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In October 2023, the UCT Prague Academic Senate elected Professor Milan Pospíšil as their choice for Rector. As of 1 January 2024, he will succeed Pavel Matějka in the top university position and begin a four-year term. In this interview, the long-term Vice-Rector for Strategies and Development and the Council of Czech Universities Chair talks about his intention to adjust the core curriculum and the need to diversify income sources, about his priorities in relation to employees, as well as about support for student associations and his ongoing hobby interest in photography

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Is UCT Prague in good shape as you become Rector on 1 January 2024?

Our university is not in bad shape. R&D and instruction are functioning. We are still perceived as a high-quality, competitive university in the Czech context. Pavel Matějka has achieved a lot in four years and there is much to build upon. However, I see challenges in that the world around us is changing quite a bit and we will be forced to respond to those changes.

What do you mean by such changes?

Above all, potential student interest in going into technical fields, including chemistry, has been stagnating or even declining for some time. Many students prefer easier paths of study in order to have enough time for extracurricular activities. The views of fresh high school graduates are changing, and they have increasing demands about what university education should look like in terms of levels of difficulty, structure, student support, and the use of information technology.

After a period of sustained economic growth, the Czech Republic has fallen into an economic and energy crisis, with growing frustrations and societal concerns about conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. The standard of living of the vast majority of the Czech population is declining.

We are also confronted with far greater competition from international universities, which are more attractive to students thanks to instruction in English and which can offer researchers better salaries and benefits.

How do you plan to address the decline in interest in studying chemistry?

Based on discussion and agreement with the UCT Prague Faculties, our core curriculum should evolve. We can tell ourselves over and over again that the current set up is ideal. But if we don’t have enough students, what good will our thoughts about this do? In any case, I don’t mean lowering standards, but exploring possibilities of distributing course loads in a more flexible way, making course choices more aligned with specific study programs and profiles, and taking student and employee preferences into more urgent consideration.

In cooperation with other universities, we must ensure that there are high-quality mathematics, chemistry, and physics teachers at the secondary school level. At UCT Prague, we already have a program in which we can train high-quality teachers who are keenly interest in chemistry. Other universities should do the same for physics and mathematics. This investment would pay off for us in more motivated, more prepared secondary school graduates.

Another problem is the real drop in university income with regard to inflation and the government’s inadequate higher education funding policy…

Teaching, training, and R&D at UCT Prague are expensive because of necessary instrumentation and chemicals. The government has funded higher education at low levels for a long time, and the basic governmental funding intended to operate our institution cannot even offset inflation. As a result, we have to compete hard with other universities and institutes of the Czech Academy of Science for grants to supplement governmental funding. Since Czech grant funding sources are not sufficiently high and considering the enormous competition on the national level, success in obtaining such grant funding is generally low. As a result, our instructors and researchers are frustrated by the inefficient use of their time in applying for grants instead of conducting research or improving their teaching competencies. Unfortunately, the chances are that the situation will stay the same for the next five years, if it doesn’t worsen. So, we will need to change our approach to gaining funding and try to diversify our funding sources more.

Where do you want to get such funding?

Funding sources that hold the greatest potential are in applied industrial and corporate activities. We will need to switch back from a pervasive model where it was profitable to simply conduct research and publish and return to our technological roots. We also need to get more funding from international research grants. Our success rate with international grants is not bad at all, but we need to prepare and submit higher-quality proposals. I would therefore like to support research groups who have the potential to break into prestigious European grant structures and to apply regularly for grant funding. The university is currently able to withstand the current adverse budget situation thanks to financial reserves, but the reserve funding pool is not endless.

How specifically do you want to raise funds from the commercial sector?

We need to learn how to better connect our knowledge and skills in order to provide comprehensive offers of research cooperation to interested commercial partners. With this, I do not mean just routine lab testing and measuring, but rather providing quality corporate research that companies do not have the space or human capacity to conduct on their own. We can take advantage of the fact that many of our colleagues prefer more hands-on applications and collaborations with the applied sector over publishing. Virtually no one in the Czech Republic is doing chemical-technological research at our scale and quality level. I want to emphasize that this does not mean giving up on competitive, basic and applied research, especially when our goal is to attract and keep high-quality doctoral students, who are literarily indispensable for UCT Prague.

We must not forget our up-to-now underutilized potential for providing continuing education and customized retraining to our industrial partners and the specific government agencies. If some of UCT Prague’s Faculties show interest, I am more than willing to contact the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs regarding the possibility of financing these activities. I know that interest also exists at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic, and the Federation of the Food and Drink Industries of the Czech Republic (FFDI).

It is common in the corporate sector that if funding and new income streams are not sufficient, expenditures are also cut. Will you be considering savings in university operations?

A huge advantage of our university is the low student-to-teacher ratio, which is crucial from the point of view of training experts who are, as we can see, very competitive on the international job market. The downside of this, however, is a relatively large financial burden. Of course, we can consider how to save here, but I think that it would be a big mistake and that one of the great competitive edges of our university would be eroded. So we will look for saving opportunities together with the Deans and Vice-Rectors, primarily in operating expenses, not in personnel costs. Quality people are and always will be our best investment.

Let’s look at it from another angle. Aren’t you afraid that quality people will leave UCT Prague for better opportunities?

For me, it is a priority that university employees are satisfied and that they are paid decently for a job well done. I would like to continue gradually increasing basic salaries. Due to the developments in public financing anticipated in the coming years, this will mean lower individual percentage increases rather than tens of percentages year-to-year, but I would like to let employees know that they are important to the university. The first step after taking up the issue will be negotiations with the Faculty Deans about setting up a system for long-term employee motivation. We can start from the already-existing Employee Profile database, which can be used as a valuable initial data source.

What will Step Number Two be?

We need to conduct an analysis of services the Rectorate provides in order to determine which of them are more or less useful for the individual Faculties. Based on a statistical evaluation, we will propose their optimization and will prepare a catalogue of services provided by the Rectorate. Such an analysis has not been performed for twenty years and we are currently operating according to established habits. Today, we have a situation where various duplications appear, and some services are fine, but we don’t know if all of them are really necessary and if we can sustain them over the long term.

The closest collaborators for the Rector are the Vice-Rectors. Can you tell me their names already?

First, I would like to do some reorganization. So far, I am not counting on having a Vice-Rector for Strategies and Development position, since this agenda better fits the Rector’s responsibilities. In its place, I would like to create a Vice-Rector without a pre-existing portfolio position. Her primary responsibility for the next four years would be doctoral student support and doctoral studies in general. Considering the recent legal changes, there will be a lot of work related to this agenda since we are a university that depends on high-quality doctoral students. As a Vice-Rector for Doctoral Studies, I would like to see Prof. Michaela Rumlová (Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technology).

As for the Vice-Rector for R&D, I would like to work with Prof. Pavel Novák (Faculty of Chemical Technology) who will receive two important tasks from me: to start cooperation with the Czech commercial sector on a larger scale and to support and motivate our research groups for more active involvement in international grant competitions. I would like Associate Professor Milan Jahoda (Faculty of Chemical Engineering) to continue as Vice-Rector for Education. In addition to the many responsibilities he already has on his shoulders, I would like him to focus on extending partnerships with secondary schools and educating future chemistry teachers for primary and secondary schools.

The Vice-Rector for External Relations and Communications remains…

I will make a partial adjustment here as well and would like to have the Communications department report directly to the Rector, as is customary at other universities. The Vice-Rector’s agenda will therefore focus exclusively on internationalization and international cooperation. The main goal will be to involve UCT Prague in one of the university alliances; we also need to be more active in Brussels when negotiating scientific and research cooperation activities. I would be very happy if Prof. Pavel Matějka (Faculty of Chemical Engineering) would fill this role. I would also like to add that I, as Rector, would like to take responsibility for the Department of Safety and Risk Prevention’s agenda, which is crucial from the point of view of eliminating risks in operating a chemistry university.

You have announced that you want to involve the Faculty Deans more in university management. Why?

Most teaching and research takes place at the Faculties, and the powers of the Deans are therefore absolutely and legally essential. Faculties de facto determine basic directions of research and instruction. As Rector, my task will be to prepare optimal conditions for the Faculties and their core activities and, to this end, to ensure for them optimal functioning of the services provided by Rector’s Office. Furthermore, the Rector must coordinate the activities of the Faculties and, if necessary, act as a mediator, must be able to convince the faculties to pursue a common goal. Beyond UCT Prague, the Rector must be able to use diplomacy to ensure that the university as a whole can develop in the right direction. This applies, for example, to raising money for infrastructure development, promoting the interests of UCT Prague in decision-making processes, and in creating strategic documents on the national level.

Examples from the past show that if a Rector has communicated well with the Faculty Deans, university operations were very efficient. It is not a matter of resolving trifles, but of reaching a consensus on fundamental and conceptual matters.

Will you have enough time to manage the Departments that report to you?

This will depend on how we agree to set up the levels of managerial responsibilities. Of course, it can be overwhelming to deal with too many details, but that’s why there are very capable leaders as Heads of the Rectorate Departments. These departments work well and independently. I see my role primarily in the discussion of concepts, competences, goals and their implementation. It’s definitely not my intention to micromanage them.

What about instruction and research. Can you still perform these activities as Rector?

The position of Rector is more than a full-time job. I am internally reconciled to the fact that I will largely have to give up both research and teaching. However, I will keep participating in the Academic Council for the doctoral study programs at my home Faculty, will be ready to serve on examination committees, and count with supervising one or two doctoral students.

As Rector, you can no longer chair the Council of Universities. Won’t UCT Prague lose its influence there?

I don’t think so. We are an important member of the Association of Research Universities, an active part of the community of technology universities, and we are going to be more involved in the Czech Conference of Rectors. We will still have many quality contacts and connections and will make an effort to keep and extend them. I believe that I have done enough useful work for the entire higher education community in the role of Chair of the Council of Universities and will not lose my informal influence.

Rector Matějka strongly supported social and cultural activities for students. Will you continue to do this?

Clearly. Our student associations have a good reputation, even beyond our university. For example, many people marvel at our orchestra and say that we have such a wonderful and large orchestra at a tech university. The same applies to our theatre actors in Divoch. I would also add sports activities to the list because they also belong to being a student and can equip you with a number of competencies that come useful in life, especially team sports. I myself played basketball for UCT Prague for many years, so I know what I’m talking about.

What concerns me is the lack of infrastructure for leisure activities. I want to think things through with the Faculty Deans and to try to accommodate students as much as possible so that they have appropriate venues to meet and rest. On the other hand, I can’t work miracles. Only the new building on Vítězné náměstí will significantly improve the recent situation.

Professionally, you have primarily devoted your entire career to fuels. What drew you to investigating them?

Fuels were only an alternative path for me in the beginning. In elementary school, I wanted to study natural sciences, i.e., botany. When I was about the high school age, my teachers told me: Well, you are not suitable for natural sciences and you should go into the humanities (laughs). I was not particularly interested in Latin or history, however. So I successfully represented my humanities-oriented high school program in the mathematics and physics competitions, which was quite intimidating for the schoolmates from the science-oriented programs. Thanks to a nice chemistry teacher, I eventually decided to go study chemistry at UCT Prague. I wanted to focus on water, but at the admissions office I was told that water technology would probably be beyond my capabilities and that I should rather consider fuels (laughs). I met great people investigating fuel and stuck with the topic. Fuels were, are, and will be extremely important to society as is their impact on the environment. As a matter of fact, I am currently involved in preparation of a national, ten-year strategic plan for the use and modelling of the optimal composition of alternative energies as a part of a 20-member cross-sectoral expert team.

What was it about UCT Prague that made you entwine your entire adult life with it?

Above all, I have enjoyed the research topics, I met there excellent instructors and colleagues. I liked that our research outcomes have direct applied implications. I’m not the type of person who is satisfied solely with theoretical outputs. Furthermore, we all know each other at UCT Prague, the environment and inter-personal relations were always nice, enabling us to communicate and work together without any problems. I must also mention our students, who give us, older colleagues, energy and who enrich us.

What type of student were you? A slacker or a hard worker?

I was definitely good at chemistry; thus, my studies didn’t overwhelm me. I didn’t have to fool around all the time, I was able to deduce a lot of things, and so I also had time to play with experiments in the lab. Eventually I graduated with the highest grades and honours. I was also very involved in extracurricular student life. All the time I felt the urge to organize and invent something so that we didn’t get bored in the dorms.

You mentioned that you played basketball for UCT Prague. How long?

I started playing right after coming to the university in 1981 and quit in around 2005. In addition to the game itself, I enjoyed the incredibly diverse team, which included assistants, students, both Associate and Full Professors. In order to win, we had to be able to cooperate and communicate on the basketball court as we went, often suppressing our egos. For me, it was a valuable school for managerial skills as well as a great way to relax.

How do you relieve stress and work commitments these days?

I like to disappear into nature where I don’t have to think about anything. I also like to go to concerts and prefer quality over genre. Even cooking is a chemical discipline, so I’m happy to get behind the stove on weekends. I’ve also been taking nature and landscape photos all my life, and many of my shots are used in bookmark designs. Thanks to this, I have a rather funny deviation: I often perceive the surrounding world as a panorama, in 1:3 or 3:1 format (laughs).

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Ing. Soňa Hříbalová is a doctoral candidate in Prof. Willie Pabst’s research group at the Department of Glass and Ceramics. She leads the UCT Prague’s Survival Guide for Doctoral Candidates team, was a member of the university-wide Ethics Committee and the Faculty of Chemical Technology’s Academic Senate for over two years. She did two internships in Italy and, with a Fulbright-Masaryk scholarship, did an internship at Pennsylvania State University (Penn State, US). Internationally, she fosters collaboration with young researchers as part of the Young Ceramists Network. She has repeatedly received UCT Prague’s Votoček scholarship and also received a PRECIOSA Foundation scholarship, a Hans-Walter-Hennicke award, and the UCT Prague’s Rector’s Award in 2022.

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You recently returned from your US scholarship. What kind of scholarship was it?

I received a Fulbright-Masaryk scholarship, a scholarship that supports excellent research intended for those who are dedicated to community engagement, which in my case was my advocacy for doctoral candidates, including in the Academic Senate. Within the European Ceramic Society, I am involved in the Young Ceramists Network that tries to connect young researchers in my field, which personally makes me very happy. I get to see how people develop relationships, how various collaborations start, and this in turn gives them the opportunity to continue to develop.

When I received the Fulbright-Masaryk scholarship description, including who it’s intended for, I thought that maybe it might work out. We didn’t have any US contacts in my research group, though, so I reviewed publications in my discipline and in related fields, and ended up at Penn State, where I studied the properties and degradation of ferroelectric thin films.

How difficult was the administrative process for the scholarship application?

Fulbright Czech Republic does absolutely amazing webinars, and I have to say that I’ve never experienced such great support, especially from the institution administering a scholarship. It was easy to call the Fulbright office and ask questions about the project application. The administrative process was more difficult for me after I got the scholarship, because I was doing an internship in Italy when the Fulbright results were announced. I was engaged, but my future husband and I wanted to go together, so our wedding took place a little bit earlier than we’d originally planned. Of course, we had to arrange all the documents, including those for our visas and medical documents, together with a tuberculosis test. Last summer was really busy for me.

What’s it like to be a PhD student in the US?

I don’t want to generalize, because here we rarely think about how diverse the US is. Here we sometimes think about the US as one homogenous country, but actually there are large cultural differences between regions. There are also differences in workplace culture. If I limit myself to Professor Susan Trolier-McKinstry's group at Penn State, it was very different from here. First, her research group is very large, so she has meetings with everyone, usually every two weeks, and these are really intensive half-hour meetings and you are required to present your new results—many of them.

When I show results to my mentor Willie Pabst in Prague, I just knock on the door and ask “Can I show you the data?” and we discuss measurements and next steps and it’s very spontaneous. I had to be prepared at Penn State, to show what I’d measured, how I’d interpret the results, and propose a clear plan for next steps. Doctoral training is therefore very different. In Czechia, we often are mentoring Bachelor and Master students to a certain extent, but I did not encounter this in my Penn State group (but I know from hearsay that it’s sometimes similar to the Czech experience in other research groups).

How did your US mentor find the time for regular meetings with every member of her large team?

There are several ways. First, she devoted time to this at the expense of personal time off. Second, everything is very efficient. I knew I had to come on time, that I had exactly half an every two weeks, and that during that time, I needed to discuss everything that was pending. I was able to discuss results more often, but this half hour was crucial. Here, my mentor is a kind of colleague; in the US, my mentor was more of a manager. So, what a Czech mentor would most likely discuss with me in detail, my US mentor would just say, “You’ll solve it, thank you”.

Is it possible to live when working so quickly and efficiently?

Yes and no. Sometimes it’s very exhausting; on the other hand, here we might not be aware that our time is also an investment and that it would be a shame to waste it. There, I often had to go beyond my comfort zone, to learn something completely new by myself (quickly). This took time and effort, but it pushed me to my personal limits. Significantly more independence and a willingness to learn new things is considered standard there.

On the other hand, in my experience, the atmosphere here is relatively relaxed, even when things are difficult. In my Czech group, I felt the family atmosphere starting from the very first day. There’s a pleasant atmosphere, a sense of togetherness and a sense of humour between group members, and I appreciate very much. In such an environment, however, one’s own internal motivation is very important.

So we get work-life balance right here, even if we complain, don’t we?

I would say that we’re closer than as we might think. For me personally, this is definitely the case. Of course, it’s a little different with every mentor, but in my case, my mentor knows that I work reliably, that I do my job, so he doesn’t need to interfere with how I spend my days at work. I value that kind of freedom very much.

Not everyone has that much self-discipline, though.

I am completely comfortable with an approach where I have a lot of freedom, and I have a mentor who trusts me and knows that he can count on me. I was already quite independent in high school. During my pre-university studies, thanks to a special programme and an individualized study plan, I also studied at the Secondary School of Fashion. At the beginning of each semester, I had a list of tests, assignments, and duties that I had to complete in each subject. I didn’t have to go to class, but I had to complete everything. In order to be allowed to keep an individualized study plan, I needed to have minimum a “B” (2.0) average. So I learned to be careful and not miss something, either by mistake or on purpose. Thanks to this experience, I suddenly gained an awful lot of freedom.

Independence goes hand in hand with freedom. Is there any difference between UCT Prague and Penn State?

I think PhD candidates in the US are more independent in their research. On the other hand, they are far less independent, if you can call it that, in terms of other things. For example, we have Internal Grant Agency projects, so we are used to writing grant applications, including budgets, starting in our first year of doctoral training. If we get a grant, we have to manage it, monitor budget expenditures, payment of bonuses, purchases of material, and writing of the final report. At Penn State, funding was primarily managed by group leaders. In general, though, I would say that at UCT Prague we are somewhat less independent as doctoral candidates.

How many course responsibilities do PhD candidates have at Penn State?

There is one huge difference in the system. At Penn State, after the equivalent of a Bachelor degree, you can go straight on to your doctoral studies. Doctoral students have to fulfil Master-level requirements, but without the need to submit a master thesis and then can engage in research in the same way as our doctoral candidates. Therefore, PhD s candidate study responsibilities cannot be directly compared.

In research there, the emphasis is on excellence. An example would be group meetings where one or two colleagues presented their work and the whole group had to ask questions and give feedback, including during a presentation. From my point of view, it was sometimes quite “brutal” and I can’t imagine this kind of thing in our Czech environment. It does, however, significantly improve the content and form of presentations and the research itself.

You probably didn’t have much time for your husband because of your demanding job. How did he manage and what was he doing there?

My husband, to my great fortune, is a programmer, and because of this, he can work remotely and mostly schedule his time as needed. He was sceptical about the trip first, but once we arrived in the US, he loved it there. The college town we lived in, State College, is located in the middle of Pennsylvania. The landscape there is a bit like Šumava, the Bohemian forest, and the campus was beautiful, just like in the movies. Everything was neat and clean and there were beautiful gardens in front of houses. Although I had much less free time there than here, I spent more time with my husband than in Prague, where both of us have many different activities. He took care of me and the house we rented there, which was incredibly helpful.

How was the return?

Home is home, I must emphasize that. I really love it here. It seems to me, though, that Czechs frown a lot. Before leaving, I heard several times people saying that people in the US are superficial because everyone there asks how you are and it doesn’t really mean anything. It doesn’t mean anything, but asking how you are is a polite form of greeting. It’s also polite to say that I’m fine, even if it’s not entirely true. Just because of this, a person is at least a little more positive for a moment than if they start complaining right away.

Complaining is typically Czech. Even if we’re better off here than in the US in some respects, we always frown, and that’s a shame. That’s why I think it’s great to experience everyday life abroad, because it’s refreshing to get beyond our gloomy mindset and to gain new perspectives. I honestly love to complain sometimes that everything is worth nothing and it’s all leading to Doomsday, but I’m aware that is important to keep these things in balance.

How was it going back to work?

I was really looking forward to returning to my research group, because I have great colleagues and because Professor Pabst is really the best mentor I can imagine for myself. I like that we achieve results have a relatively calm and fun atmosphere. I never go to work feeling nauseous.

If I were to be critical, I miss “US efficiency” a bit these days and I can’t get used to hearing only minimal criticism from my mentor. Constructive (even if sometimes unpleasant) feedback can inspire a person to progress a lot. Thanks to this, in the US, I learned in 3/4s of a year what would have taken me five years to learn here. I also miss working with an international team. What I struggle with after returning home is how to figure out work-life balance, because I like the fact that I can devote a lot of time to work and really get moving. On the other hand, I know that it’s not possible for me to work at this pace without a break. I know it’s not sustainable, at least in my case. So I’m looking for a balance between not being lazy and not going crazy.

Why did you decide to study chemistry?

I knew I wanted to study chemistry in high school, and at the Fashion School, we had material science as a subject. I really liked how small changes in the process, like how a thread is twisted or how a fabric is woven, can affect the overall properties of a material. Because of this, I went into Chemistry and Materials Technology, and still am, to a certain sense.

What is your research topic?

I basically have three main topics.

The first topic is the modelling of optical, electrical, mechanical, or thermal properties of metamaterials. This led me to light scattering prediction modelling for transparent ceramics. It is very theoretical work in which we have managed to correct and improve existing models for predicting, in simple terms, the degree of transparency of a ceramic depending on its microstructure.

Second, I am conducting research into piezoelectric ceramics based on KNN (KxNa1-xNbO3), which is a lead-free alternative to materials containing lead that are used today. We are primarily interested in the connections between composition, microstructure, and properties. We managed to establish an excellent collaboration on this topic with Dr. Elisa Mercadelli’s research group in Italy.

My third topic is not currently researched inCzechia, so I devoted myself to it in the US. It also involves KNN, but not in the form of classic ceramics, but rather in the form of thin films. I additionally focused on issues of aging and degradation there.

What are metamaterials?

Generally speaking, they are materials whose properties are mainly determined by their microstructure instead by their composition. Originally, the term “metamaterials” was principally applied to optical metamaterials, i.e. materials with specific periodic microstructures that lead to relatively exotic properties, such as a negative refractive index. However, the meaning of the term has grown over time. Metamaterials include different types of materials, including ceramics.

In our research group at the Department of Glass and Ceramics, there is a long tradition of research into the connection between a microstructure and the properties of ceramic materials, so this topic fits perfectly into our discipline. Unfortunately, several times when I told someone I was doing a doctorate in ceramics, they imagined plates or sinks and asked me why I was doing a doctorate in this.

So why are you doing a PhD in ceramics?

Even in the field of traditional ceramics, there are still a large number of interesting research topics, so people often just don’t realize what ceramics are, so ceramics might not seem very attractive to them.

If I stick to what we work with, I would mention transparent ceramics, which are used, for example, in lasers or for bulletproof windows or the tips of infrared guided missiles. KNN, which I discussed above, is another example of a piezoelectric material. These kinds of materials are capable of converting between electrical and mechanical energy. In practice, this means that when we apply mechanical stress to such a material, we are able to detect an electric charge, and conversely, if we apply an electric stress to a material, we can slightly deform it on a very small scale.

I imagine a plethora of applications here.

There are indeed many applications. One of them is the ultrasound machine you encounter at the doctor’s office. Ultrasonic waves must be created in an ultrasonic probe by “oscillating” a piezoelectric material with electric voltage. The reflected ultrasonic waves must be scanned again, and an piezoelectric element is typically used for this. For example, sonars or sensors that we use in cars for parking work on a similar principle.

Piezoelectric thin films can be used, for example, in so-called microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), which are microscopic devices that combine electrical and moving elements. One illustrative application is inkjet printers, where MEMS controls how much ink is put on paper, with high-quality printing requiring very high accuracy, speed all in a small component. There are also applications such as energy harvesters, which are able to collect small amounts of electrical energy from vibrations, and many others.

The disadvantage of most materials used today are compounds containing lead. This is problematic, not only in terms of production, but also in terms of waste management. KNN, on the other hand, is non-toxic and even biocompatible. However, reproducibility during preparation is challenging because of substandard properties and because of degradation. In my experience, the behaviour of this material has surprised everyone with whom I have worked on it so far. That makes it another challenge.

Now ceramics sounds much more attractive.

Thank you. Hopefully this will help make studying ceramics more popular with students (laughter). We have several open positions for Bachelor and Master theses on the topic of KNN, so if any of you students out there are interested, regardless of how far along you are in your studies, I’d be happy to take them onboard.

You are known to doctoral students primarily thanks to the Doctoral Student Survival Guide. Can you tell us about it?

The Doctoral Student Survival Guide was created by doctoral candidates in around 2017 as a grassroots initiative to build up a web portal for finding all important information regarding one’s doctoral studies, not only in the form of decrees and guidelines. I only got into the project a few years after it was created, in 2020. Over time, informational meetings for interested parties and new doctoral students started happening. The torch was later passed on from the UCT Prague intranet to the phd.vscht.cz website. A full-fledged version in English was created, and starting this year, we have been working together with the Research and Technology Transfer Office, where we established a very pleasant cooperation with Mili Losmanová, who is in charge of PhD support. What is unique about this project is that it is still being principally maintained and refined by doctoral students, i.e. members of the community for which it was created. I value their efforts very much, and although I’m still associated with the project, my colleagues do a far greater amount of work on it these days. I would like to highlight my colleague Jakub Staś’ work, since he is currently redesigning our website.

What’s next for you after experiencing Italy and the US? Will you be able to constrain yourself only to Czechia?

Now I have to finish my doctorate and I hope I will be able to submit dissertation by the end of this year. I would then like to stay in academia, although I am a little less convinced about it after the US experience. I always thought academia was the exact match for me, but after this experience, I opened myself up to the idea that there might be other paths. Of course, it also depends on the opportunities. I have no plans to move to another country right now, because (among other things) one of the the Fulbright-Masaryk scholarship conditions is that you have to live in Czechia for two years after getting back home. But that doesn’t bother me at all, because it’s time to be home again, and I’d like to use what I learned abroad here.

Later down the road, I’d like to continue the international collaborations I’ve started, such as with the Italian research group I visited in the spring of 2022, or to establish new collaborations with a colleague from the Young Ceramists Network. I don’t rule out another stay abroad in the more distant future, but I can’t imagine living outside Czechia indefinitely.

The prestigious Fulbright Program sponsored by U.S. and Czech governments provides U.S. and Czech citizens with the opportunity to study, teach, or conduct research in the partner country. The Fulbright Program is open to all fields be it Liberal Arts or Hard Sciences (except for MBA, LLM and Clinical Medicine).

Read more at www.fulbright.cz

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The winter semester has arrived. What’s new for students and instructors?

After last year’s transitional period, the full upgrade of student information system (SIS) now includes e-doktorand module and is operational for all levels of students (Bachelor to PhD). For all doctoral students—not just first-year doctoral candidates—this means that all individual study plan materials and annual assessment guidelines are now in SIS in addition to the courses in which they are enrolled.

Last week the first-ever Survival Conference for first-year students, to introduce them to UCT Prague culture and increase chances of first semester success, took place. The A1 auditorium was full and the conference was broadcast online. I firmly hope that, thanks to the conference, mathematics will cease to be a mythical scarecrow. There was also a new introductory seminar for first-year doctoral candidates, run by their doctoral student peers and Research and Technology Transfer Department staff (including PhD Support staff). PhD candidates can now also sign up for a new eLearning course on ethics, and a course focused on academic culture will come soon.

After Academic Senate Education Committee debates and UCT Prague Board internal evaluation meetings, I expect that course formats will continue to evolve beyond traditional face-to-face lectures and seminars. I can feel an increase of good will for more in-class discussions, for students’ tighter engagement in educational practices while fostering their independence in studying.

What would you recommend to students starting their UCT Prague studies this week?

A positive mindset in terms of success is essential. It’s difficult for us to help those who doubt themselves from the start, those who fall into despair, and those who are not willing to face obstacles. It is clear from our surveys that internal motivation and the desire to master coursework play key roles in student success. So hold your heads high and be brave. You shall succeed!

If you run into difficulties, don’t hesitate to ask for help in time. We have a Counselling and Career Centr e (including psychological counselling) and tutors. Your older peers will also be happy to help you. Feel free to ask or email your instructor or trainer for advice, and they certainly won’t leave you behind.

Social life at UCT Prague has quickly returned to normal after the pandemic. What major events are planned for the rest of the year?

The first opportunity to meet each other will be on September 26, at KampusFest, which after last year’s festive celebration, will take place in front of Building B. In addition to bands and a parade of student associations, we can look forward to a number of microbrew offerings and an interesting event program. In October, European Researchers Night will be held at UCT Prague; in November, we have the Chemists' Ball; and in December, there will be a pre-holiday concert in Bethlehem Chapel.

I would also like to stop by Vektor Technická; a really diverse program took place there all spring and summer. I was pleased to observe students and instructors informally connecting during workshops or just having a beer under the cherry trees. Our campus has sprung to life thanks to Vektor. Keeping Vektor events going on after seasonal winter hibernation will be high on our priority list.

Due to university budget austerity measures these past two years, didn’t you consider cancelling or limiting cultural events?

I don’t think cultural events put too much of a dent in our budget. We want to provide space for spontaneous UCT Prague community initiatives. Moreover, our financial situation is fine. We were able to increase basic salaries this year, albeit moderately. We have increased scholarship amounts for doctoral students. We are a relatively small university, which gives us the chance to function as a community, even in the classroom. The different kinds of cultural events clearly contribute to a vibrant UCT Prague environment, which we can say is really a family environment.

What does the UCT Prague administration plan to achieve during the winter semester?

We will monitor and evaluate the real impacts of everything I’ve already talked about here. We’ll also deal with the admissions process, analysing current data and using it to decide whether we modify anything (e.g. introducing an entrance exam) or whether we’ll keep the existing model. We will also address the topic of micro-certificates, the recognition of short-term courses across universities, and the related issue of transferring credits, especially between members of the Czech Association of Research Universities (AVO). We are exploring offering of a number of courses in English for Czech students and now have our first international professors appointed. I hope we can progress from the current pilot phase to a growth phase by next year.

Regarding R&D, we will (taking also into account recent developments of contributions to our budget from the national government) try to create an environment that makes it easier to participate in international grant funding calls such as Horizon Europe and keep striving towards success in submitting cutting-edge grant proposals for funding initiatives that support excellent research. The Project Centre stands ready to give a helping hand to researchers throughout the entire grant-seeking process.

We are also awaiting the preparation of cross-sector proposals within the European Union’s Johannes Amos Comenious Programme framework. It’s one of the last opportunities to obtain funding from the framework’s subprogram for universities’ development support, specifically in the field of applied research. I would like us to set the stage for an international job posting for an expert who will be able to build a small, excellent team and bring with them a new, cutting-edge research topic with the potential to win an European Research Council (ERC) grant and for improving UCT Prague’s academic culture.

The world needs environmental engineers

The Faculty of Environmental Technology (FET) is currently celebrating its 70^th birthday. When I interviewed FET’s Dean Pavel Jeníček for the September issue of UCT Prague’s internal magazine, SPIN, he noted that FET is sometimes perceived within UCT Prague as being a “younger sister” who always tags along the other faculties. You often talk about FET, though, as being the “Faculty of the Future”…

FET teaches and conducts research into emergent topics that are challenging our world, be that sustainability and the circular economy, limiting the effects of climate change and energy and fuel production, or developing water-related technologies. FET’s future is bright, and we have a number of internationally recognized scientists and researchers there. However, the number of students enrolled in FET is stagnant, so we need to better promote FET’s promise to future generations. Quality environmental engineers and other FET graduates are needed not only here in the Czech Republic, but also around the world.

At the end of the last academic year, UCT Prague launched a project to foster and ensure a positive social environment. How’s it going so far?

It’s good that we finally launched the project after preparations that, in my opinion, dragged on a bit. I can’t say how the project is progressing because it operates completely outside my authority, which was the intention in the first place. I can say, though, that so far proceedings from a single employment- or disciplinary-related issue haven’t been forwarded to the Rector Office’s attention. That said, I don’t have any illusions because such issues pop up at any university, and UCT Prague will not be an exception, although I hope that our family environment functions as a preventive measure, to a certain extent.

With colleagues from the Association of Research Universities (AVO), we are now working on another important milestone: joint educational materials for prospective and current students and employees at AVO member institutions on social security topics.

The multi-round international architectural competition for completing the 4th quadrant of Vítězné náměstí, which also includes a new UCT Prauge building, is over. How do you feel about the winning proposal and what are the next steps?

For the competition shortlist, we identified several proposals that were acceptable in terms of UCT Prague’s aesthetic, functional space, and operational use requirements. The winning proposal was one of these, so we are satisfied. The key thing to keep in mind is that the new building will significantly help UCT Prague overcome its current lack of space, a long-term issue that has limited UCT Prague’s potential for educational and R&D development. Students will finally have adequate facilities, new lecture halls, and classrooms. We will be able to reconstruct laboratories and improve working conditions for employees.

We are now negotiating with Prague 6, the City of Prague, and a private investor in order to prepare for zoning proceedings. So far, the City of Prague’s attitude has been very constructive, so we hope there will not be unnecessary delays. We also need to strengthen our internal expertise with experts who have experience in completing similar large-scale construction projects and we’ve been working on this for several months.

A strategy focused on people rather than just on topics

UCT Prague recently became a founding member of the new Prague.bio Cluster, which brings together scientists, investors, and commercial sector representatives in medicine and the life sciences. What do you expect from Prague.bio?

When I ran for the position of Rector four years ago, I talked about the fact that we are basically a chemistry university and that without expanding our educational and research horizons it would be difficult for us to survive as an independent institution. Pharmaceutical and medical biotechnologies are extremely important for the ongoing evolution of the Czech Republic’s economy, and these (expensive) areas of research investment hold terrific promise for growth. Of course, this process will go faster if we cooperate with leading partners in the Czech research and business environment. I see the support of the City of Prague and of the Czech Minister for Science and Research, Helena Langšádlová—who wish to develop this biotechnology-based, high added-value sector—as being essential to Prague.bio’s future success.

You visited Israel over the summer for the 9th Prague–Weizmann School on Drug Discovery. UCT Prague co-organizes the event with the renowned Weizmann Institute of Science and the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS). Did this inspire you?

I was impressed by the incredible creative freedom the leading research groups have. The research groups decide independently what they will investigate, although they naturally must fund their own work. The way new people from outside Weizmann are accepted into the Institute was also inspiring. Scientists (except for those just starting out) do not join existing research teams; they are clearly expected to bring new avenues of research investigation to the Institute. Its institutional strategy is thus focused not just on topics, but rather on people: independent, creative, and moral researchers.

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“Allow me to congratulate you on your excellent scientific results.” A recent letter from the chair of the Czech Science Foundation (CSF) Presidium opens with these words, announcing to UCT Prague Professor Karl Bouzek that he had received an honourable mention award for the excellent outputs of the “Electrochemistry of Pt – P oxoacids interface as a key to understanding of high temperature PEM fuel cells performance” project. Only ten projects financed by CSF each year receive this award.

“We wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the complex problem of the redox processes of phosphorus oxoacids on the surface of platinum catalyst under conditions corresponding to the operating conditions of a high-temperature fuel cell with a proton-conducting polymer electrolyte membrane, and thus help its optimize its application,” said Professor Bouzek in a short interview.

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With whom did you collaborate on the project?

It was a bilateral project with partners from Germany: the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (which, among other things, operates the BESSY synchrotron) and the University of Bayreuth, with expertise in the field of spectroscopic methods for the characterization of electrochemical processes during operation, the so-called in operando characterisation. In the last ten years or so, the development in the field of high-temperature PEM fuel cells has been slightly delayed due to higher demands on precious metals loadings. It is due to their faster degradation during operation. But now this technology experiences a certain renaissance. This is primarily due to the working temperature, which for this type of cells typically reaches 160 to 180 degrees Celsius. This temperature, when compared to the standard low-temperature fuel cells, significantly facilitates solution of the thermal management, i.e. the removal of the heat generated by the system. Therefore, there is also a growing interest in understanding the interaction of the catalyst with the electrolyte used and harnessing this to bring high-temperature PEM technology closer to the demands on precious metals and the lifetime of a low-temperature one.

Did you face any major issues?

The project was funded for three years. Just after its first year, COVID started. Before COVID, during the first year, we had prepared measurement methodologies, experimental fuel cells, and we were preparing detailed plans for experiments. And in this moment suddenly everything closed. So, it was not until the final six months of the grant (2022 – editor’s note) that we could really start measuring. Nevertheless, we obtained results that are obviously interesting. Otherwise quite prestigious journals would not accept them for publication. In this context, I would like to highlight the fantastic commitment shown by colleagues from our group, mainly Tomáš Bystroň and Martin Prokop.

Which journals have published your results?

ACS Catalysis is probably the most prestigious one. Despite that, I’m still upset that we wasted a year and a half waiting for the infrastructure to be open for us. We could have reached completely different amount and quality of results with this grant. We’ve now submitted an application for a follow-up grant and we will see if we have a chance continue to investigate this topic at such a level.

How do you explain that you won an award even though COVID changed your plans?

I find that very interesting; the results were probably sufficient (smiles).

So, what did you discover that the editors of ACS Catalysis wanted to publish?

A high-temperature cell operates at approximately 180 degrees Celsius. So, traditional polymer electrolytes used in the low-temperature fuel cells cannot be used. It is because their stability and ionic conductivity, as their functional properties are limited to their fully hydrated stay. For this reason, a polymeric carrier saturated with phosphoric acid is currently used as an electrolyte. However, in addition to the necessary ionic conductivity, it is also an environment interesting at the given temperatures in other respects. This is either because of its aggressiveness towards metals, or from the point of view of the chemistry of the central phosphorus atom, which is able to change oxidation states from – 3 to + 5. Each of its states interacts with the catalyst, most often platinum, on different way. Additionally, some of its oxoanions can also change the configuration of the molecule with temperature, which then has also different interaction. Some potential interactions of the electrolyte with the catalyst emerged from the classical electrochemical measurements we did before; we have now identified under real operational conditions more closely what is actually happening on the cathode and anode side of this system. We also identified some of the types of interactions with the catalyst under different conditions. Thanks to our findings, it is possible to avoid to some extent stress conditions leading to faster degradation or loss of fuel cell performance.

Do you think the renaissance of high-temperature cells will continue?

Hard to say, but it is definitely perspective technology. In the case of the low-temperature fuel cells, it was already thought, everything is solved and ready for commercial application. But especially in the field of mobility situation is more complex. In case of cars of various sizes, or for example airplanes, fuel cells produce, in addition to the desired electrical energy in hundreds of kilowatts, a corresponding amount of heat energy. If this heat energy has a potential of 50, 60 degrees Celsius, then in hot weather the radiator, dissipating hundreds of kilowatts at a temperature difference of 20, 30 degrees, must be enormously large. In case of working temperature of 180 degrees Celsius or higher, a compact radiator is fully sufficient because the temperature gradients driving the heat exchange with the environment is of 100 degrees higher. A number of car producers are now trying to figure out how to get to higher temperatures to facilitate the thermal management design of the entire powertrain.

You mentioned that you would have liked to have had more project outputs. What did you miss due to the pandemic?

We primarily intended to move towards alternative catalysts reducing the demands on the platinum metals and thus making the technology more economically competitive.

A few days ago, your research group had a kick-off meeting for another European grant under the M-ERA.Net program. What will you investigate?

ERA.Net generally focuses on smaller-scale international research projects, typically involving institutions from three to four countries. For the past two years, the priorities of the program focused, among other topics, on a clean energy and hydrogen technologies. In 2022, we received funding for developing of the industrial printing techniques for high-capacity production of fuel cells with structured properties coordinated by Fraunhofer Institute ENAS (Chemnitz, Germany). We have had good results with this project so far. Pleasantly encouraged, we successfully submitted another grant application, this time on the topic of water electrolysis as a source of so-called green hydrogen. The project is coordinated by the Mittweida University of Applied Sciences (Germany), and other partners are the Fraunhofer Institute in Dresden (Germany), the Polytechnic University of Timişoara (Romania), and also LEANCAT (a Czech company). We are primarily targeting the anode as the most demanding part of the water electrolysis system. Colleagues at the Fraunhofer Institute have succeeded in developing a new approach to the production of the basic component of the anode in this process, namely the so-called porous transport layer, based on titanium. This leads to significant material savings, but at the same time, opens up new ways to more efficient use the iridium-based catalyst. And this is where our primary activity is headed, designing these kinds of production procedures that reduce the demands of technology on precious metals while maintaining their basic advantages. Colleagues in Timișoara are dealing with the issue of recycling iridium and titanium so that they can be used in new units with minimal losses after the end of a electrolyser useful life.

Research of Electrochemistry of Pt – P oxoacids interface

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Interview with Professor Martin Fusek, director of IOCBTech, a technology transfer office and subsidiary company of IOCB.

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In June, the Emil Votoček Medal will be presented at a ceremony recognizing outstanding personalities who have contributed to the development of UCT Prague or science and education more broadly. Professor Martin Fusek, director of IOCBTech, will be one of the six laureates. In this interview, he talks, among other things, about widespread distrust (which complicates life, not only for researchers), about positive trends in UCT Prague’s evolution, about “inbreeding” at Czech universities, and about his desire to give back to the university what it gave to him as a student.

What does the Emil Votoček Medal mean to you?

I respect it, of course—not in the general sense of the word, but because UCT Prague has been a part of my life for 45 years and I love it. I started my studies in 1978, and for the last 30 years, I’ve been trying to help the university in one way or another and to give back what it once gave me. I’m glad someone noticed.

When you were graduating from the university, did you think that your future would be entwined with UCT Prague to this extent? You’re an instructor here, a member of our Scientific Board, and together with Professor Cibulka, you organize the prestigious Prague–Weizmann School on Drug Discovery.

I didn’t even consider it. I’m not someone who plans his life too carefully in advance. I believe a lot in chance and that things happen beyond our rational comprehension. I think the role of our intellect is very overrated. The older I get, the more I see that we are controlled by emotions, just like other animals, we only think that we’re acting rationally. So, in 1983, when I started my military service, all I knew was that I’d been accepted to doctoral studies at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the CAS (IOCB), but I didn’t think much more about it. Then a revolution took place, many things changed in our society, and I spent half of the 1990s abroad.

First in the US, then in Germany. Tell us more.

I was lucky to go to the United States immediately after completing my doctoral studies in the summer of 1988—of course, without my family (a measure taken by the then-communist regime to prevent scientists from immigrating – editor's note). I returned after a year, and basically right off the plane attended an anti-regime demonstration with my friends (laughs). However, by a coincidence and thanks to the help of colleagues from IOCB, I managed to spend another year at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, which was an amazing experience in every way. I then decided that I wanted to conduct research abroad for some time. And so I returned to the United States for two years, this time with my family.

Upon your return, you headed into the corporate sector. Why?

At that time, there was a deep economic crisis at Czech research institutions. I discovered I was unable to support my family, or rather, that I could only support them at a basic level, with a standard of living seven times lower than what we’d had in the US. So I decided to go into the corporate sector. However, an American colleague and I still had interesting research activities to continue, so I kept doing science for quite a long time on the side, in the evenings.

What did you do at Sigma-Aldrich and Merck?

We’re talking about the dominant suppliers of products for scientific activities in the fields of chemistry and biochemistry. I did sales and marketing at different levels, local and European. Over time, however, I began to feel that the corporations were too big and that the people were just pawns on a chessboard being moved around by someone. I didn't enjoy it, so I returned to IOCB, charged with creating the conditions and structure for professional technology transfer mechanisms.

You also started teaching at UCT Prague and connecting with the university again. How do you perceive things here, from the point of view of someone who has one foot on the inside and another on the outside?

I always look at things in terms of a gradient: zero, positive, or negative. For UCT Prague, I see a positive gradient; it’s getting better. The economic situation for research and education in the 1990s was really terrible. Neither students nor instructors could not survive without additional employment. A lot of talented people left a number of institutions, UCT Prague included, and some significant scholars left academia for good. Not that there wasn’t anyone left, but we needed more quality people. Fortunately, that is no longer the case today; I see a lot of skilled researchers and a number of personalities at the university such as Professors Slavíček, Brancale, and Štěpánek.

Student numbers have returned to normal after a significant drop in the previous decades, which is important, because my belief is that student quality is constant and that a Gaussian curve applies. Out of 30 people in a course, there will be five excellent ones who love academia and who are very interested in everything; then there will be a large group of mediocre students, and then a contingent of those who just want to pass. But you need those 30 people out of the starting gate. In terms of hardware, it has been essential that the university acquired new premises and that it was able to equip the laboratories well.

What can UCT Prague still do better?

It still suffers from what the entire higher education system in our country suffers from: inbreeding. It is unhealthy for someone to spend their entire academic careers at one place and not force themselves out of their comfort zones. If you haven’t experienced a different environment in another research group, encountered other approaches and areas of research, it’s hard to come up with new ideas and you’ll always be trapped in a particular frame of mind. The situation is gradually improving and I’m an optimistic, but it’s still a problem here.

Inbreeding has been discussed for a few years, but in reality, not much has changed. Why?

It’s a mixture of reasons. When I put myself in the shoes of a student/would-be professor, it’s kind of comfortable to stay at one place. You know how things work, you know the instructors and who’s important. It’s also convenient for instructors and managers. Another reason is that the possibility of going somewhere else is simply limited. If you live in Brno with your parents and you have to go to Prague for your doctoral studies, to find a place to rent…but I think that the problem should be resolved after finishing a Master degree: that students should automatically go elsewhere for their doctorates. The Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS), for example, can play a positive role in this. That is why I always fight for cooperation and mutual communication between universities and CAS.

It's true that a number of our doctoral candidates work at IOCB, which some at UCT Prague see as a great benefit but which others don’t like, because talented students don’t work on research projects.

I realize that no one likes to lose students. Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen very often that natural sciences students from Charles University or the Czech University of Life Sciences transfer here. So I understand when an instructor wants to keep a student who is motivated and willing to put a lot of time into their work and who also comes with fresh ideas and so on. But it’s basically an investment when a great student looks elsewhere, gains new perspectives and contacts, and then will, for example, return to the university with a broader outlook. I know of many cases where UCT Prague graduates did their doctorates somewhere else, went abroad for postdoctoral research, and then returned here.

The whole issue is somewhat related to the fact that work at CAS or at the university cannot be done as a regular 9 to 5 job. One has to have some kind of scientific passion inside themselves. And those who have it don’t mind if a student goes elsewhere for a doctorate. Because they know that they are good enough to automatically attract more good students. The problem lies with those who are not passionate about science. However, I’d like to emphasize that I understand both sides, and the solution is not that all graduating engineers suddenly disappear from their undergraduate universities. However, I believe that, with the gradual improvement of the quality of individual mentors, the problem will disappear over time, and there are already enough examples of good practice at UCT Prague.

How do you perceive UCT Prague from the perspective of a technology transfer expert?

I don’t have the exact numbers at hand, but from what I hear, there has been quite a bit of interaction with the industrial sector, which is important. Technology universities exist in part to not be detached from reality and to be able to offer technological solutions or custom improvements to companies that do not have the ability to conduct research themselves. In my opinion, the university could do even more in this area, although not at the expense of basic research, without which today’s quality universities cannot function. What is not quite successful yet is the production its own technological innovations—those that have not been requested by an outside company—which are later offered to the commercial sector for applied use or developed further within the framework of spin-off companies and the like.

What needs to be changed in order for the university to move in this direction as well?

The first condition for incubating original ideas, those sought after by the commercial sector, is really cutting-edge science. It is essentially risky, it may result in a payoff, and it stretches into the unknown. But the entire system of supporting research in Czechia is based on preventing an original, risky approach. In order to receive Czech Science Foundation grant, you simply have to write in the application that you will publish three articles. And it doesn’t really matter if they are good articles. God forbid you come up with something original but you don’t have time to publish an article before the end of the grant: then you’re done and you won’t receive funding again.

The second condition is a sufficient number of scientific personalities who have the passion and skills for cutting-edge research. Here I see a positive trend at UCT Prague over the last 10 years. The third condition is better service from the university for assisting researchers, which does not always work in the Czech environment.

Why?

Imagine you are a scientist with a great idea. You’ve even developed a proof of concept that could actually work. You want to patent your creation and then sell it, or, God forbid, you want to start a spin-off. You are excited and go to the relevant university office, if there’s one at all, and there they smile at you and say: Come back in 14 days. We’re now in the process of doing grant applications and we can’t look at your work until after that. This is repeated several times, because sometimes the legal departments don’t have time, sometimes the economic departments don’t have time, and you suddenly understand that you won’t be able to implement your idea at the university. So you have two options: either you start something yourself without university help, which is still better than doing nothing, or you give up and write a nice article.

Is this really common practice in Czechia?

Yes, it’s common practice to have many barriers that result from an insufficient number of people, the absence of internal processes, and excessive bureaucratization. A scientist with an idea does not want to deal with any contracts or patent applications, they want someone else to deal with all this, because they invented a product after all. When no one assists in this process or everything drags out indefinitely, it’s natural to give up. But Czech universities are not the only institutions with this problem; colleagues in Germany and elsewhere in Europe will describe a similar effect to you…that said, top scientific products with commercial potential should be supported as much as possible at the national level, because they have enormous added value and give us a chance to change the structure of our economy. It would help if a uniform methodology were created across universities and academies. But I know that this is not a trivial matter and it’s easy to talk to when I have the IOCB backing me up.

Isn’t the problem also related to a lack of ideas with the potential to succeed?

When cutting-edge science pushes the boundaries, ideas automatically come, by definition.

So what should the technology transfer support system look like?

If I look at MIT or Stanford, for example, a person with an idea has a service partner who knows what to do and who responds immediately. We at IOCBTech try to do the same, so when a researcher comes to us, we immediately sit down and get to work. In the first stage, we evaluate to what extent an idea is unique, whether it falls into an intellectual property category and if it can be protected in some way. In the second phase, we analyse if the market will be interested in the idea. Every institution that wants to support the transfer should be able to offer these services with rapid turnaround times. Furthermore, follow-up processes need to be precisely defined so that everyone is clear about what will happen next, and project managers should be there to bring the plan to its goal. Which, by the way, means visiting companies and trade fairs showcasing new technologies. As for UCT Prague, I’m not sure if two people are enough for such a large and research-heterogeneous organism, even if transfer at the university is crystallizing in the right direction.

A separate department of technology transfer was established at UCT Prague relatively recently; before that, transfer was part of the research department.

Having a separate department is essential, precisely so that there is no mixing of agendas and so there are no delays. It’s also important that researchers know about it (smiles). For example, at top universities, the general rule is that a transfer office must be located on campus, because researchers simply do not travel elsewhere. Rather than to bother with the hassle, they’d rather just publish an article.

How many people do you have in the transfer department?

There are eight of us. One colleague deals with patents, and another is learning in that area and takes care of the administration. In addition to organic chemistry, another also studied law, so she deals with legal issues. The rest of the department is made up of project managers who work with researchers on refining their ideas and taking care to bring things to the commercial sector. I repeat, though, that we’re not in a completely standard situation thanks to the power of IOCB. You have to pay for both quality and quantity, there are not many of us, and most of us have a double degrees and great experience (for example, as head of research at Zentiva). On the other hand, all universities have relatively decent funds in reserve, or, at least, they do not decrease from year to year. I think that finding funding for creating a professional technology transfer office is not such a big problem.

A significant part of current IOCB research is in medicinal chemistry. How difficult is it to recognize that a new substance has both therapeutic and commercial potential?

It’s an extremely complex process, for which we often hire experts from abroad. In addition to verifying that a mechanism will work, that it won’t be extremely expensive, and that it can pass rigorous testing, you need to determine if the health insurance companies will even pay for the new drug. Because if not, there is no point in developing it. When making decisions, you also look far into the future; our development chain lasts 15 years. Was the problem you want to treat already solved? That’s why we also try to establish relationships with big players so that we can ask them if they would be interested in a certain solution in the future. If they say no, another solution has already been developed, saving us time and money. And conversely.

A central technology transfer office for various institutions has been established in Germany. Shouldn’t Czechia be inspired by this?

I know that something similar is being created there, but I don’t know the exact definition of its operations, so it’s hard to comment on it. In any case, it certainly does not make sense to create one central office for all universities and research institutions based in Prague to which researchers from Brno must travel. That’s just stupid. I can imagine that some central institution would be created that could expertly help existing departments at the universities. But the problem of applied research in our country lies somewhere else entirely: in an unfinished reform that was supposed to centralize the support of applied research in one institution. The Technological Agency of the Czech Republic was founded, but many ministries (such as the Ministries of Culture, Agriculture, Health, Industry and Trade) remained, and they continue to invest in applied research. It would help if there were to be a single institution that would professionally distribute funds and help the development of applied research in Czechia. It could also offer expert support for technology transfer and above all, provide a body of professional project assessors, such as they have in Finland, for example.

In an interview for the vedavyzkum.cz website, you identified an enormous level of bureaucracy as a fundamental problem of effective technology transfer. How should the system really work to serve its purpose, that is, the application of scientific knowledge to the benefit of society?

First of all, the laws would need to be amended. Many of the currently-valid ones were created in the 1990s, a really stormy time during which a lot of bad things happened. And since we’re talking here about the handling taxpayer money, of course, a number of laws were created in such a way as to essentially protect public funds against abuse as much as possible. I understand that, but on the other hand, 30 years have passed and society has changed a lot, but the laws have not changed. On top of that, we have to observe European legislation that we’ve managed to make even more complex. There’s still no legal framework for technology transfer which clearly states what an institution should or shouldn’t do to stay on the safe side. We live in a world of permanent presumption of guilt. In a nutshell: you’re guilty until proven innocent.

Your director position includes negotiation and business skills. Where did you hone your skills? And how did your transformation from a scientist to a businessperson/manager take place?

I gained my negotiation skills mainly through practice in sales positions. When I started at Sigma-Aldrich, the very first day I had to set up a booth at the Pragomedica exhibition and staff it together with colleagues from Germany: sink or swim. But I learned one thing: it’s always good to understand what the other side is thinking and where one can be of help. And to build upon that. But it doesn’t always work out…

CrossCampus was your brainchild. Why did you launch the popular relay race, which is a lot of work, a few years ago?

I think an area where Czech research can do better to excel is multidisciplinarity. In other words, connecting disciplines. I also enjoy networking in general. Well, as I walked around the campus, I suddenly realized that the interactions between IOCB, CTU, and UCT Prague could be improved. At that time, I used to run a lot (no longer the case due to health problems), and I suddenly had the idea of a relay race around NTK that could connect people and encourage cooperation. I went around to the Rectors and NTK’s director and talked them into supporting my idea. And it was actually the beginning a bigger idea: creating Campus Dejvice.

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Talking to Michal Kolář is a pleasure for every interviewer. A graduate of Charles University’s Faculty of Science, with many years of experience in the German scientific context (including a stint at the renowned Max Planck Institute), Kolář gets straight to the point. He’s not afraid to bring up uncomfortable topics. He can explain complex matters from the world of physical chemistry using interesting analogies. At the same time, after sitting down with him for a few minutes, you realize he has the gift of infecting you right away with his thirst for knowledge and understanding the world around him.

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This year, you started working on a project, Towards an atomic understanding of the first moments of a protein’s life, supported by the Czech Science Foundation (CSF). The catchy title caught my attention and is actually the reason why we chose you for the interview, though several other researchers from UCT Prague also received CSF funding.

When I talk about science, I make an effort and enjoy interpreting my findings in the form of stories. Our project is about researching ribosomes, something I’ve been working on for seven years. I like to personify them and often compare the functioning of ribosomes to human childbirth during lectures. Because it’s easier to imagine something as intrinsically human as childbirth than it is to conceptualize the Lennard-Jones potential, which describes the interactions between atoms. A few weeks ago, Professor Pavel Jungwirth received a grant from the European Research Council (ERC). He is going to study, in detail, the interactions between atoms and ions, and in all interviews, he uses the analogy of a beating human heart. He sees a connection between our heartbeats and some microscopic parameter for calcium ion. That’s great, isn’t it?

If a grant proposal has a catchy title and is written in an accessible way, do you think it has a better chance of getting funded?

From a personal point of view, it would be great if this were the case. But I haven’t written enough proposals to be able to answer this question based on statistics. Quantitative research has shown that the appearance of the first page of a proposal is important to reviewers in the grant application review process. So, in this case, I made the title and the opening page stand out. That said, another successful CSF proposal in which I was a co-investigator was just the opposite. In terms of graphics, it was so ugly that I wouldn’t want to evaluate it. But the proposal was funded (laughs – editor’s note).

Please elaborate on what you expect to encounter as you are proceeding with this project, in terms of understanding the birth of proteins.

Almost every protein in the world has formed some kind of ribosome. A ribosome is a 25 nm complex with about 50 molecules that catalyses a chemical reaction. Protein synthesis takes place by combining protein building blocks, amino acids. An unbranched chain is formed, which typically has around 300 amino acid residues. For the protein, getting out of the ribosome takes quite a long time, on the order of seconds. The protein therefore spends a non-negligible part of its life bound to a ribosome, like a child connected to its mother by the umbilical cord, to use the childbirth analogy. No one knows exactly what happens to the protein at this stage; it’s uncharted territory.

Why don’t we know anything about this process yet?

Current techniques, such as electron cryogenic microscopy or nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, do not “see” the initial phase of protein birth. Accordingly, we only have structural experiments available for about ten different nascent proteins, which are very specific. We know almost nothing about the rest. I study nature using computer models, machine learning, and structural analysis, thanks to which we can “see” what an experiment cannot.

What is the basis for modelling something that cannot be seen?

We know what amino acids look like, how they join in a chain, and how the chain grows. We also know the physical laws of the microuniverse. We enter the information into a computer and use it to predict what’s happening inside a ribosome, for example, in a part that’s called the exit tunnel. There are some special constricted places that the protein has to pass through. We do not know how it moves through the constriction region, what force makes it to do so. We also not know why constriction exists in ribosomes at all. What purpose could it have, since evolution has not removed it in over hundreds of millions of years? There are biochemical experiments showing that without narrowing, ribosomes function poorly, making non-functional proteins or not making them at all. It is also interesting that a large class of antibiotics binds precisely to the constriction region, which adds overlap to the applied setting complementing our basic research activities.

I assume that modelling events at the atomic level would be very demanding in terms of computational power. Do you use computing supercentres, or do you make do with UCT Prague’s infrastructure?

We have been able to employ the largest machines in the world for quite some time now. When we do a molecular dynamics simulation of a ribosome and count about 2.5 million atoms and their interactions, we consume supercomputer computing time in the order of weeks. We use the computing centre in Ostrava and compete for time elsewhere. Just as an example, when I returned from Germany from the Max Planck Institute in 2018, I had 40 million core hours of computing time allocated for my project in Stuttgart. At that time, in the Czech Republic, the Ostrava supercomputer centre had just announced a competition with the capacity of 70 million core hours for the entire republic.

Is limited computing time limiting to you in your research?

I am more limited in my “real-world” time, because I also have to teach, have a family, and also commute quite far to UCT Prague. If I suddenly had access to a large computing resource, I would be under more pressure to use it. Calculations need to be well planned and phased.

You mentioned that the outputs of your project may have overlap to applied settings, to antibiotics development. Is potential use in medicine (and thus helping people) a motivating factor for you in being a scientist? Or do you just enjoy exploring the unknown, and when a discovery comes with real-world impact, it’s a nice bonus?

B is correct: I'm really interested in how things work and why they do what they do. I look at the world realistically and do not set unnecessarily large goals. I am not lying to anyone, not even to myself, that I will invent a new pharmaceutical. I don’t know, of course, if twenty years from now I might be disappointed by the fact that I spent my whole life tinkering with theoretical concepts and that you can’t buy anything I developed in a pharmacy. However, I do not share the current obsession funding agencies have, requiring basic research to be related to a social problem. After all, a lot of revolutionary and useful things have come about thanks to people digging into something that, at first glance, seemed useless.

I find your approach to basic research perfectly legitimate.

It is legitimate when we have fun together. But I can’t simply write to a funding agency that I’m interested in why there are suddenly five positively charged amino acids here in the ribosome and why evolution didn’t throw them away. That I don’t care whether an antibiotic is currently being attached to the site. But the funding agencies, in principle, require possible real-world applications. So I’m just going to tell them what they want to hear, because undoubtedly, there’s always some link to an antibiotic. But in the drug research field, an idea is often so far from implementation that it’s pointless to declare it.

At UCT Prague, you lead the Laboratory of Biomolecular Dynamics. How difficult was it to start this group?

Our group has been operating for six years now and the beginnings were hard for me. I had nothing to do with this university before coming here from Germany, and I think that UCT Prague is not very good at integrating scientists who did their training elsewhere. I see inbreeding being cultivated at every turn. To this day, I sometimes feel like a dissident who clearly has a different opinion than the people who studied at UCT Prague and straight away continued their academic careers here.

What did you struggle with the most?

I don’t list my daily frustrations (laughs). It has been time-consuming for me to find the necessary forms. I didn’t know how grant applications work at UCT Prague, who was in charge of which agenda, or how teaching works here. I often didn’t even know who to ask, and when I did ask, I usually didn’t get an answer. A lot of information is spread through grapevines among colleagues who spent their entire careers here and know how things work.

But enough criticizing: I was given space for absolute independence, and no one has told me what research topic to pursue and how, which has been fantastic. And some things are changing for the better. For example, getting the Project Centre going is a great step forward.

If you were to compare your time here with life at the Max Planck Institute, what do you miss the most?

Probably a way of thinking about science that I don’t see here. Here, we talk a lot about grants, administrative duties, and citations. But to talk to someone about ribosomes and proteins first and only later discuss about administrative tasks? I don’t experience that here, unlike in Germany.

Are you missing anything else?

Although I have been working at UCT Prague for over six years, I do not have any intensive cooperation with anyone else at the university. I’m certainly partly to blame for this; I don’t tend to actively reach out and try to convince others about things we might do. In Germany, we always had events where we could meet each other and solve purely scientific matters. For example, internal seminars, conferences, and thematic lectures, which many people attended. People were active, curious, and interested in learning how their colleagues could help them. A few days ago I was at a lecture on machine learning organized by the UNICORN association, and there were maybe ten, fifteen of us there.

Why do you think it’s like this?

The fact that the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry AS CR (IOCB) is nearby might play a role, because a lot of high-quality/ambitious people do their doctorates there or work there. Many UCT Prague colleagues are strictly technologically oriented thus they do not crave scientific knowledge. I need people who enjoy learning about the workings of nature and are not scared of words such as derivation, optimization, or programming. In my opinion, UCT Prague does not target the best students in the given age cohort. When I teach sophomores, I ask them, for example, who will go to Stanford after they graduate? And they stare at me with surprise, wondering if I lost my marbles. Almost no one starts with an ambition to do a PhD at a top-ranked university. Then I tell them: you could all go to Stanford or MIT; people there usually don’t have better brains than you, they’re just dedicated to their interests and consider it normal—even in their free time!—to talk about science, learning, solving tasks together, and preparing for a scientific career.

Is there something in which, on the other hand, UCT Prague excels compared to institutions where you worked previously?

I really like the social activities organized by the university on the Dejvice campus. CrossCampus, Hanami, Campusfest. I also find the relationships between younger and older students that is visible, for example, with tutoring activities, to be great.

How do you feel about the possibility of going abroad again in the future?

Right now, the Czech Republic is the place where I want to live permanently, but I’ve not yet closed the door to future international chapters. If the opportunity presented itself and, above all, provided favourable conditions for my family, I would like to do more work outside the country. Let’s say, as part of a sabbatical, for example. I have a few places in mind where I’d love to collaborate with specific scientists for a longer period of time. But I also have three daughters and a wife, and each of them has interests and responsibilities here in the Czech Republic…it would not be easy to coordinate.

Do you have a scientific dream?

You just touched upon my soft spot. All great scientists say that you have to have big dreams and goals. I don’t have them. I’m a little sorry about this but it’s probably connected to my aforementioned realist outlook on life and my tendency to avoid disappointment. So I’m just gradually working my way through the laws of nature.

You are one of the few active Czech scientists on Twitter (@mhkoscience). What motivates you?

I was originally looking for doctoral candidates there. Now it’s a kind of hobby. In any case, science is a community affair, and if a person wants to be successful, he or she must be part of a scientific community. It rarely happens that a lone scientist suddenly comes up with a discovery that takes the whole world’s breath away. Rather, it is about small discoveries that the community gradually adopts and continues to refine. Without marketing, no one will know you’re around these days, so I’m tweeting.

You use a combination of bike and train to get to work from the countryside near Kolin.

I don’t like to drive, and traveling by train, in particular, is a special to me. It’s a time when I can think and feel good. I really enjoy train travel, even though I hardly travelled by train as a child. During my studies, I travelled along the Trans-Siberian Highway and in southern India. On the Beijing-Almaty-Moscow-Košice route, I returned to the Czech Republic by train after my friends and I decided to visit northern China and track Siberian tigers.

Did you succeed?

Fortunately, no. Plans are one thing, but when a person enters the forest and realizes that a 300-kilogram tiger might be waiting for them, it’s just not good (laughs).

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An interview with prof. Pavel Matějka, rector of UCT Prague.

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The Academic Senate and Board of Trustees have given the green light to the 2023 budget. Was it difficult to prepare and to get it approved?

Preparing the 2023 budget was complicated by inflation and tricky predictions about budgetary amounts. We started putting the budget together last fall, and discussion regarding its particular components was very intense, especially with the Academic Senate’s Economy Committee and the Deans of the faculties. Based on these discussions, we made a number of modifications, and so the conclusion of an agreement with the Deans and approval of the budget by the Academic Senate at the end of May went quite smoothly.

Have any fundamental planned expenditures been excluded from the budget?

No, but we generally have been very careful in investing in university-wide activities and in creating the operating funds budget for workplaces across the university. For 2023, we tried to improve salary conditions for employees as well as scholarships for doctoral students, thus compensating for inflation as much as we could. The share of personnel-related expenditures in the budget has increased over the years. We managed to increase base salaries for employees by 2,300 CZK/person in order to sufficiently assist employees in the lowest salary levels (as opposed to a general percentage-based increase). At the same time, we kept the adjustable components of salaries at the existing level. The stipend for doctoral candidates increased by 1,400 CZK (net amount).

So funds for the increase in personnel expenses came from the investment and operations budgets?

Yes, but we were sensitive about savings and did not cut standard investments for essential equipment/labs or allocations for computing and information-related services .

Did the government help universities cover the cost of inflation by increasing funding?

No. Institutional funding does not cover the cost of inflation and research grants typically do not account for inflation. In other words, we had to deal with inflation ourselves. Saving on energy, optimizing work processes, and concluding several successful transformational contract negotiations with academic publishers helped. Aside from activities related directly to teaching and research, only necessary expenditures were approved in the budget.

The Czech government is preparing austerity measures which, despite the government’s official Policy Statement, might affect the educational and R&D sectors. The government is, among the other cuts, discussing reducing of the compensation rates for public sector employees. If the proposal were to pass in its current form, would this mean that UCT Prague salaries would be reduced?

Basically no: at UCT Prague, we have salaries, not state-regulated compensation rates. If, of course, the Ministry of Education must cut expenses drastically, the Ministry would logically try to cut non-mandatory expenses, which unfortunately includes contributions to the educational activities of public universities. If this happens, we will have a big problem. Likewise, if Czech Science Foundation and Technology Agency of the Czech Republic funding were to be significantly reduced, it would be problematic. We are already keeping operating costs to a minimum and we are also prudent in our investments. I can’t imagine that with current levels of inflation that we would need to cut employee salaries. I would try to find any other means to cover any potential budgetary shortfalls, including a reduction of the total number of positions. However, I would like to emphasize that we are talking about a hypothetical, extreme situation, which is not currently on the horizon.

Isn’t UCT Prague currently facing a reduction in staff?

I do not have May-June data at my disposal, but can say that in 2022, nothing extraordinary happened; changes in the total number of employees fluctuated around the usual 1-2%.

In addition to inflation, energy prices were a hot topic last year.

Last year, we competed for energy supply contracts under very favourable conditions, even compared to other universities. This year, market prices are lower than in the second half of last year, but this does not mean that it’s time to stop prudent operations and to abandon the quest to find ways to reduce energy consumption.

Are there any exceptional investments awaiting us in the second half of 2023?

Investments in laboratory equipment related to UCT Prague’s involvement in the National Institute of Virology and Bacteriology and in biochemical laboratories for students, which we urgently need, are extraordinary, but not exceptional. We are also preparing steps for further construction activities.

How would you characterize UCT Prague’s financial outlook in the medium term?

UCT Prague is financially stable, over the long term. We traditionally plan the budget with rational caution, and for things that are difficult to estimate, we prefer to plan for the worst in terms of expenditures and income. During the year, we carefully monitor budgetary spending and we react flexibly as the year unfolds. However, we would significantly feel cuts from the Ministry and/or national grant agencies. Together with the other Rectors and the Council of Universities, we will do everything to ensure that higher education funding does not nominally decrease. It is obvious that the Office of the Minister of Science, Research, and Innovation (including its proposals to increase R&D funding) has a different option than the Ministry of Finance. Let’s hope that the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports will advocate for public universities. If even a modest increase in research or education funding could be negotiated, it would be an extraordinary success.

In June, UCT Prague’s positive social environment initiative was launched, bringing with it the possibility of consultation and notification services for situations that appear to run against the ethical principles of our university. Were recent cases at other universities the reason why these services were launched?

After our Ethics Committee was created a few years ago (together with the upgrade of the Code of Ethics), we felt that, following discussions with students, employees, and the Counselling and Career Centre, another step was needed to ensure and keep fostering a positive social environment at UCT Prague. The process took longer than I would have liked, but on the other hand, we wanted to be sure that the system would work properly, that it was safe for everyone involved, and that it would allow issues to be handled efficiently and discreetly. Cases at other universities therefore rather sounded the alarm that we could not delay the launch of our initiative any longer. There are many reasons that could lead to inappropriate behaviour at universities. I am glad that we have made it clear that UCT Prague does not intend to tolerate actions with the potential of disrupting UCT Prague’s friendly (something that is rare, in my opinion) work/study environment and academic community activities. I am convinced that the new system will also have a significant preventive effect.

Experiences from around the world and from various sectors show that such a system must above all be safe and trustworthy. Can you guarantee that this will be the case here at UCT Prague?

Of course, nothing in the world is 100% certain, and as a scientist, I object to such simplification. However, I will state with a clear conscience that independent experts participated in the preparations for the initiative, and that its launch was mainly delayed in order to ensure flawless functionality while maximizing safety and protection measures for whistleblowers. For me personally, UCT Prague’s contact person, Klára Muzikářová, with her outstanding career profile and professional competence, is also reassuring.

Five architectural proposals for the development of Vítězné náměstí were recently published. Do you have a favourite?

I like some proposals more, others less, but the international jury will decide. We are represented by Vice Rector Milan Pospíšil as UCT Prague’s institutional jury member, with his substitute being architect Petr Šichtance. What a design looks like in a picture is one thing, but what is important is a detailed and functional solution so that we can build and efficiently operate the building according to our own vision. In theory, we could look for other proposals, but that would be stepping on very thin ice, with a series of negotiations involving all parties and incurring considerable financial costs to us. I believe, though, that there will be consensus on the jury’s recommendation and that we will build the complex in accordance with the public, the Prague 6 City District , and the private investor that will meet our needs.

If you had to make a rational guess: when will the new UCT Prague building be built?

The mayor of Prague 6 mentioned that he estimates that implementation will take up to 10 years. I am more of an optimist and hope for approval in 2028.

The 22/23 academic year will end soon. What was it like, from your perspective as Rector?

In my term as Rector, this was finally the first complete year without COVID measures, which had a positive impact on the process of education and a renewal in UCT Prague community life. I think that the financial savings that we implemented did not impact the quality of education, which is not entirely self-evident. We faced, and actually still face, a very difficult external situation, which has brought me and a number of my closest collaborators quite a few sleepless nights.

I am convinced that despite partial hiccups, the benefits of renovating the building which housed the former Dean’s and Rector’s offices have been shown. With the renovated spaces, conditions for the scientific councils of the faculties, for the defense of dissertations, and so forth, have improved significantly. Further improvement were made for individual departments of faculties, which improved their research and educational environments. I also consider the general evaluation of study programmes at all levels (Bachelor to doctoral) to have been beneficial. Not that everything was positive, but we didn’t run into any major obstacles and we found out what needs to be improved.

Anything you with to mention about the next academic year?

The Faculty of Environmental Technology is celebrating its 70th birthday, so there will be an opportunity to reflect on the faculty’s teaching and research activities. From my point of view, these are topics that are absolutely essential for the future of us all. Furthermore, the important Programme Johannes Amos Comenius (OP-JAC) proposal results will be announced, and new calls for proposals can be expected. We will see how the senseless proposal for 50% co-participation by Prague universities in OP-JAC turns out, because if this outrageousness passes, we can forget about involvement in operational programs. Of course, we are also waiting for the final form of the government’s austerity measures, and we will try to influence the government’s priorities and act objectively, but strongly, together within the framework of the Czech Conference of Rectors and the Council of Universities.

But I do not want to burden UCT Prague’s academic community with that now. I would like to wish all students and staff enjoyable summer holidays and hope that everyone takes a break from their worries to recharge their batteries. I hope that in a few weeks we will all return in good health and with a positive attitude in our common endeavour to take our university one step further in embracing the spirit of European values related to university autonomy and social responsibility.

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As the summer semester begins, UCT Prague’s Rector Pavel Matějka talks about the university’s finances, its primary goals for 2023, and the current status of the development of the university’s infrastructure, buildings, and equipment. He explains the necessity for limiting the number of economics and management students, and also reflects on artificial intelligence and its potential impact on teaching and learning. He concludes by discussing if he would like to continue as Rector for another term as the next election approaches.

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As we start 2023, how are UCT Prague’s finances?

Just like last year, we achieved a positive economic result. Thanks to savings from previous years, transfers of money to objects with higher interest rates (including funds obtained from the sale of Vítězné náměstí land) and last year’s vigorous efforts to save, we have savings that we can transfer from one year to another and these funds can be used, among other things, to balance the 2023 draft budget. This year will bring significantly more expensive not only due to energy prices, but mainly as a result of double-digit inflation, which will affect all operating expenses. One must also consider the necessary measures associated with fire and safety requirements for the operation and storage of pressure cylinders and expenses related to the Prague master urban plan, in preparation for forthcoming construction activities on Vítězné náměstí. As for the regular operating budget, we will continue to be very frugal in terms of expenditure planning this year. If there is an unexpected stabilization of the economic situation as the year progresses, such as a visible drop in inflation, we can start talking about whether to support some temporarily subdued development activities financially.

Do you know how our university compares to others?

In general, we operate quite decently, which means that (even if it doesn’t seem like it to some) we sensibly heat in offices and lecture halls and we haven’t introduced online teaching or announced forced work from home because of energy prices. And that’s because we stepped on the budget brake in time.

What are UCT Prague’s main goals for 2023?

In general, they will be based on the goals described in the university’s strategic plan, in its specifications for 2023, in the recommendations of the International Evaluation Panel (IEP), and also in the HR Award action plan. Specifically, for example, we want to improve the conditions and environment for doctoral candidates and early career researchers. We are reforming the concept of the Dagmar Procházková Fund so that faculty participation is not necessarily tied to salaries, and that projects can run over three year years instead of two. We are putting together new European project proposals for increased internationalization and the development of university-wide positions. We want to at least maintain the number of students in the chemistry and food technology programmes. Furthermore, we will try to optimize teaching, taking into account an adequate number of students in a subject, so as not to waste the instructors’ time. In June, the results of the architectural competition for Vítězné náměstí will be announced, which will mean that intensive preparatory work lies ahead of us. We are awaiting a modification to the Czech national scientific performance evaluation model, which should better reflect international trends and be based more on the overall impact of creative work than on bibliometric indicators. I would also like to devote myself to the development of cooperation with industrial partners, which is a natural direction for our universities, but something that the ministries are placing emphasis upon. We will also focus on the topics of Open Access publishing and, more generally, our Open Science strategy.

This academic year, the number of first-year students has increased significantly, with the largest increase recorded in the Economics and Management study programme at the School of Business. Are university leaders planning to transform this school into a new faculty?

We do not want to establish a new faculty right now. I do not rule out organizational changes in the future; everything will depend heavily on what the trend will be in terms of the number of applicants, how the newly accredited master’s teaching programme will fare, and whether it will be possible to further develop the area of training future (secondary school) teachers with significant involvement with another university-wide department, the Department of Education and Human Sciences. Many students applied for and enrolled in the School of Business last year, but this can also mean a problem with the excessive drop in the coefficient of the cost for studies in a particular field, which affects the average amount of the funding per student from the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports. We are currently setting clear limits on how many students we will accept, especially for the Czech language Economics and Management programme, so that this does not have a negative financial impact overall. However, this does not change the fact that at UCT Prague, the study of economics is based on mathematics, statistics, and exact predictions, taught by engineering-minded economists with a focus on technology. At the same time, we want to provide adequate breathing room for international students studying in English and paying full tuition, because they bring new perspectives to study groups and also provide economic benefits to the university. For chemistry programmes, I am pleased with the Erasmus Mundus programs in English, which I hope will continue to develop and spur further progress in courses taught in English.

Earlier in the interview, you mentioned the architectural competition for the forthcoming re-envisioning of Vítězné náměstí, which will also include a new UCT Prague building. What will the announcement of the winner of the competition mean for the university?

The results of the competition will mark the start of intensive work, especially in terms of documentation, various permits and, of course, modifications to construction plans. Construction will actually start, if everything goes without a hitch, in 2026 at the earliest. Until then, nothing that will significantly limit activities will happen on the square itself. The existing parking lot for employees and students will continue to function in the coming years.

How do you assess the extraordinary success of our early career researchers in the very prestigious and highly competitive (5% success rate) JUNIOR STAR grant competition, in which four scientists from UCT Prague succeeded in receiving funding?

In one case, we can directly see the effect of the Dagmar Procházková Fund, thanks to which Dr. Perlíková was supported in starting a research group, and now this great additional project received funding. Last year, Dr. Kovaříček was similarly successful in the previous JUNIOR STAR competition. I sincerely congratulate all the successful grantees and am extremely pleased with their success. At the same time, I would like to mention that, in addition to the talent and hard work of those concerned, the key foundation of that success is fostered within the faculties. I am talking about the working atmosphere and the support of mentors for researchers starting their careers—including the creation of conditions for independent growth.

Today’s hot topic is artificial intelligence (AI), which has become a great aid to many in searching, formulating texts for written work (including theses), and for scans of theoretical contexts. How prepared is UCT Prague for AI? Will educators work with it?

The number of non-original theses at UCT Prague is absolutely marginal, and we definitely do not intend to change this. The essence of a thesis will always be an individual’s original contribution and the creative impulse targeted at creating new things, whether in the laboratory, on the computer, or in the field. We have not and will not go towards encouraging mere compilations of existing knowledge. Using AI for searching and critical evaluation are certainly fine, and I don’t see a problem with students using adequate AI tools to help them—provided, however, that students are able to defend their results independently. And that they are fully aware of the pitfalls and limitations that come with AI regarding false/unverified information, sources, and a perhaps somewhat mysterious path to a result. I also consider it important that the use of AI is acknowledged as part of a transparent description of the methodology and technology used in a work. As far as university operations are concerned, AI has great potential in automating administrative activities and making the lives of many people easier, people who will then be able to devote themselves to other, perhaps even more meaningful activities at the university. We certainly intend to monitor and harness the potential of AI.

In January, you entered the final year of your first term as Rector. When you look back, how has reality differed from the expectations you had when you started your term?

Many plans have been implemented more slowly than I would like, but in some cases, this was due to external circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic. However, I did not abandon my original vision, and I can say that we have achieved a lot during these three years. We received the HR Award, albeit after revision. We put together a meaningful strategic plan, the goals of which are being met. We passed the evaluation of the International Evaluation Panel with honours. We have put together a new International Advisory Board that is willing to actively help us in strategic decision making, but also in development activities, to a certain extent. Despite initial concerns, we stopped using print study transcripts without protest or difficulty. We’ve emphasized the development of modern forms of education and we managed to organize pedagogical conferences. We have a nationally-awarded Counselling and Career Centre. I consider the establishment and operation of the Project Centre to be a success, even though I know that not everyone at UCT Prague perceives this step in a positive light. However, let’s look at the extraordinary number of project proposals submitted for various national and international calls in 2022 and the first few months of 2023. I am convinced that, thanks to the Project Centre, we have received new funding for 15 international post-docs working with six mentors in three faculties, which is the same number as all of Masaryk University for the same calls. Of the 18 Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA ERA) postdoctoral fellows coming to the Czech Republic, those coming to do their research at UCT Prague represent a full sixth.

We have made progress in our approach to international employees and have established a new Welcome Office. We are continuously working to improve the conditions for doctoral candidates, who are perhaps already noticing the partial results of our efforts. We have been inspired abroad and have become members of the EU Council for Doctoral Education (EUA-CDE) and Professionals in Doctoral Education (PRIDE) networks. We managed to establish the School of Business, even although there are many tasks ahead of us in this regard. We have a new building in Jankovcova Street, where, in addition to the economists, is home to the new Department of Sustainability and Product Ecology, which is an important part of the future of the university with a broad network of national and international contacts. If it was not for the new building, this faculty would not have been established and, at the same time, a number of workplaces in the main buildings on the Dejvice Campus were freed for other departments by relocation of the staff of the new faculty to Jankovcova Street.

I think we operated very well during COVID and in relation to the challenging 2022 environment; we helped continue our educational activities on a large scale and radically changed our educational models and ways of working creatively. I am pleased that it was possible to complete the extraordinary reconstruction of Building B, where the Dean’s office staff and most of the Rector’s staff are located. We have excellent new laboratories, including a medicinal chemistry laboratory and a virology department. We made progress in the electronic circulation of documents thanks to OKBase, which happened because of the tremendous efforts of a considerable number of people in the Personnel Department. Thanks to Dr. Jirát, his colleagues, and our collaboration with NTK, we have taken a huge step forward in the field of Open Access, and we are preparing a broader Open Science strategy.

Is there something that makes you feel that you didn’t succeed?

I am very sorry to see the departure of several key people from the Centre for Information Services; however, we are gradually moving to other information systems. I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the transition to the multi-faculty version of the SIS Educational Information System. We will have a new “e-doctorand” module as well as a newly launched way of managing accreditation documents. Our situation has significantly improved in terms of solving the issue of occupational safety and fire protection, both in terms of educational content and its communication. However, it is clear that we still have a long way to go in this area. I am glad that we still maintain a friendly academic community atmosphere, in which extraordinary students, scholars, and staff continue to blossom. Thus, we still have great candidates nominated for external and internal awards, such as the Emil Votoček Medal, the Julia Hamáčková Award, and the Rector's Award.

Rector elections will take place at the end of the year. Are you interested in another term, if you are nominated?

The tasks described in the university’s 2021 strategic plan, as well as those in the HR Award action plan, extend beyond the horizon of my first term, so I would be eager to complete them. I believe that I still have a lot to give to the university in the future in terms of productive collaborations with other universities and respected institutions at the national and international level. This is because I’ve always been one who connects rather than one who competes with others. If there is interest, I would also like to be involved in deepening the internationalization of the university, its cooperation with industrial partners, and the development of the university in new areas of green chemistry, sustainability, and the like.

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Ctirad Červinka (MSc., PhD) from UCT Prague’s Department of Physical Chemistry, received a five-year Czech Science Foundation JUNIOR STAR grant for his project entitled Making ab initio modelling possible for disordered molecular semi-conductive materials. In this interview, he explains project goals and the broader context of his research.

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Where did your journey to chemistry begin?

The beginning can clearly be traced to the summer training camps in Běstvina, which I repeatedly participated in as a high school student. My mentors’ (now-Professor Slavíček and Dr. Holzhauser) enthusiasm at the time and the unforgettable atmosphere of the chemistry camp inspired me to continue my education in chemistry at the university level at UCT Prague, where I gained a broad overview of the various chemical disciplines. Because I was interested in the interactions between molecules and their connections with the macroscopic behaviour of matter, I chose physical and computational chemistry as I progressed. I soon started working in Professor Fulem’s group, where I was introduced to the realm of thermodynamics, the phase behaviour of materials, and the world of basic research in general. He involved me in his grant projects, but he concurrently gave me great freedom of study and the right conditions for learning to model the thermodynamic properties of different forms of matter. Over time, I was especially drawn to the field of molecular crystal cohesion modelling, which also became the topic of my UCT Prague doctoral studies.

You also studied abroad. Did it somehow influence the trajectory of your professional activities?

During my doctoral studies, I conducted internships in Aachen and Clermont-Ferrand, where I had the opportunity to see how the academic community works at traditional Western universities. The positive attitude and willingness of my foreign supervisors to share their great know-how in the fields of theoretical chemistry and molecular simulations encouraged my thoughts regarding an academic career. Immediately after defending my PhD, I decided to return to Clermont-Ferrand for a postdoctoral research stay, where Professor Costa Gomes and Professor Pádua put a lot of trust in me and offered me the opportunity to work on their breakthrough project on modelling porous ionic liquids. I think I did not disappoint them, and I gained the courage to go on an even bigger adventure in life. The Fulbright Commission enabled me to spend almost a whole wonderful year in Riverside, California, where I collaborated with Professor Beran, one of the world’s greatest experts in the quantum-chemical modelling of the electronic structure and spectroscopic properties of molecular crystals. Fond memories of my prior studies and strong ties to home then brought me back to UCT Prague as assistant professor at the Department of Physical Chemistry, years ago already.

And how does the story go on upon returning home?

I started dealing intensively with the development of computational methodology for the ab initio prediction of polymorphism, i.e. the existence of different crystal forms of active pharmaceutical materials and crystal sublimation of ionic liquids. I managed to get my first grant funding for these research topics and also gradually attracted several students interested in computational chemistry to working with me. Because of this, I have the feeling that my work has meaning and that it is also interesting to someone other than just me.

What does the Czech Science Foundation’s JUNIOR STAR grant mean for your project?

In the Czech environment, one cannot rely only on institutional funding if one wants to build a research group with significance beyond our borders. This applies both in terms of financing the operation and investments necessary for conducting research as to personnel costs. The current basic salaries at our university are astronomically far from being competitive even on the Czech labour market. If you are dedicated, you can still cope with this yourself. However, if we want to even have any chance at recruiting young qualified and motivated researchers before they disappear abroad or to the private sector, we have to secure longer-term funding for them with grant projects.

Success in such kinds of competitions brings financial stability to a research group and, for a certain period of time, also brings relief from constant grant proposal writing. Logically, my first choice was to apply for very competitive and prestigious ERC grants. Unfortunately, almost a year’s work in this direction did not bring an immediate reward. However, I now see that this process, including the stages of initial enthusiasm, subsequent disappointment, learning, and reworking of the original proposal, were the key to success in this competition for a Czech JUNIOR STAR grant.

An environment in which a young aspiring scientist in the role of breadwinner has to stress out every year or two regarding grant competition success—where the purely statistical chance of success is often less than 15%—is not very inspiring and it does not encourage creative ideas leading to breakthrough discoveries. In this context, I greatly appreciate our success in the JUNIOR STAR competition and take it personally as a great responsibility towards the Czech Science Foundation, my entire team, and the ordinary taxpayer.

What would be benefits of the development of ab initio simulation methods?

In the title of the project, I pointed out the development of ab initio simulation methods for the description of amorphous phases of molecular materials, i.e. liquids or glasses. Existing computational simulation methods are, in principle, applicable to simulations of crystals, liquids, and gases. But if we want to go down the path of pure prediction of the macroscopic properties of materials, in my eyes, we should only rely on quantum-chemical postulates and minimize the amount of empirical information entering our models. Modern computer technologies allow us to study gaseous and crystalline states from the point of view of quantum chemistry very efficiently due to the practical absence of molecular interactions or due to a well-defined regular structure. On amorphous phases, quantum chemistry is more or less breaking its teeth, because it is not entirely easy or cheap to create a sufficiently large molecular chaos from first principles, to bring dynamics into this chaos, and moreover to maintain it long enough for us to learn something about such a system.

Why is this important?

If we want to simulate the properties of amorphous systems, or even just crystals of large molecules, we often have to renounce quantum-chemical tools and settle for semi-empirical approaches or models based on classical physics. This dramatically reduces the computational complexity of our simulations but at the same time deprives us of the very valuable attributes of the quantum approach. By this I mean the practically unlimited transferability of computational methods to different materials and the immense predictive power of calculations that are practically independent of empirical inputs. In the realm of classical molecular simulations, we always start from an empirical model of a force field that someone (or ourselves) has to create for us. Since we try to use a limited number of parameters describing our system, we usually run the risk of losing detailed insight into individual interaction sites on the surface of molecules in classical simulations. All these facts were at the root of my thinking about putting together a proposal that would target the development of computationally feasible quantum-chemical molecular simulations for amorphous molecular materials such as liquids, glasses, but also their crystalline counterparts and their mutual transformations.

Where, for example, could the new methodology be used?

The project should result in an efficient computational methodology that combines advanced methods of quantum chemistry for describing molecular interactions, random processes in the form of Monte Carlo simulations, and fragmentation of a large set of randomly-distributed molecules into smaller molecular clusters. While ab initio methods ensure sufficient accuracy together with the wide applicability of such simulations, the decomposition of a complex problem into a set of simpler ones will make it possible to fully benefit from a modern, highly parallel computing architecture.

In the development of new formulations for pharmaceutic ingredients, great efforts are being invested in increasing the water solubility of very non-polar molecules typical for many drugs. Amorphous solid phases always dissolve better than their crystalline alternatives due to thermodynamic rules. A second example, emphasized even more in the grant proposal, is the need to study the amorphous phases of many organic molecules acting as semiconductors due to the limited ability of such large molecules to crystallize. Electronic components often use thin films made of these active substances, which can be arranged at most into some transitional semi-crystalline or purely amorphous structures. Such applications, I think, well illustrate the need to reliably model the properties of amorphous forms of molecular materials.

Molecular materials are characterized by their extreme willingness to exist in many modifications of both crystalline and amorphous nature. At the same time, these individual forms often differ quite a bit in their properties. By this I mean, for example, different electrical conductivities of individual forms of a certain organic substance having the potential to act as a semiconductor, or different solubilities of polymorphs of an active pharmaceutical substance. For a given dream application, we then would want to choose a form of material that exhibits optimal properties and is stable for a sufficiently long time. Because experimental development by trial and error is somewhat expensive and time-consuming, material engineers would very much like to hear from computational chemists about what conditions they need to create the desired form of a given material and how they should handle that material. Or at least, some stability ranking and comparison of properties of similar modifications for a given chemical substance. Now imagine that most quantum-chemical simulations still produce results such as that water ice sinks in liquid water, which contradicts the knowledge acquired by the majority of the general public when they’re in kindergarten. Even such a banal problem is still difficult to solve with modern tools. The comparison of two similar forms of the same substance suffers from the curse of computational chemistry, i.e. making very precise differences of somewhat inaccurately calculated values of some quantity, such as density, entropy, or electrical conductivity. Therefore, if my group succeeds in accurately describing the interactions in a chaotic ensemble of molecules, imitating, for example, an amorphous drug grain or a semiconductor layer in an optoelectronic device, we should obtain a robust computational tool for predicting the properties of molecular materials, which would be very useful in many areas of materials research. The key will be to avoid the kind of failures that have occurred with the case of water ice for many years in the computational chemists’ community.

What kind of team does this project require?

The project was designed to involve one post-doctoral fellow, approximately four doctoral students, and several undergraduate students. Individual members should be able to work as a team in such a way that individual research tasks follow each other smoothly. A positive team spirit and singleness of purpose should, at the same time, induce each team member to be motivated and responsible for their work, similar as with team sports. A key attribute of a functioning team is ensuring continuity and the sharing of skills by older team members with younger colleagues.

Have you managed to find such people?

The team core was formed relatively quickly thanks to my previous research and teaching activities at UCT Prague. I was thus able to offer project involvement to existing PhD students and close colleagues immediately. I am currently looking for two PhD students interested in computational chemistry and the modelling of molecular interactions and macroscopic properties of molecular materials. Starting this September, they would take up the still- vacant sub-areas of the project, which concern, for example, the use of machine learning to describe the interactions of large molecules, or the incorporation of first principles into Monte Carlo simulations of phase equilibria. Master and Bachelor students will also be welcome on an ongoing basis, since participation in such a long-term project represents, in my opinion, a great opportunity for broadening one’s horizons in computational chemistry and getting an idea of which direction to take later in one’s career. I expect from every student an interest in learning more; from older ones also the motivation and will to work hard on an assigned task and to manage the goals set together.

Do you have an idea where your scientific journey will lead next?

Today, I think I will remain faithful to the pursuit of intermolecular interactions in materials for some time to come. At least until quantum computers and nuclear fusion become commercially available. Then we would have so much computing power and energy available to perform calculations that I can’t even imagine what the job of computational chemists actually would be. On a more serious note, I have been dealing with molecular crystals in the pharmaceutical context for a long time. The new project should guide me further to the world of organic semiconductors, but maybe we will come up with other interesting applications. Let’s see what our team achieves in the following years.

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Associate Professor Ondřej Jankovský and his Advanced Composite Materials research group have received a five-year, prestigious Czech Science Foundation JUNIOR STAR 2022 grant. The funded project entitled High-strength and water-resistant MOC composites with secondary fillers: contribution of 2D carbon-based nanomaterials and their combinations will take place at UCT Prague from 2023-2027.

Associate Professor Jankovský's project will deal with the development of high-strength, water-resistant, CO2-neutral, and completely recyclable composites based on reactive magnesium oxide with two-dimensional nanoadditives and secondary fillers. In the future, these ecological composite materials could partially replace Portland cement, the production of which is associated with 7% of the carbon dioxide emissions produced worldwide. Cement based on reactive magnesia (Magnesium Oxychloride Cement, MOC) have properties comparable to Portland cement, but a noticeably lower impact on the environment.

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What are the environmental benefits of your materials?

The main differences between MOC and commonly-used Portland cement are the energy requirements connected to their manufacturing and the associated burdens in the form of greenhouse gas emissions. The basis of Portland cement is calcium oxide, which is prepared by calcining limestone at temperatures in the range of 900-1,200 °C. In addition, temperatures of up to 1,450 °C must be reached for the sintering of Portland cement. Both of which are very energy intensive. For the production of MOC, caustic magnesium oxide is used, which is prepared by calcining magnesite at significantly lower temperatures; a temperature of 700 °C is sufficient for calcination. MOC phases are subsequently formed at room temperature by a reaction with a magnesium chloride solution. The prepared composite MOC materials also have the ability to capture carbon dioxide from the air. It is also possible to apply fillers from “waste” materials to these materials, which is also a subject of research in this project. Therefore, MOC-based materials can be considered CO2 neutral; however, there are still obstacles to widespread, real-world adoption.

Can you be a bit more specific?

There are two main factors why these materials are not widely used. The first is their higher cost compared to the cost of producing Portland cement, which is due to the significantly higher price of magnesite compared to limestone. The second factor is the particularly poor resistance of these materials to water, which manifests itself in the rapid degradation of their mechanical properties. Within this project, attention will be paid to the latter issue. Preliminary results have confirmed that, for example, materials based on graphene oxides or carbon nanotubes significantly improve water resistance, even in small amounts. The solution we have proposed consists of the use of combinations of various carbon nanomaterials and selected secondary waste fillers in the matrix of composite materials in order to obtain highly strong and waterproof composites.

What kind of fillers do you envision?

Fillers such as fly ash, biomass ash, sewage sludge, plastic aggregates, ceramic and porcelain waste, or construction waste. Emphasis will be placed on testing and using real waste generated from industrial production. Based on previous cooperation activities with industrial partners, a sufficient amount of different waste raw materials tested in the project is ensured. The challenge will be to apply fillers in the largest possible quantity so that the material properties of the prepared composites do not deteriorate at the same time.

Why is it important to use fillers as much as possible?

The more fillers a resulting material contains, the fewer initial mineral raw materials will be needed for preparing composites. At the same time, it will be possible to utilize more waste materials that would otherwise end up in landfills. As a result, there will be a significant reduction in the costs of preparing these composite materials, while simultaneously reducing the environmental burden associated with their production.

How did you come up with this idea?

The idea of using waste materials in civil engineering and the construction industry is by no means new or ground-breaking. Currently, a relatively large number of research groups around the world are engaged in creating ecological building materials. Our project is notably unique in the application of combinations of different two-dimensional carbon nanomaterials in MOC composites, which will lead to comprehensive improvement both in terms of mechanical properties, but also importantly in the resistance of a material to water. In addition, the composites we design will be completely recyclable, and the development of appropriate recycling technologies will also be part of the project.

těchto materiálů, což umožní jejich větší rozšíření do praxe.

Can you be more specific about the principles of recyclability and recycling technologies?

Two basic recycling procedures are outlined in the project. The first, “thermal” method involves the re-calcination of the MOC materials. During this process, a material rich in magnesium oxide will be created, which can be used for the preparation of the next generation of MOC composites. The second, “mechanical” method will be based on grinding MOC composites at the end of their useful lives and their subsequent application in the form of fillers. If both of these methods prove successful, it will be possible to prepare a composite that will be prepared from 100% recycled materials or waste raw materials. At the same time, a reduction in the price of these materials can be expected, which will enable their wider application in the real world.

What does receiving a JUNIOR STAR grant mean for you and your research group?

Success here really has meant a lot, especially after not being successful in the ERC Starting Grant competition, where our similarly-conceived proposal ended just short of being funded. The projects that I have received so far as a principal investigator were mostly two- or three-year projects. Such projects do not make it possible to deal with an issue in depth, especially if the properties of the prepared materials are studied as a function of time, over a longer time. The five-year project will enable us to address the issue systematically, from the preparation and characterization of selected nanomaterials to the selection of the most suitable fillers to the design of high-value composites, including their subsequent recycling. However, for such a large project, sufficient and suitable laboratory spaces are also needed; the current spaces do not facilitate implementation for the planned scope of activities. UCT Prague’s management team is now working intensively on solving this problem, and I can only hope that suitable premises will be found as soon as possible.

What other research topics are you investigating?

We are currently working on a project funded by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic THETA Programme (TACR THETA), focused on high-temperature oxide superconductors based on mixed copper oxides. In cooperation with CAN Superconductors, we are developing single-domain crystals with a controlled microstructure for applications in the energy sector. A Czech Science Foundation project dealing with oxygen non-stoichiometry and the study of phase equilibria in the Bi-Ca-Co-O and Bi-Sr-Co-O systems also ended last year, as did also the TACR ZETA project in which, in cooperation with OPV s.r.o., we developed composite filters for wastewater decontamination. Now we are also preparing large proposals as part of the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports’ Johannes Amos Comenius Programme (OP JAK) call, where, if successful, my group will deal with, for example, battery recycling, high-entropy alloys, or the 3D printing of silicate materials.

Why did you choose to focus on inorganic materials throughout your research career?

Materials research has always fascinated me. My entire professional life is closely connected with UCT Prague’s Department of Inorganic Chemistry. I have therefore been involved in inorganic materials research since the beginning of my studies when Professor David Sedmidubský offered me the opportunity to participate in one of his research projects. That’s when I started studying the thermoelectric properties of mixed cobalt oxides, and other research topics were added over time. Materials research is not only about inorganic materials but it also includes analytical chemistry, nanomaterials, theoretical chemistry, physics, physical chemistry, and civil engineering. Even this JUNIOR STAR project is a multidisciplinary one.

After completing your doctoral studies at UCT Prague, you completed several internships at the University of Freiberg, Germany. How did your stays there differ from what you are used to in the Czech Republic?

The internships at the Technical University of Freiberg were definitely of great benefit to me. The Institute of Ceramics, Refractory and Composite Materials, where I participated in the CRC 920 project, provided a very creative and stimulating environment. During the internships, I not only gained new knowledge and experience, but I also met many great people. The main difference compared to the Czech Republic is probably in the method of financing research projects. The 12-year project I worked on, with a budget of around 30 million EUR, allowed for thorough research with the potential for groundbreaking discoveries. There is a lack of large projects in our country, and if such funding opportunities already exist, they are usually set for a short implementation period—e.g. for the current OP JAK projects with a budget of approx. EUR 20 million, funding is divided between several institutions and the implementation period is only four years. Another difference is the success rate of project funding. In Germany this rate is often more than 30%; here, it is much lower. The success rate for JUNIOR STAR 2022 projects, for example, was only 5%. The purpose of these projects should be to motivate young researchers to start their own groups, but the result is often disillusionment because even high-quality proposals with very good evaluations are ultimately not supported. Another difference is that academic staff and researchers have far higher basic salaries than at UCT Prague, while the cost of living is significantly lower in Freiberg than in Prague. That way, people there do not have to deal with “our” worries, including whether will be enough money to pay one’s rent or mortgage instalments.

Your progress in your academic career has been relatively rapid. At the age of 35, you are to be promoted to the rank of a full professor. You have received many awards in the past, and now you are embarking on this prestigious JUNIOR STAR grant. What is your recipe for success?

On the one hand, I am used to and willing to work quite a lot, and on the other hand, I have learned to effectively lead and coordinate a group of my co-workers. I don’t think that there is more to it than that. I was also lucky to join the Department of Inorganic Chemistry, which is undoubtedly the most efficient department at UCT Prague, providing an inspiring and motivating environment for basic research. At the same time, I am very well aware that all results achieved are always because of an entire team and, without the help of my students and colleagues, it would not have been possible to achieve such results. The year 2022 was very challenging for me. Knowing that my two funded projects would end, I spent a large part of the year just preparing new grant proposals to secure enough funding for my group. For Czech Science Foundation calls, I worked on preparing five project proposals simultaneously, which was very exhausting. In this context, I would especially like to thank MSc. Anna-Marie Lauermannova. She not only showed great effort in the preparation of this JUNIOR STAR project, but she also contributed several very interesting ideas that we will investigate as part of the project. I would also like to thank Professor David Sedmidubský and colleagues from CTU Prague (Professor Pavlík and Professor Pavlíková) for their valuable advice. Last but not least, I want to thank MSc. Craig A. Riddell for his English corrections as well as the international partners involved in the proposal. Together we managed to succeed in the grant competition, but the main tasks are still in front of us. In the next five years, we will try to design completely new composite materials for special applications in the construction sector. Successful completion of this project will undoubtedly have a very positive impact on research on the design of sustainable building materials, which will lead to a reduction of the environmental burden associated with the construction sector.

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Martin Veselý (MSc., PhD) succeeded receiving the Czech Science Foundation’s JUNIOR STAR 2023 grant for his project entitled Synthesis and Property Tuning of Layered Low-Dimensional Materials Beyond Graphene – Utilization in Fundamental Research of Heterogeneous Catalysts. The project leverages his prior experiences and training both at various UCT Prague departments and the Czech Academy of Science’s Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals as well as a two-year stay in the Netherlands.

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Congratulations on this terrific success!

Thank you. But it’s not just my success; it’s the success of all the colleagues who performed various preliminary measurements with me. I also could not have succeeded without the support and friendly, stimulating environment at UCT Prague and at home.

I heard that you submitted the project proposal twice, is this true?

Yes. In fact, I even used the content three times. This successful grant proposal was based on my JUNIOR STAR attempt in 2021. Although the proposal received an excellent evaluation, it was not financed. That is why I decided to submit it for the third time, including also an unsuccessful European Research Council Starting Grant attempt incorporating the elements of FAIR scientific data principles and the research team management guidelines.

How will JUNIOR STAR affect your life?

I hope minimally (laughing). But seriously, this grant will allow me to significantly expand my (up to now) small team. This means that I will have to delegate more responsibilities to my colleagues and rely on their abilities and skills. I hope that the project will enable me to figure out how new 2D materials could be used in the field of heterogeneous catalysis.

How did you come up with such an interdisciplinary topic?

The idea evolved as a result of my various experiences and the skills that I acquired during my scientific career, which has been relatively varied. At the beginning of my career, I received excellent laboratory training in Prof. Svoboda’s laboratory at UCT Prague’s Department of Organic Chemistry. For my Master studies, I transferred to the Czech Academy of Science’s Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals, where—under the guidance of MSc. Jiřičný and Prof. Hanika—I gained insight into the technological aspects of chemical reactions, gaining my first experiences with heterogeneous catalysis and learning about the importance of various calculation methods. I returned to UCT Prague, this time the Department of Organic Technology, for my doctoral studies. Under the guidance of Associate Professor Čapek, who was very devoted to supporting me, I learned above all to look critically at my experiments and simulation calculations. During my doctoral studies, I also learned many microscopic and spectroscopic techniques that I used in the study of working catalysts during my two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Utrecht University in Prof. Weckhuysen’s group. After my return, I started teaching Catalysis and Technical Catalysis courses at UCT Prague and concurrently started collaborating with Professor Sofer on the topic of 2D materials that have a well-accessible surface, meaning places where catalysed reactions take place. Such surfaces can be directly analysed with surface and microscopic techniques. Compared to conventional porous catalysts, where a significant portion of the surface is hidden in the internal porous system, accessibly surfaces could be investigated.

Why do you say “beyond graphene” in the title of your proposal?

Graphene is the benchmark for 2D materials that launched a revolution in materials science. However, research in the 2D area does not end with graphene. Possibilities for new 2D materials include silicon and germanium, which, unlike graphene, are significantly easier to modify. This means that their properties, such as charge transfer or conductivity, can be “tailored” to required applications. For this project, it follows that we can fine-tune the properties of the 2D supports themselves and monitor the effect of such modifications on the catalytic activity we will observe.

What is the goal of your project?

The main goal of the project is to measure, understand, and describe the effect of the aforementioned modifications of a 2D support on catalytic activity. To this end, we will try new approaches for the preparation of metal nanoparticles on the surface of a 2D support using lithographic methods. We will test a series of model heterogeneously catalysed reactions on these specially prepared materials. Our goal is to monitor what happens to a catalyst created in this way when it is working—i.e. how morphology, structure, and even catalytic activity—change over time. For monitoring this, we will use correlative spectro-microscopy approaches, which means that we will try to get the maximum possible information from same place of one material.

Which tracking methods will you use?

To characterize structure, morphology, or composition, we will use standard techniques such as SEM, TEM, AFM, Raman spectroscopy, and others and non-standard super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. Thanks to the latter, we can monitor individual reaction turnovers at a specific place of the material. We will not determine how the reactants disappear from a reaction mixture, but we will monitor each individual reaction turnover on the surface of a catalyst. Here again, the great advantage of a 2D material is that the surface is not “hidden” somewhere in the pores, but it is relatively easily visible for this method. Thanks to this, it is possible to obtain spatially and temporally resolved catalytic activity measures and thus find out how a 2D support participates in this activity and whether a support conveys any information between individual active centres. If we succeed in confirming our hypothesis, this would be a major success of the project, which could lead to new approaches in the design of heterogeneous catalysts. Proving communication conveyance will be very demanding, which is why we also have a backup, more realistic project goal. Materials based on silicon and germanium can also be synthesized in the form of quantum dots. These can be used to display the diffusivity in the porous system of conventional catalysts. The quantum dot method is not new, but the dots currently used are based on heavy metals like cadmium that we can never get back from the material. Replacing such quantum dots with environmentally-friendly ones would make this type of analysis more attractive.

Will you have separate teams for different kinds of research activities?

The teams will be linked, but they will not be tied to one particular department. The core of the team is comprised of colleagues from UCT Prague’s Department of Organic Technology, but researchers from the Department of Inorganic Chemistry and the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology will participate as well. I also established cooperation with ETH Zurich, where we will try not only to observe the activity of the prepared catalysts, i.e. how many reaction turnovers we are able to detect per unit of time, but—thanks to their Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (TERS) system—we will also able to determine the selectivity of these reaction turns.

Do you have enough space for everyone?

I don’t have enough space. For now, we are using my colleagues’ existing premises. They are accommodating to me and willing to share space with me. I hope that in the near future we will have both office and laboratory space available.

What would you suggest to other grant applicants?

I would advise everyone to do two things. First, persevere and do not cease your efforts in getting your own funding after your first failure. Second, I would suggest keeping an open mind and collecting stimuli from your wider environment with the aim of creating at least a partially multidisciplinary project. Young researchers should not close themselves into the bubbles of their field and workplace. Had I written the proposal only to prepare new materials, I probably would not have received funding. I believe that I managed to convince the grant competition evaluators because I connected my diverse experiences with my desire to understand the connection between how things look and how they work.

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Dr. Pavla Perlíková and her UCT Prague research group, Medicinal chemistry of natural compound inspired scaffolds, received a five-year Czech Science Foundation JUNIOR STAR grant. Her project entitled Development of actin polymerization inhibitors as potential migrastatics will take place at UCT Prague from 2023-2027. It is one of the four successful JUNIOR STAR proposals from UCT Prague.

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How difficult was it to write your JUNIOR STAR proposal? Did someone help you?

The project was based on a previously-submitted ERC proposal, created with great support from the Technology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences. When I already had completed that proposal, I modified it for the Czech Science Foundation JUNIOR STAR competition. During submission procedure, UCT Prague’s support was mostly in checking formalities.

Are you collaborating with someone on the project?

I rely mainly on collaboration with Professor Jan Brábek’s research group at the Biotechnology and Biomedicine Center in Vestec, but the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich is also included.

What is the bottom line of your project?

Our goal is to develop new substances that are active against cell metastasis. We call such substances “migrastatics”. We will target the process of actin polymerization, related to the movement apparatus of cells. We will try to inhibit polymerization, and thus, tumour cells will not be able to move and leave the primary tumour. Our goal is to develop substances that will induce inhibition either by directly binding to actin or by targeting one of the regulators of its polymerization. This is the Arp2/3 complex. We found a potential binding site for one of its subunits that no one had tried targeting before. So there are no known substances that bind to it. We will use molecular docking to design potential structures that could bind there. We will verify whether they have any activity and we will further develop them, chemically.

JUNIOR STAR funding is for five years. What can be achieved in that timeframe?

In five years, we should be able to obtain information about the structures that bind to a selected binding site and have the required activity. We will know which parts of a molecule are essential for binding and which are not so that we can further modify the pharmacological properties of the molecule. I hope we will also learn more about the role of the Arp2/3 complex in tumour cell metastasis.

JUNIOR STAR grants are relatively generous for the Czech context. What will funding enable you to do?

Yes, funding is relatively generous and has an advantage over standard Czech Science Foundation programs because it also includes investment funds. So I can buy devices for equipping my laboratory. Of course, most funding goes to postdoc positions and doctoral candidate salaries.

Will you research team grow?

Yes, the team will include three doctoral candidates, one postdoc, and a number of external collaborators who will work on the biological part of the project.

I am glad that with the JUNIOR STAR proposal I managed to establish a sort of a collaborators’ network across UCT Prague. The Department of Informatics and Chemistry will be involved in the computing part, and the biological testing part will be performed at the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology. It’s nice that the topic connects researchers across the university.

In a previous interview, you mentioned that you were a postdoc in Denmark and that you liked the way the laboratory worked there. Do you feel like you are emulating that style?

That should probably be judged by my students. We’re a very small group so far, so I hope everyone feels like they play a useful role. We try to have every group member fully involved both in our research and in the discussions how to proceed in the future.

It’s been two years since you’ve been at UCT Prague. Is there anything that has surprised you, positively or negatively?

I was definitely pleasantly surprised by how willing all colleagues are here; it’s a good environment. No task seems unsolvable. I was afraid it would be more bureaucratic. What bothers me most is the lack of space.

One doesn’t live only for and from science. What is your favourite lunch-place around campus?

In my opinion, the best restaurant nearby is U Topolů, but I don’t often go there for lunch because it’s a little far away. I can also recommend Technická menza in the CIIRC building—assuming it’s not overcrowded.

Where do you rest, at least mentally, away from research?

When I’m at home with my kids, I get completely disconnect from work. But it’s not quite rest. Lately, I discovered that orienteering racing makes me fully relaxed. I’m terribly sorry that I still haven’t been able to participate in the university orienteering events because they’re always scheduled on days when I have other obligations. I would love to participate in them someday, even though I would probably be the oldest runner.

Maybe it would be worth organizing such events for researchers.

I believe I could compete with the students as well. But so it happens that I’m always on my labs duty during these events.

I know that you also like running in nature. What do you enjoy about this?

I’ve only been doing orienteering for two years and I haven’t even run an official race yet. It’s mainly about relaxation for me. I get to know Prague forests with a map. What I enjoy about this is that one can be hidden alone in the forest. No one can see when I get lost and complaining about it. It’s also a kind of activity where you have to engage your head, so it’s not just about physical performance.

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The ranks of researchers at the University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, have been expanded with the hiring of leading international expert Andrea Brancale from Cardiff University. The internationally recognized researcher was selected after a rigorous interview process as "Chair Medicinal Chemistry". As Chair, Brancale will build a new UCT Prague research group focused on excellence and the production of high-quality scientific outputs in the field of medicinal chemistry.

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How did it come about that you applied for the prestigious position of Chair Medicinal Chemistry at UCT Prague?

A few years ago, after the BREXIT referendum, I started thinking about leaving Cardiff and exploring new opportunities, possibly in the EU. I came across the UCT Prague position online and was immediately intrigued. After some initial, informal interactions, I formally applied for the position.

How was the interview process?

It was very pleasant, friendly, and professional. I was able to talk to several staff members during my December visit, and they all provided me very open and honest views on working at UCT Prague.

Can you briefly describe your time at Cardiff University and your previous positions?

I spent 25 years at Cardiff, having started my PhD research there. After my postdoctoral experiences, I become a lecturer, and over time, I built my academic career. I become Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in 2017. I really enjoyed working at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at that time. I loved the atmosphere of the School and the wonderful interactions with my colleagues. It was an excellent environment for developing my research skills and vision.

How challenging was it to close the Welsh chapter of your life and move halfway across Europe to a different culture and environment?

It certainly is a bit of a challenge to move to a different country, with a different culture, but to me is all very exciting! I discover something new every day, coming across new corners of Prague and finding my way around the UCT campus. Everything has been easy so far, but probably because I haven’t started learning Czech yet.

What are your main goals for the next five years?

I think my main goal is establishing a world-class medicinal chemistry research group at UCT Prague. I also would like to help and support the University as much as possible in improving its international profile.

What stage are you at in creating your new research group?

We are just in the process of setting up our brand-new laboratory, and we plan to have our first students and postdoctoral researchers working with us before the end of the year.

Can you describe your current research interests? And where would you like to direct your research efforts at UCT Prague?

Our research is focused on the design and synthesis of novel potential biologically active molecules, with an emphasis on using computer-aided drug design methods. Our initial activities will be in the area of antivirals and neurodegenerative diseases. However, we will also explore new collaborations—at UCT and IOCB, but not stopping there—that could lead to new, ground-breaking research projects.

In the vision that you submitted as part of the interview process, you wrote about the importance of a multidisciplinary research team working together starting in the early stages of the research process. Why is this so important?

As a medicinal chemist, my ambition is that my research could, one day, make a difference to a patient. Developing new drugs is what we all aspire to in this field. However, medicinal chemistry researchers cannot do this on our own, and such research is a highly multidisciplinary endeavour. The best results are obtained when an interdisciplinary research team has the possibility of developing a common vision from the very beginning. This facilitates better research focus and the most efficient use of intellectual and financial resources.

You will lead the new Department of Medicinal Chemistry. What else do you want to devote yourself to?

Learning Czech? Jokes aside, my intention is to support UCT Prague as much as possible in developing its strategy and vision, not only through my research.

Why are you interested in Medicinal Chemistry?

Chemistry is a subject that I have always loved, but medicinal chemistry, in particular, enables me to use chemistry as a tool in potentially improving people’s lives and health.

You will also teach at UCT Prague. Is teaching a professional duty for you or do you have a special relationship with it?

I will certainly teach at UCT Prague, and I consider teaching a very stimulating part of my profession. It is always good to interact with the students, to share knowledge with them, and to be challenged by them.

Even though you have been at UCT Prague a short time and it is too soon for an in-depth analysis, I will still ask: What conditions did you encounter at the University?

I think it is too early to give a fair assessment, as you note. But overall, I am very pleased with the arrangements for my position so far and with UCT Prague’s research facilities. Maybe I will come back to you with more details in a few months.

How will the cooperation with IOCB Prague, which is financially involved in the establishment of your position, go forward?

Even before coming to UCT Prague, I knew IOCB as a world renowned centre of research excellence. I am very much looking forward to collaborating with IOCB, both from the research point of view—there is clearly ample synergy between my research and that of the many excellent researchers there—and also from a wider perspective, in supporting a shared vision of establishing medicinal chemistry and drug discovery as key areas of research excellence in Czechia.

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Dr. Lorena Manzanares Palenzuela is the second researcher at UCT Prague to have obtained the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship funded from the European framework programme for research and innovation, Horizon 2020. Given the low success rates of applications in this programme, only 25 researchers received this grant in the Czech Republic during the period from 2014 to 2019. Lorena was awarded funding for a two-year long project entitled “Black phosphorus quantum dots as fluorescent nanosensing platforms for detecting unauthorised genetically modified material”.

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How did you become interested in research?

I started my research career all the way back in Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research, where I first became interested in molecular genetics. Molecular biology remained a central topic during my postgraduate studies at Complutense University of Madrid where I later received my PhD.

When you applied for MSCA-IF grant, you were already employed at UCT.

Yes, I met my supervisor, prof. Martin Pumera, at a conference and later I was invited to join his Advanced Functional Nanorobots team at the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at UCT Prague. I especially appreciated the high-end equipment of the Nanorobots laboratories. To apply for MSCA-IF grant, applicant must comply with the “mobility condition”, which means not having spent more than 365 days previous to the application submission in the country where the host institution is located. I applied shortly after my arrival and I succeeded.

Can you describe the context of your research project?

EU is heavily dependent on imports from third countries of vegetable proteins to feed cattle, pigs and poultry, like soya and soymeal. There are many important export countries such as USA, Canada, or Brazil cultivating genetically modified plants. However, in the EU, we honour consumers’ right to choose between GM food and traditionally produced food, hence there are strict rules on the import of genetically modified material containing organisms: authorized products are allowed to enter EU countries but they need to be labelled so that the consumers are well-informed. To ensure enforcement of this rule, regular checks of the imported material need to be carried out. In my project, I study new approach to perform these checks, because the method that is used nowadays is rather slow and expensive.

I guess you are referring to PCR method…

Yes, the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method. This technique basically uses a small section of DNA to generate a large amount of its copies in vitro. When a DNA sequence of a food product is amplified, it allows for testing of the presence of genetically modified DNA. Although it is a powerful method, it has its drawbacks which can lead to biased results and is quite demanding to perform, which is why only specific laboratories are able to carry out the test.

Can nanomaterials provide better solution?

Nanomaterials show optical and electronic properties that can help to make a difference in the field of DNA detection, so I believe they can. In my research, I focus on emerging materials, and their capacity to serve as efficient DNA-sensing systems to identify the GMO in food and for DNA detection in general.

How does the sensing work?

Basically these materials can act as light switchers in the nanoscale. So by putting a small molecule in the DNA that interacts with the materials often by modulation of their optical properties, we can monitor if the DNA is specific or not for a certain trait, in other words, if it is genetically modified or not, and this can be applied to mutated sequences as well (for example, related to genetic predisposition to certain diseases). So what I am currently working on is investigating these nano-systems for the detection of specific DNA fragments that can be translated to many different applications beyond food control. Nevertheless, the biomedical applications remain very poorly explored.

This brings us to the interdisciplinary character of your research…

The field of nano-biosensors requires interdisciplinary research, which is why it makes sense for me to work in a group experienced in synthesis and characterisation of layered materials. Given my scientific background in pharmacy, my research interests have led her to the topic of genetically modified materials detection, bridging the materials science and molecular biology.

Given that your project is coming to an end soon, how would you reflect on your fellowship?

This project led me to stumble upon very interesting nanomaterial properties for detecting mutations in DNA. So, apart from optimizing these optical systems for genetically modified food, which is a rather complex topic that unfortunately I could not bring to completion, I have also explored the detection of disease-related genes. This has recently expanded my research interests and I’d be excited to continue exploring them. These recent findings will be published soon, along with three other articles that I have already published during this project. But it is not the publications I’m taking as accomplishment from this experience. I have learned plenty, not just scientifically, but also personally by engaging with the group, learning from people and networking abroad as well. Ultimately this is what this fellowship has given me: the opportunity to grow as an independent scientist and as a person.

EU_flag_yellow_high (šířka 215px)

This article has been supported by project no. LTI17009 (MEYS INTER-INFORM) and project no. 795347 (EU Horizon 2020)

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The European framework programme for research and innovation, Horizon 2020, offers several funding schemes supporting scientific mobility within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme. One of these schemes is MSCA - Individual fellowship for experienced researchers who can receive funding for up to 2 years for their research project. This type of grant allows for an international and intersectoral mobility with the aim to provide training and networking opportunities in order to enhance researcher's professional career. The average success rate of applications is around 13 % which suggests high competition among researchers to obtain such prestigious grant.

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The winter semester will start soon, and UCT Prague’s celebration of 70 years of its independent existence is just around the corner. These events are framed by problems such as rising energy costs and unusually high inflation rates. How is UCT Prague preparing for this challenging period? Rector Pavel Matějka answers.

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The official celebration of 70 years of UCT Prague’s independent existence will soon begin. What will it include?

Several celebratory events are planned, and together, they will show that UCT Prague is an advanced, research-oriented, and internationally connected university cognisant of its present and past successes but continuously charting new future horizons. The most festive events are scheduled for 22 and 23 September. Kicking things off will be the launch of a new book, Focused on Chemistry, and the first meeting of our new international advisory board. The next morning, we will award honorary doctorates and the Emil Votoček Medal in Strahov Monastery, and in the afternoon, I hope to meet all of you at our Dejvice campus in order to enjoy KampusFest, featuring events planned by our student associations, excursions around our campus, and contemporary music performances. I would be very happy if large numbers of alumni would attend KampusFest, so they could see how much UCT Prague has evolved since they graduated.

Can you tell us more about who will be granted doctor honoris causa titles?

On the one hand, the awardees were chosen because of their indisputable scientific achievements and ties to UCT Prague. On the other hand, our selections send a signal to the world about UCT Prague’s ambitions for the future. Professor Peter Seeberger is an extremely respected researcher specializing in chemistry at the globally recognized Max Planck Institute, and his devotion to green chemistry and downstream industrial transformation has greatly expanded possible future directions for the chemical disciplines. In addition to her extraordinary expertise, Professor Eva Zažímalová, President of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, with whom we cooperate in various ways, also serves on our Board of Directors. Doctor Zdeněk Hostomský successfully connected the academic and corporate spheres of pharmaceutical research as head of the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences for eight years. During his term in office, our cooperation significantly intensified, benefiting both institutions. He is the new Director of the National Institute of Virology and Bacteriology, of which we are members. There is a tremendous future in the field of virology, and we certainly have something to contribute there.

Who will receive the Emil Votoček Medal?

We originally had three laureates, but unfortunately, Professor Per Jensen from the University of Wuppertal passed away this June. In the end, two medals will be awarded to Professor Martin Hof, Director of the Jaroslav Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and to our Professor Aleš Procházka, who has greatly contributed to the development of activities in UCT Prague’s information and control systems and who connects us with CTU in Prague. Of course, representatives of Czech ministries and universities, international partners, and other important institutions will attend the award ceremony.

Earlier in this interview, you mentioned the publication of a new book about UCT Prague’s history, Focused on Chemistry. What is it about? Was it complicated to compile?

Indeed, it was very complex and work on it spanned several years. I would like to highlight the commitment of authors Věra Dvořáčková and Ivana Lorencová, as well as Eva Dibuszová, without whom the book would never have been created. The authors managed to compile an external perspective on the development of technical chemistry in the Czech Republic and at UCT Prague itself, considered from a professional-historical point of view up to the 1990s. This had never been done before. Main obstacles came the authors had to deal with were due to gaps in the historical record from the Bolshevik regime period. Overall, the book leaves the impression of being balanced; its aspiration is not to cover every single event and personality deserving mention. It is rich in visual materials, many of which are being published for the first time. As a takeaway from the book, you can sense that if we don’t give up on enthusiasm and quality work, UCT Prague has a great future ahead of it.

Will there be any other events connected to the September celebration?

We would like to organize a lecture series that will highlight current UCT Prague research activities, which will also benefit us internally: researchers will have the opportunity to find out in person what their colleagues are doing and how they could be useful to one another. At the end of November, the traditional UCT Prague Advent Concert will take place, connected to the presentation of the Rector's Awards. It’s planned that this time the awards will reflect not only the recent accomplishments, but rather refer to those of previous years.

What will be the role of the aforementioned international advisory board (IAB) and why was it established?

Since the beginning of my term in office, I planned to create an IAB. As part of the 17+ Methodology evaluation, we assembled an international evaluation panel. Satisfied with its work, we approached members of the panel and the majority of them joined the new advisory body. The important thing is that those people already know a lot about UCT Prague and understand the key topics that we are currently dealing with. These experts are from various countries, from Great Britain to France, Germany, Austria, and Hungary. The board has nine members, including people from out-of-university settings. For example, Dr. Feise works at BASF. He was the long-time Chair of the European Federation of Chemical Engineers and represents the corporate/industrial sector perspective, with BASF being one of the key chemical companies in Europe. Doctoral education is also extremely important for UCT Prague, so the Director of the University of Tampere’s Doctoral School, Pirjo Nikander, who has strong ties to the European University Association and its committee for doctoral education, is also a board member.

In addition to improving doctoral studies, the IAB will be tasked in helping to create conditions for deepening UCT Prague’s global ties and increasing its attractiveness to potential employees and students from abroad. All board members also have received an English translation of our annual report together with a request for feedback on areas of interest to them.

This year’s hot topic is the significant increase in energy costs, high inflation rates, and the related need to start saving drastically (not only) at universities. How is UCT Prague coping with the new situation and what is the outlook for the coming months?

UCT energy costs increases for the 3rd and 4th quarters of this year will total approximately 30 million CZK. This is a lot, but if we compare it to the development of the stock market over the summer, we can be pleased. The bigger question is what will happen next year, because we didn’t have a chance to conclude a longer contract under the given financial conditions due to the tremendous uncertainty in the markets and with suppliers. If the situation does not change, we can assume an increase in expenses for 2023 by more than 100 million CZK over 2022. These are alarming numbers, and I am not even mentioning high inflation. It is certain that universities cannot cope with such increases on their own. That is why negotiations are underway with politicians about financial support at the level of the Czech Rectors Conference, and a meeting of the Chairs of the Boards of the Association of Research Universities is being prepared in order to create a joint position on the topic, which will subsequently be resolved with the Ministries of Education and Finance. Nevertheless, we have to find ways to save money ourselves. We have to be prepared for various crisis scenarios, where, in the event of bad developments, classes may be shortened in the winter semester, there may be even energy-saving furloughs, the start of classes in the summer semester could be postponed, or laboratory access could be limited. These are very extreme scenarios, but they could save electricity, water, and heat in an emergency. However, I emphasize that I am talking about crisis scenarios and we will make decisions based on developments in the coming weeks. The current measures are such that we are looking for ways to save energy costs in the buildings and in the dormitories, and we have cut a number of budgetary areas and items that are not essential for conducting teaching and research activities. We very strictly monitor the use of our university-wide budget at the level of units and departments. For next year’s budget, however, it is clear that unless there is a miracle, some limitations of departmental activities across UCT Prague will be necessary. The cuts will affect a number of useful activities, but at this moment it seems to be unavoidable, unfortunately. At the same time, it is highly probable that the austerity measures will also affect the faculties. We must also look for new sources of financing, including more project funding, more cooperation with industrial partners, and increased commercial activities. That said, we must not succumb to panic; critical situations are opportunities for bold plans. Every problem has a solution, and the best solutions are created with a cool head. Let’s behave responsibly as we do at home, saving wherever we can.

This summer, Building B renovations were completed, and now UCT Prague is currently undergoing a major move, which logically brings with it problems and occasional dissatisfaction. Do you perceive this?

Of course, but everything must be seen in context. The commissioning of two floors facing the Zikova Street tract means an enormous increase in our spatial capacities, unprecedented in the recent history of UCT Prague. With this, we can finally relieve the long-standing overload and lack of space at a number of units and institutes, certainly outweighing the partial discomforts we are currently dealing with. I believe that a few months after the move, practically everyone involved will be happy about their new premises. It is a tremendous achievement that we could even complete the entire renovation at a time that brought with it a number of unexpected complications, including COVID and increases in the prices of building materials and contractors. After all, for some time there was even a threat that our suppliers would withdraw from their contracts and that the renovation would not be completed. Thanks to the move, work hygiene, fire protection, and work safety will improve. The progress from this point of view is tremendous. It is clear to me that the move itself is not pleasant, that some planned activities looked one way and reality has turned out differently. There is a big problem with sound insulation in some rooms, sometimes demanding adjustments or changes to be made. But I can promise that we are looking for a way to resolve everything as soon as possible.

Would you like to say anything else to students and staff before the start of the winter semester?

Let’s use this anniversary celebration time to look back and be proud of the achievements of chemists from UCT Prague. Let this legacy also be a source of inspiration and courage for us, so that we too can be equally successful, or even better, in the future. At the same time, despite all the negative things happening in the world today, let’s not lose our positive state of mind. Crises, even big ones, are a natural part of life. Let’s have courage, let’s not panic, and let’s try to overcome obstacles together. While it’s not pleasant for anyone to step out of their comfort zones, when we do so, we have the opportunity to grow personally and professionally. We have faced worse challenges in the past and we have overcome them. In closing, I will convey an encouraging quote in Latin attributed to either Publius Vergilius Maro or Publius Terentius Afer: Fortis fortuna adiuvat.

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Dr. Ramato Ashu Tufa is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Czech Republic. He received his Erasmus Mundus multiple PhD from University of Calabria, the University of Twente and the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague (2016). Subsequently, he worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Calabria-in collaboration with Institute on Membrane Technology of the National Research Council (ITM-CNR), focusing on integrated membrane processes for water, energy and hydrogen production. His research interests lie in material and process development for renewable energy conversion and storage systems including Reverse Electrodialysis, water electrolysis and batteries.

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Project MARVEL

Development of renewable energy resources that can address energy and environmental issues is currently the top global challenge. The MARVEL project, which received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 748683, is focused on advancing technologies for salinity gradient energy generation from mixing aqueous salt solutions of different concentrations and hydrogen production. Within the scheme of the MARVEL project, Dr. Ramato will be involved in synthesis and characterization of materials for energy applications. Dr. Ramato will implement an integrate Reverse Electrodialysis and Water Electrolysis energy systems for renewable hydrogen production. The ultimate goal of MARVEL is to broaden the knowledge and expertise of the researcher, Dr. Ramato Ashu Tufa, through a high-quality research training in the emerging area of renewable energy involving multidisciplinary investigation approaches and intersectoral secondments. Profound outputs from MARVEL will significantly contribute to the establishment of a strong scientific and technical basis for European science and technology, foster the competitiveness and growth of EU economy with a positive impact on the major objectives of energy policy for sustainability and security.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (MSCA) are dedicated to improving the career prospects of researchers in Europe – empowering to be part of the driving force of future progress as envisaged by the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Union, to which the MSCA belong. The MSCA fellowship aim to support the career development and training of researchers – with a focus on innovation skills – in all scientific disciplines through international and intersectoral mobility. Under the MSCA, support is foreseen for individual and transnational fellowships awarded to the best or most promising researchers of any nationality for employment in EU Member States or Associated Countries. In particular, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (MSCA-IF) aim to enhance the creative and innovative potential of experienced researchers, wishing to diversify their individual competence in terms of skill acquisition through advanced training, international and intersectoral mobility. This action provides financial support for individual experienced researchers of any age who wish to work in organisations established in EU Member States (MS) or Associated Countries (AC).

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Prof. RNDr. Štěpán Urban, CSc., Head, Institute of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemical Engineering

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"We were very close to getting funding for molecular analysis of particles found in interstellar dust. The research was to be conducted in cooperation with The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), probably the most ambitious—$1.5 billion worth—astronomical center in the world, in the Chilean Atacama desert. Everything was going according to the plan, up until the point when the colleague who was the only connection between us chemists and the astronomers was killed in a car accident. With this, the unique ALMA project stopped, although we continue to collaborate with ALMA on astrophysical analysis to this day.

Some time later, I was talking to a friend, a crime scene investigator, over beer. He was telling me about how a search dog can discover a human trace several days old, but because of the many systemic mistakes made during their training, working with the dogs can be tricky. The more I thought about it, the more I realised there are not many differences between searching for molecules in-between galaxies and the quest for clues at a crime scene. And then I discovered there was a lack of knowledge about unique human odour signatures, chemistry-wise. And so we got to work.

We currently think human smell recognition works in a manner similar to facial recognition. We all have eyes, lips, a nose, but every single person's features have unique ratios of size and position. In a similar sense, we all have a unique odour signature.

When we began our research in this area, we were able to identify approximately 500 molecules per individual; however, we have now perfected the collection method and can identify up to 1,000 molecules. My approximation is that a dog can smell circa 2,000 molecules. We are primarily interested in low-volatility substances, ones that persist for several days or more. An incredible leap forward in our quest to find the smallest possible set of molecules from which one might identify a specific person was actually due to an accident. Sometimes that's the way it is in science. We found ralen [1] missing on one of our testing rigs. Ralen was present in all previous tests and should be inherent in any person’s smell signature. Instead of letting this anomaly go, we dismantled the whole testing rig and analysed it piece by piece.

We finally found ralen molecules at one of the sealed ends of the system along with another 50 molecules. We hypothesized later that an imperfect seal on the open end created a localised lower temperature spot, effectively fractionally distilling the specimen. We eagerly conducted a test to see if a scent detection dog could recognize an original source after being exposed to a set of merely 50 initial molecules. Three dogs attempted the test and all of them found the original subject with absolute certainty.

We have not yet published our findings and our research is being conducted in two primary directions. Firstly, we are trying to narrow down the absolute minimum of molecules and the ratios needed in order to identify an individual. Secondly, we are trying to figure out the characteristic changes in odour connected with details about an individual such as gender, diseases they might have, race, and the level of physical activity in last few hours. We are close to pinpointing sexual hormones, and the sum of facts we can read from a person’s smell appears to be endless—although expanding the scope of our research activities would require a larger team as well as more equipment and funding."

[1] Ralen is a fictional name; the name of the real molecule is confidential.

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Thurs 04.01.2024The world around us is changing and we have to reactInterview with new UCT Prague Rector Professor Milan Pospíšil.

Mon 23.10.2023Ceramics aren’t just sinks and platesInterview with Soňa Hříbalová, Fulbright-Masaryk scholarship laureate.

Thurs 21.09.2023Holding our heads held high is the road to successInterview with Rector of UCT Prague on the occasion of the opening of the academic year.

Mon 07.08.2023Professor Bouzek receives an honorary mention from Czech Science Foundation Presidium chair

Wed 28.06.2023Guilty until proven innocentInterview with Professor Martin Fusek, director of IOCBTech, a technology transfer office.

Mon 26.06.2023All of you could do a PhD at Stanford or MITInterview with Michal Kolář, a chemist with international experience.

Tue 20.06.2023The 2023 budget: higher basic salaries and scholarships were our priority An interview with prof. Pavel Matějka, rector of UCT Prague.

Fri 10.03.2023We stepped on the budgetary brake on timeInterview with UCT Prague Rector about finances and 2023 goals.

Tue 21.02.2023Molecular crystalsFrom pharmaceuticals to organic semiconductors: interview with Ctirad Červinka, recipient of JUNIOR STAR grant.

Výzkumná skupina Ondřeje Jankovského (1)

Sun 12.02.2023I've always been fascinated by material researchInterview with Assoc. Professor Ondřej Jankovský, recipient of JUNIOR STAR grant.

Mon 06.02.2023Beyond graphene: research in 2D materials continuesMartin Veselý is recipient of a Czech Science Foundation JUNIOR STAR grant.

Thurs 02.02.2023We are developing substances with the potential of preventing the spread of tumours

Mon 03.10.2022Ambition of my research? To make a difference to a patientInterview with Andrea Brancale.

Fri 09.09.2022Let’s be courageous and not panicInterview with UCT Prague’s Rector about the university’s celebration, the energy crisis, and saving energy

Wed 18.03.2020We are trying to test GMO fasterInterview with Dr. Lorena Manzanares Palenzuela

More Interviews

101 Department of Inorganic Chemistry
105 Department of Inorganic Technology
106 Department of Metals and Corrosion Engineering
107 Department of Glass and Ceramics
108 Department of Solid State Chemistry
110 Department of Organic Chemistry
111 Department of Organic Technology
112 Department of Polymers
126 Department of Solid State Engineering
141 Laboratory of Inorganic Materials
143 Department of Informatics and Chemistry
148 Department of Chemical Technology of Monument Conservation
150 Dean’s Office of Faculty of Chemical Technology

215 Department of Petroleum Technology and Alternative Fuels
216 Department of Gaseous and Solid Fuels and Air Protection
217 Department of Water Technology and Environmental Engineering
218 Department of Power Engineering
240 Department of Environmental Chemistry
241 Department of Sustainability and Product Ecology
251 Dean’s Office of Faculty of Enviromental Technology

319 Department of Biotechnology
320 Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology
321 Department of Carbohydrates and Cereals
322 Department of Dairy, Fat and Cosmetics
323 Department of Food Analysis and Nutrition
324 Department of Food Preservation
342 Department of Chemistry of Natural Compounds
352 Dean’s Office of Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technology

402 Department of Analytical Chemistry
403 Department of Physical Chemistry
409 Department of Chemical Engineering
413 Department of Mathematics (replaced by 446)
444 Department of Physics and Measurements
445 Department of Computing and Control Engineering (replaced by 446)
446 Department of Mathematics, Informatics and Cybernetics
453 Dean’s Office of Faculty of Chemical Engineering

504 University Centre UCT Prague - Unipetrol
550 Department of the National Institute of Virology and Bacteriology (NIVB)
554 Department for the History of the Chemical Industry and Applied Chemistry
557 BIOMEDREG
558 Metrology and Testing Laboratory
559 Prague University Analytical Center
560 BAFA
570 Technoparc Kralupy UCT Prague

712 Director´s Office
713 Finance Department
721 Operating Department
723 Sázava Dormitory
724 Volha Dormitory
731 Technical Department
747 Conference Center
748 Recreation facility Jáchymov
749 Recreation facility Pec p. Sněžkou
755 Volha Canteen
756 Club Carbon
757 Zikova Canteen
758 Camping site Běstvina

827 Department of Physical Education and Sport
832 Department of Chemical Education and Humanities
834 Department of Languages
837 Department of Economics and Management

929 General Practitioner
930 Crèche Zkumavka
938 Department of Internal Auditing
939 Department of Supervision
940 Counselling and Career Centre
955 Project Centre
961 Rector's Secretariat
962 Registrar's Secretariat
963 Department of Education
965 Research and Technology Transfer Office
966 Personnel Department
968 Records Office
969 Supplies Department
971 Finance Department
972 Department of Safety and Risk Prevention
974 Department of International Relations
976 Department of Construction and Maintenance
977 Department of Building Administration
979 Department of Communication
980 Central Laboratories
990 Computer Centre
991 Department of Strategic Planning
992 Hollow Glass Workrooms
994 Technology Transfer Office
995 Department of Operation and Technical Services
996 Department of Public Order
997 Centre for Information Services UCT Library UCT Press
998 Vice-Rector's without Portfolio Office

UCT Prague - A challenge that pays off

The University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague consists of four faculties and several other departments

Faculty of Chemical Technology

Faculty of Environmental Technology

Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technology

Faculty of Chemical Engineering

University Research and Education Centres

The Administration of University Facilities

Service Departments for all UCT Prague Faculties

Rector's Offices

Contact for media

Press releases

Counselling and Career Centre UCT Prague

Alumni Club

DATA

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