The European Water Association (EWA) has decided to honour Professor Jiří Wanner with its prestigious Honorary Membership in the association. Professor Wanner was elected President from 2005-2007 and was a member of the EWA Council, the Management Committee (MC), the EWA European Technical and Scientific Committee (ETSC) and different workgroups for many years.

Professor Wanner’s main professional interests include the study of biofilm processes, especially concerning the stabilization of the nitrification process in biofilm. Prof. Wanner also studies the population dynamics of activated sludge: both the growth of microorganisms associated with biological removal of nitrogen and phosphorus and the population dynamics of microorganisms affecting the separation properties of activated sludge, including mathematical model descriptions of these. For example, the method of bioaugmentation of nitrifying bacteria in-situ using the regeneration zone in the return sludge stream can be attributed to the successful study of population dynamics. This method is used, inter alia, at both CWWTP Prague water treatment plants. He formulated the principles of metabolic selection to control the sedimentation properties of activated sludge in anaerobic and/or anoxic zone systems. This also deals with calculations and the principles of the correct construction of modern settling tanks. Since 2008, Prof. Wanner’s research activities have focused on technologies that allow the reuse of purified wastewater as a substitute for river or drinking water. The importance of these technologies continues to increase with the risk of water scarcity due to drought and the ever-increasing price of drinking water.

Congratulations!

For the first time, UCT Prague has been ranked among the 1,000 best universities in the world, rising to 355^th place, the second best position among Czech universities this year.

These excellent results in the QS World University Rankings 2020 was largely due to the small student-to-academic instructor ratio. Individual support for the educational process and the consequential involvement of students in research activities has finally carried UCT Prague to 47^th place in the world and first in the Czech Republic.

“We are pleased that student support at UCT Prague is also appreciated at the international level. But we are really talking about students and their individual growth, so the rankings results are just a pleasant consequence,” said Karel Melzoch, Rector of UCT Prague.

Contributing to this year’s ranking was the international environment of our university—for the Czech context, a relatively high number of students from abroad. In recent years, the university has also attracted international researchers who decided to pursue their careers at UCT Prague.

“Placing in the first 400 can help us attract more excellent students and researchers from abroad,” said Pavel Matějka, Vice-Rector for External Relations and Communication. “On the other hand, I don’t want to overstate one year’s ranking; we don’t know how the numbers will look like next time, particularly because we ranked in the first 1,000 for the first time,” added Matějka, who sees room for further improvement. “As a disciplinary-focused university, we will never have as much recognition as the larger universities. Yet solid work in science and research as well as collaboration with companies and institutions can push us even higher.”

This year was a good year for all Czech universities included in the rankings. Charles University broke through to the top 300 in the world, and all other Czech universities have improved. CTU Prague was ranked 498^th, Masaryk University 551-560^th, Palacký University Olomouc 601-650^th, and BUT Brno 651-700^th. New to the rankings were TU Liberec (751-800^th) as well as the the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CULS) and the University of Ostrava, both in the 810-1,000^th ranking band.

All rankings together with ranking methodology can be found online at: QS World University Rankings 2020.