An introductory word from the Dean
Dear colleagues,
First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to greet you all most sincerely and to thank you for all the work you have done over the winter semester. I am well aware that the situation has not been at all easy for the students, but it has also not been easy for you, the staff, whether you are an academic or a non-scientific staff member. Thank you all for following all the necessary precautions while also managing your work to the best of your ability.
It is only thanks to your commitment that we can move forward and onward. I am very proud to have top employees in my team who are all doing well in their fields. Norbert Werner (Dept.of Theoretical Physics) has been awarded the Ignaz L. Lieben Prize, also known as the “Austrian Nobel Prize”. I cannot fail to mention Pavel Šťahel and his colleagues from the Department of Physical Electronics, who participated in the development of the new CaviPlasma technology for water purification using low-temperature plasma. We have also created a new spin-off company, CasInvent Pharma, thanks to which the research groups of Vítězslav Bryja (Department of Experimental Biology) and Kamil Paruch (Department of Chemistry) will be able to continue developing new compounds that could be used as drugs for certain types of leukaemia, lymphomas and solid tumours. The conclusion of a license agreement for our spin-off company Enantis, in which the teams of Jiří Damborský and David Bednář from Loschmidt Laboratories also cooperate, has also been a great success. This will increase the production volume of the patented fibroblast growth factor FGF2-STAB, which will be used by laboratories around the world.
You cannot have failed to notice that Jaroslav Koča (National Centre for Biomolecular Research and CEITEC) has become the new chairman of the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (GAČR). Congratulations to him and I am glad that in this newsletter we can convey to you his impressions of the new position in an interview. I also congratulate the two newly appointed professors from our faculty, Milan Gelnar (Department of Botany and Zoology) and Jan Pasek (Department of Mathematics and Statistics). And I must not forget my colleagues who have won the MUNI Scientist award. Congratulations from the bottom of my heart!
Recently, we started a new semester. It is clear that this will again take place mainly online, and, despite all of our efforts, this will have limitations, especially in the case of practical laboratory exercises. I can assure you that, in cooperation with the crisis staff, we are trying to find solutions that will enable students to resume to a normal study regime at the faculty and a normal working life as quickly as possible. However, the health of us all comes first.
I would like to assure you that, no matter how the situation develops in the coming weeks and months, the management of the faculty will try to support you as much as possible.
Yours,
Tomáš Kašparovský
Dean of the Faculty of Science, Masaryk University
