On Thursday, Martin Bareš, the Rector of Masaryk University (MU), and the Vice-Rector, Jiří Hanuš, presented the Rector’s Awards for the best scientists, students and teachers, as well as medals for selected personalities. Seven scientists connected with our faculty received awards.
Congratulations to all the winners and thank you for your successful representation of the Faculty of Science, MU!
The Masaryk University Silver Medal was awarded by the Rector to Prof. Oldřich Pytela for strengthening the importance of the university at the national and international level, furthering university cooperation with domestic and foreign institutions and long-term significant development of disciplines developed at MU.
The Rector’s Awards are given annually as an award for outstanding achievements in the fields of science and research, pedagogical activities, sports, art and civic activities. This year’s awards went to:
Oldřich Pytela is a leading expert in organic chemistry. In his scientific work, he focuses mainly on the more general topic of the relationship between the chemical structure and properties of organic substances and on the mathematical-statistical processing of experimental data in organic chemistry and chemistry in general, referred to as chemometry. For many years, he was a member of the branch committee of the Faculty of Science MU in the field of organic chemistry. Professor Pytela has also held a number of academic positions, headed the University of Pardubice as its rector and was vice-chairman of the Council of Higher Education Institutions. Over the period from October 2004 to September 2019, he was also a member of the MU Scientific Council, and was very actively involved in its work.
Jana Klánová is the Director of the RECETOX research centre at Masaryk University and has long been involved in studying the occurrence of toxic substances in the environment and in products and food, as well as their environmental and health impacts. In 2019, she made a major contribution to the acquisition of three highly prestigious projects from the H2020 program. One of these, the CETOCOEN Excellence Project, is focused on both the development of existing research centres and the creation of new centres, and providing support for the creation of new innovative companies in cooperation with foreign institutions. Another project led by Professor Klánová is the R-Exposome Chair, which will open the position of ERA Chair at MU for a leading foreign expert and his bioinformatics team. The third project is Urban ‑ X from the Twinning call, which will support international mobility and cooperation.
Petra Bořilová Linhartová graduated in Biochemistry at the Faculty of Science MU and the Physiology and Pathophysiology programme at the Faculty of Medicine MU. Today, she is a promising young scientist whose research deals mainly with the microbiome and genetic factors of selected diseases of the oral cavity and other parts of the gastrointestinal tract. She is currently one of the most published authors in our country in the field of Dentistry. Petra is a successful principle investigator of grants, she is member of the evaluation panel of the Czech health research council and is a reviewer for a number of Czech and international journals. In addition to scientific work, she also teaches and supervises a number of students. She is now Vice-Dean for Research and Doctoral Studies at the Faculty of Pharmacy MU.
Mirko Černák is an excellent scientist who has long achieved significant results in both basic and applied research in the field of plasma physics, physics of electric discharges and plasma chemistry. Under his leadership, a new regional research centre CEPLANT for the study of plasma and physical and chemical analysis of materials was established at the Department of Physical Electronics. The centre CEPLANT hosts state-of-the-art laboratories in the field that are completely unique in Central Europe. Mirko is the leader of a number of successful international projects involving basic and applied research. One such project has produced valuable results already used industrially in the field of plasma activation and the cleaning of large sheets of glass used for the production of laminated safety glass. The results of his applied research have been successfully transformed into patents and utility models.
Tomáš Tyc is a recognised expert in theoretical physics, dealing with, among other things, the theory of invisibility and imaging by optical fibres. The subjects he teaches include theoretical mechanics, interesting physics and modern experimental methods. In his lectures, students particularly appreciate the number of illustrative demonstrations and small experiments which complement the theoretical explanation. His students are naturally motivated by his enthusiasm and passion for the topics taught. Tomáš is also highly involved in popularising science. He has given a presentation at the Prague TEDx, last year he won the 10th Science Slam MUNI and he successfully represented the university at the European Science Slam in Vienna.
Jiří Žák is a recent graduate with extraordinary results and great scientific commitment. Since the beginning of his studies, he has been active in his own research projects and attended several scientific events and workshops that helped him improve his scientific skills. He easily makes new contacts with scientists from abroad and has written observing proposals for telescopes and instruments on state-of-the-art observatories. His studies are mainly aimed at the detection of exoatmospheres and research on pulsating stars of the Delta Cephei type. He was the first, and so far, the only, astronomer in our country to detect an exoatmosphere on two exoplanets, the analysis of which he performed under the guidance of experts from the European Southern Observatory.
As part of her dissertation, Michaela Krafčíková studies the influence of the intracellular environment on the conformational behaviour of non-canonical DNA structures associated with the development of cancer. Her work has contributed significantly to the development of a new technology that will allow the characterisation of the atomic structure of nucleic acids and their interactions with drugs in the intracellular space of living mammalian cells using spectroscopy. At the same time, she is participating in the development of a bioreactor enabling maintenance of metabolic homeostasis in mammalian cells during spectroscopic measurements. Her publications have had a considerable response from the professional community and she also presents the results of her work at international conferences.
Translated by Kevin F. Roche
After a long and difficult illness, Martina Pokorná, our alumna, passed away. She had been with the institution since 2012, serving as the Deputy Director for Administration and later briefly as the Deputy Director for HR. Martina contributed to the close collaboration between the Faculty of Science...
Professor Jana Klánová received a prestigious award from the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TAČR) during the celebration of its 15th anniversary, which took place on Thursday, November 7th, in the historic building of the National Museum in Prague. The award recognizes her long-term contribution...
