The first scientists have received the MUNI Scientist Award for excellent results in their field
This new award of the internal grant agency recognises the best experts at the university.
For the first time, the Grant Agency of Masaryk University has presented awards in the new MUNI Scientist competition, which recognises those scientists who have achieved excellence and significant achievements in their research. The first 37 scientists, along with their research teams from workplaces across the university, received their diploma and monetary reward in mid-December. The awards were presented by Šárka Pospíšilová, Vice-Rector for Research and Doctoral Studies.
The vice-deans for science and research of all ten faculties, the Directors or Commissioners of the various research centres, the Director of the Technology Transfer Office, the Vice-Rector for Research and Doctoral Studies and the Head of the Research Department of the MU Rectorate nominated experts for the annual competition.
The award is not only intended to reward quality scientific work in the past but also to motivate other scientists to achieve such results in the future. The award joins other internal awards and grants awarded to support research at MU.
The MUNI Scientist Awards were won by:
Luděk Bláha from the Faculty of Science, MU
Luděk is the coordinator of the PRORISK project, undertaken within the framework of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network. PRORISK is the first event of this call for applications coordinated by Masaryk University, and only the fifth coordinated by a Czech institution since the establishment of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions in 1996. The vision of the project is to provide unique value by creating a new platform for training and networking early-stage researchers in advanced environmental risk assessment.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Vítězslav Bryja and Pavlína Janovská from the Faculty of Science, MU
These exceptional scientists have dedicated themselves to the research of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. The Bryjalab team focuses on Wnt signalling and its role in cell biology and certain malignant tumours. In collaboration with scientists from the Department of Chemistry, they have succeeded in developing new inhibitors that have proven to be effective. These are currently entering the clinical phase of testing and will be used as a new form of treatment for leukaemia, lymphoma and other diseases.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Jiří Damborský, Zbyněk Prokop, Martin Marek, David Bednář and Stanislav Mazurenko from the Faculty of Science, MU
Jiří Damborský and his team received the award not only for their exceptional research but also for their long-term active approach to communication and popularisation of science. Many talented students have started their professional careers in the team and have gained a lot of experience for further growth. Software tools developed by the Loschmidt Laboratories are now used globally in protein engineering, with applications in biotechnology and biomedicine.
Photo: Helena Brunnerová
Jiří Fajkus from the Faculty of Science, MU, and CEITEC, MU
Telomerase RNA acts as a template for telomere synthesis and as a basis for telomerase assembly. Jiří Fajkus’s team identified the first plant telomerase RNAs, as well as identifying telomerase RNA subunits across the terrestrial plant phylogeny. This makes it possible to use telomerase manipulation in crop breeding and biotechnologies.
Photo: Ludmila Korešová
Jana Klánová from the Faculty of Science, MU
Jana has been recognised both for leading her research team and the RECETOX centre itself, which, in one year, won projects in all three main calls of the ‘Spreading Excellence and Expanding Participation’ program. No other organisation in the world has succeeded in anything like this.
Photo: RECETOX archive
Petra Urbanová, Mikoláš Jurda, Helena Lukášová and Ctibor Ostrý from the Faculty of Science, MU, the Faculty of Informatics, MU, and the Faculty of Arts, MU
This team received the award for the top results in an interdisciplinary project. Their study of the personality of Baron František Trenck connected the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Informatics at Masaryk University with the Brno City Museum and the Capuchin Tomb. The results of the project not only brought new knowledge but also influenced the cultural and spiritual life of the city and contributed to the good name of Masaryk University in the Czech Republic and abroad. Their work also had a number of artistic outputs, including a three-dimensional virtual reconstruction of Baron Trenck’ and a short film using 3D animation techniques.
Photo: Oliver Staša
Norbert Werner from the Faculty of Science, MU
The achievements of Norbert Werner, a leading astrophysicist, were recently covered in an article in the New York Times entitled “This Black Hole Blew a Hole in the Cosmos”, which was published in 2020. The article talks about Norbert Werner, whose observations through the Chandra X-ray Observatory, operated by NASA, led to a significant discovery.
Photo: Radek Miča, Universitas
