Dean’s Awards 2023

Dean Tomáš Kašparovský has presented awards to the best students of the MU Faculty of Science. This year’s Dean’s Awards were presented to a total of nine laureates in the Best Student category in a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree programme, and to eleven promising scientists in the Best Student category of the Doctoral study programme. Moreover, the award was also presented to a team of seven outstanding students of the pregraduate and postgraduate programmes. Congratulations to all the winners!

7 Jun 2023 External Relations, Communication and Marketing – Faculty of Science

"In the field of science, perhaps even more than anywhere else, it is true that good examples lead; and you, today’s awardees, are great motivators for your younger colleagues, and also proof that even during your studies, you can succeed in international competition, actively participate in publishing activities, make your mark in prestigious high-impact journals or attract attention with your presentations at international conferences,“ said Tomáš Kašparovský in his speech.

Based on the decision of the Dean’s Board, the following students were awarded the Dean’s Award of the MU Faculty of Science 2023:

In the category of Best Student in a Bachelor’s or Master’s study programmeme

Lenka Baranovičová
Jan Haluza
Anna Ireinová
Tereza Mosočiová
Alexandra Náplavová
Petra Pikulová
Dorota Sklenárová
Kristína Tomanková
Tomáš Perutka

In the category of Best Student in the Doctoral study programme

Radovan Coufal
Jan Jekl
Mária Krchniaková
Michael Kroker
Martin Kubeš
Petr Lapčík
Martin Lyčka
Chander Kant Negi
Martin Piecka
Jan Řehoř
Marek Stiborek

A team of outstanding students was given an exceptional award:

Klára Klinkovská
Anna Kučerová
Štěpánka Pustková
Jaroslav Rohel
Karolína Slachová
Vojtěch Sobotka
Daniel Szokala

Bc. Lenka Baranovičová

a student of the Master’s study programme in Zoology

Lenka Baranovičová was an excellent student of the Bachelor’s programme in Ecological and Evolutionary Biology and is now continuing her studies in the Zoology Master’s programme. In her Bachelor’s thesis, which she submitted in English, she focused on the phenomenon of Batesian mimicry. Her results are completely unique and proved essential for the preparation of her original article, which will most likely be accepted by an internationally impacted journal. Lenka recently joined an international project led by Dr. Cardosem of the University of Helsinki, focused on the development of artificial intelligence for the extraction of literary data.

Bc. Jan Haluza

a student of the Master’s study programme in Applied Mathematics

Last year, Jan Haluza defended his excellent Bachelor’s thesis on the Addition of Infinite Series and the Basel Problem. He also drew on his work nine different times for his published scholarly article, The Basel Problem. Not only was this very high-quality work, it was successful in popularising science and in representing the good name of the faculty.

Bc. Anna Ireinová

a student of the Master’s study programme in Environment and Health

Anna Ireinová is one of our most active students. She has been involved in various research projects, including SPRINT H2020 and OP PIK OKTAGON, and has helped prepare two scientific publications. In addition to conscientiously fulfilling her study obligations, she is proactively involved in activities of the RECETOX centre related to the promotion of teaching, representing students on the programme and taking care of secondary school students visiting RECETOX during open days and excursions. Anna actively participates in the motivation of applicants and popularisation of the faculty and its studies and programmes in the form of video recordings, sharing on social networks and personal participation in faculty events.

Bc. Tereza Mosočiová

a student of the Master’s study programme in Geology

Tereza Mosočiová is a very active and independent student. She has already completed several study-stays abroad financed by the Erasmus project, mainly on the island of Svalbard. The results of her Master’s thesis, which she worked on both at our faculty and at UNIS Svalbard, are currently being prepared for publication in a professional impacted journal. Tereza completed her studies and field work in Svalbard, where she gained a lot of experience in laboratory and field research, thanks to funding from prestigious international grants. Between 2020 and 2022, Tereza also collaborated on a number of other research projects.

Bc. Alexandra Náplavová

a student of the Master’s study programme in Biochemistry

Thanks to her talent and extreme hard work, Alexandra Náplavová quickly became familiar with the problems associated with studying structural and interaction properties of brain proteins, and went on to optimise the spectroscopic methods needed. Using this method, she obtained highly valuable results, which she is currently preparing for publication. She also collaborated significantly on a publication in the prestigious scientific impacted journal ‘Frontiers in Chemistry’, and actively contributes to the successful scientific outputs of the entire group. Last year, she won the Emil Paleček Award for the best presentation at the Meeting of Biophysical Chemists and Electrochemists. Alexandra is also actively involved in the ‘High School Vocational Activities’, where she independently leads one project. She is also a successful solution manager within the GAMU project for authors of excellent diploma theses.

Bc. Tomáš Perutka

a student of the Master’s study programme in Mathematics

Tomáš Perutka is an exceptional student presently engaged in internationally important research. In his diploma thesis, he developed the theory of locally circular locales and deals with the highly current topic of condensed sets. These subjects were introduced by the holder of the Fields Medal, Peter Scholz of the Max Planck Institute in Bonn, with whom Tomáš Perutka completed an internship. The results of his research are being published in prestigious journals even while he completes his Master’s studies. Tomáš is very communicative, which contributes to the professional and social level of the student community at the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics. Thanks to his work at Brno grammar school, he has already persuaded a number of above-average students to study mathematics.

Bc. Petra Pikulová

a student of the Master’s study programme in Chemistry

Since her Bachelor’s degree, Petra Pikulová has been very proactive in solving research issues in the field of NMR spectroscopy and computational quantum chemistry. Petra’s level of expertise already exceeds that expected of a Master’s level graduate. She received a GAMU project to support her excellent thesis, which she is currently completing. In her research, Petra collaborates with both domestic and foreign experts on projects supported through significant grants. Thanks to her research, she is first-author of a work published in the ‘Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation’ and has also contributed on several other articles in prestigious scientific journals. Petra is also involved in the popularisation of chemistry with high school students, participates in the preparation of correspondence seminars, organises summer schools and cooperates in the MU programme for talented secondary school students.

Bc. Dorota Sklenárová

a student of the Master’s study programme in Biochemistry

Dorota Sklenárová has shown great interest in her studies and scientific research since the beginning of her tenure at the university, and her results are well above average. The data obtained during her diploma thesis helped her in the preparation of a publication in the high-impact journal ‘Analytical Chemistry’, in which she was second author. Dorota is currently preparing another original publication. She is the recipient of the Karel Štulík Award for the best student scientific work in the field of analytical chemistry, and received an honourable mention under the Tasila Prnka Award for the best lecture at the Nanocon 2022 conference. In addition to her scientific work, Dorota participates in the popularisation of science, contributing to the Night of Scientists and the Biochemist Junior event for high school students. She is author of the article and podcast “Mendel, the Passionate Beekeeper”, written to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Gregor Johann Mendel. Dorota is also involved in educational practice as a consultant for Bachelor theses.

Bc. Kristína Tomanková

a student of the Master’s study programme in Physics

Kristína Tomanková has been achieving above-average results since her Bachelor’s degree, demonstrating a deep knowledge of plasma theory and fundamental processes, along with a knowledge of specific materials, engineering solutions and chemical kinetics. As part of her diploma thesis, she created and validated a plasma-kinetic scheme for the precursor TMDSO (tetramethyldisiloxane) which, until then, had never been published in the scientific literature, despite the precursor being used in several practical applications. Indeed, the scope of her work corresponds more to Doctoral research. Kristína’s results are received with interest by the academic community and partners in the international consortium in which she is conducting her Master’s research. Kristína has given lectures on her work at two international conferences, and is preparing her first publication in an impacted periodical.

Mgr. Radovan Coufal

a student of the Doctoral study programme in Ecological and Evolutionary Biology

Radovan Coufal is the first author of two publications in prestigious impacted journals. The first, which was published in the journal ‘Science of the Total Environment’, explained the responses of endangered biota to peatlands saturated with groundwater, offering a possible approach to protect these communities. The second study, published in the journal ‘Plant and Soil’, examines the effect of groundwater temperature on variability of plant and land snail communities at alkaline springs. The results provide important new information for the future development of these threatened ecosystems in the era of global warming.

Mgr. Jan Jekl, Ph.D.

a graduate of the Doctoral study programme in Mathematics and Statistics

Jan Jekl defended an excellent dissertation, which was based on articles in the field of qualitative theory of differential equations he published in professional journals. He is also the co-author of an article in ‘Environmental Studies’ and four papers in the ‘Proceedings of the International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation’. Among other things, he has represented our faculty with lectures at the ICDEA 2021 and Equadiff 2022 international conferences. At present, he is working, and publishing, in the Department of Mathematics and Physics at the Faculty of Military Technologies, University of Defence.

Mgr. Mária Krchniaková, Ph.D.

a graduate of the Doctoral study programme in molecular and cellular biology

Mária Krchniaková has devoted herself to the topic of combined molecular mechanism treatments for childhood solid tumours. In 2017, she won the Brno PhD Talent competition, and in 2022, she successfully defended her dissertation. While completing it, she produced completely new results, which she published in the form of a first-author article in the journal ‘Frontiers in Pharmacology’. As part of a foreign internship at the University of Sydney, she established a cooperation agreement with the team of Dr. Jansson. She is the author and co-author of several other important publications, and presented her results at several international conferences during her studies. At the Biomania Student Scientific Meeting 2022, she won the prize for the best poster presentation. Mária participated in a GAČR project focused on the issue of mitochondrial dynamics and autophagy. She also actively participates in the education of undergraduate students.

Mgr. Michael Kroker, Ph.D.

a graduate of the Doctoral study programme in Physics

As part of his Doctoral thesis, Michael Kroker focused on the deposition and characterisation of ternary Ta-B-C and W-B-C layers. He has mastered all aspects of the industrial preparation of such coatings as well as their laboratory characterisation. The resulting products have now been tested and put into production by an industrial partner. Michael always approaches his work with great creativity and motivation, and his results were always very well substantiated and his conclusions well thought out. He is also able to communicate his results well, both to his colleagues at MUNI and to colleagues in the non-academic sphere, including his industrial partners. He has published the results of his studies in seven high-quality international journals, including four works as first author, and presented his work in the form of three lectures and two posters at international conferences.

Mgr. Martin Kubeš, Ph.D.

a graduate of the Doctoral study programme in Geology

Martin Kubeš completed his dissertation as a collection of four articles published in the best geological journals, based on work undertaken with the support of the OP VVV Geobarr project. He has been co-investigator on several applied research projects related to spent nuclear fuel storage and GAČR projects, and has completed several internships abroad. Martin is the author of six Web of Science publications, including, among other things, the development of a methodology for imaging the migration of elements in altered minerals. He is a researcher or co-researcher on the SURAO and Deep Horizons Surao applied research projects, and participated in the OPVVV Geobarr scientific project and two GAČR projects. He has also completed internships abroad at the University of Oslo in Norway, the University of Nancy in France and the Polish Geological Research Institute. Martin actively participates in the teaching of undergraduate students.

Mgr. Petr Lapčík, Ph.D.

a graduate of the Doctoral study programme in Biochemistry

During his Doctoral studies, Petr Lapčík focused on molecular interactions supporting tumour metastasis that could potentially be influenced therapeutically. He has clearly demonstrated his ability to undertake independent scientific work solving serious biological and clinical questions, leading to above-standard published outputs in a series of very high-quality original scientific papers. He is first author of papers published in the high-impact journals ‘Cancers and Proteomics’ and co-author of several other articles in prestigious professional media. He has also presented his work at both domestic and foreign professional conferences. Petar has been a member of several research projects, including one from the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic and GAČR.

Mgr. Martin Lyčka

a student of the Doctoral study programme in Genomics and Proteomics

Martin Lyčka is dedicated to research directed toward environmental issues, and specifically to the study of plant response mechanisms to the presence of heavy metals in the soil. His planned study is highly complex and includes analyses that are not normally implemented in the Laboratory of Functional Genomics and Proteomics, which is why he has established a successful collaboration with a collegium of domestic and foreign teams. He obtained important data for his work on an internship in the group of Prof. Kopřivy at the University of Cologne. He is first author of an article published in the prestigious ‘Journal of Hazardous Materials’ based on his fundamental contribution to the design and completion of the experimental part of the work. Martin is also involved in other projects, and is first author or co-author of several papers devoted to telomere stability and telomere length analysis.

Chander Kant Negi

a student of the Doctoral study programme in Environmental Health Sciences

Chander Kant Negi is conducting his research within the H2020 MSCA ITN PRORISK international project, to which he was accepted following a demanding international selection process. Since the beginning of his studies, he has been an excellent and independent young researcher who both organises and conducts his own research, and has also proactively built international cooperative agreements with other workplaces in the world. During his studies, he participated on an internship in Holland and on short-term training stays in the USA and Denmark. In a series of scientific outputs, he has described the molecular and biochemical mechanisms of the toxic action of priority organic pollutants (so-called fire extinguishers). His results have been published in the best journals in the field and are now used in practice. Chander Negi is the lead author of four highly cited scientific papers, with an article published in ‘Endocrinology & Metabolism’ rated as a “Highly Cited Paper”, meaning that it belongs to the 1% most cited articles in the field of Biology & Biochemistry.

Mgr. Martin Piecka, Ph.D.

a graduate of the Doctoral study programme in Physics

Martin Piecka is one of the most successful Doctoral students in astrophysics today. He is devoted to the physics of the interstellar medium and open star clusters, and in his first article in an impacted journal, he presented his research into the study of interstellar medium lines in star spectra. He is also the author or co-author of several other professional and cited publications, on which he worked with his supervisor Doc. Paunzen. For his work as one of the few Czech astrophysicists, he mainly uses data from the Gaia satellite, one of the most important satellites launched by the European Space Agency in recent years. In addition, he presents the basic procedures for analysing this data. Martin currently holds a post-doctoral position in the world’s leading group dealing with the interstellar environment, led by Prof. Alves from the University of Vienna.

Mgr. Jan Řehoř

a student of the Doctoral study programme in Physical Geography

Jan Řehoř is heavily involved in scientific activity. He is participating in the SustES project (Adaptation Strategies for the Sustainability of Ecosystem Services and Food Security under Adverse Natural Conditions) at the Czech Academy of Sciences Institute for Global Change Research in Brno. He has also worked with Prof. Eitzinger at BOKU in Vienna, where he completed an eight-week internship in 2021, and with Dr. van der Schrier from the Dutch KNMI, where he was an intern in 2022. At the time of nomination, he was first author of four publications, one of which was in the professional impacted journal ‘Theoretical and Applied Climatology’, and co-author of eight other works, in which he focuses on the study of soil drought, circulation and climate variability, and the victims of hydrometeorological extremes. In addition to his academic duties, he leads exercises in 4th year courses of Meteorology and Climatology and Climate Changes and Fluctuations, and also acts as a trainer.

Mgr. Marek Stiborek, Ph.D.

a graduate of the Doctoral study programme in Chemistry

Marek Stiborek was fundamentally involved in the development of a completely new technique for the digital imaging of biological tissues using metal nanoparticles as specific biological markers. The work, which represents the culmination of almost ten years effort by the research group and was supported by several follow-up GAČR projects, has been published in the leading specialist journal ‘Analytical Chemistry’. As the development aspect has now been completed, a patent application has also been filed. The results of the work have been presented at the most important conference in the field, the ‘European Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry 2019’, where it also received the best poster award. Marek has also participated in related research, which he has presented through publications and posters. He is a reliable and responsible colleague, both within the institute and in communication with external partners.

Mgr. Bc. Klára Klinkovská, Bc. Anna Kučerová, Bc. Štěpánka Pustková, Jaroslav Rohel, Bc. Karolína Slachová, Bc. Vojtěch Sobotka, Mgr. Daniel Szokala

studying Botany and Ecological and Evolutionary Biology

This student team from our faculty has been highly active in botany and plant ecology research. The main reason for the award is the research this student group published in the prestigious impacted journal ‘Applied Vegetation Science’, on which all the students share first authorship. They were all actively involved in the research, proposing further research improvements themselves and devoting a lot of their free time to the project, both in the field and during the subsequent processing of the material, the data obtained and the writing of the publication. Part of the team also participated in an extensive monographic study, also published in the important professional journal ‘Preslia’. In addition to their research and publication activity, the students also have good results in other areas, including presentations at conferences, awards and foreign internships.