she helped organise, and has completed stays abroad in the Netherlands and Germany. Hedvika also took part in the “Carbonate Microface” lecture course at Charles University in Prague.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Foto: Helena Brunnerová
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Ten graduates from the MU Faculty of Science, along with their supervisors and consultants, have received Masaryk University Vice-Rector’s Awards for excellent results in their doctoral studies. Congratulations.
