Academic bulletin 06/2007
RESUMÉ
V4 Academies Forum in Smolenice Castle
Delegations of science academies from V4 countries – Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary – met on 23rd–24th April 2007 in Smolenice Castle near Bratislava. They discussed mutual cooperation and also relationship to European Science Foundation and European Research Council (see second cover).
EVENT OF THE MONTH
Patočka's Philosophical Week
An international philosophical conference Jan Patočka 1907–1977 between 22nd–28th April 2007 was dedicated to the most important Czech philosopher of the 20th century. The symposium, honoring this victim of the communist regime and student of Professors Husserl and Heidegger, took place in the Karolinum, seat of the Charles University rectorate. Scholars from around the world explored Jan Patočka's work and the significance of its continuing influence on contemporary philosophy. Simultaneously, the Husserl Circle held its 37th meeting, the first time on European soil.
TOPIC OF THE MONTH
A Decade of PALS
In June 1997, the ASCR signed an agreement with the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching (Germany) and became the operator of the Asterix IV laser. This facility provides the basis for experimental research in the field of high-power lasers and their applications, notably in the physics of laser plasmas. The Prague Asterix Laser System (PALS) has been made use of by the wider international research community. From 2000–2003, the European experiments at PALS were supported through the 5th Framework Programme of EU, in the frame of the Transnational Access to Major Research Infrastructure action. Since 2004, the laboratory participates at an Integrated Infrastructure Initiative project of the Consortium (6th FP).
SCIENCE AND RESEARCH
More Acurrate Than the Atomic Clock
On the occasion of the Optics and Optoelectronics 2007 Congress (16–19 April 2007) Professor Theodor Hänsch, Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics in 2005, visited the PALS laboratory (see A Decade of PALS) and received De Scientia et Humanitate Optime Meritis Medal. The founder of laser spectrometry and laser frequency comb techniques, which could lead to a detection of gravitational waves as well as holographic television, have been working on laser atomic clock as well as a laser spectrometry of hydrogen atom during last decade.
New Laboratory for Plant Genomics in Olomouc
A new plant-genomics laboratory was opened on 23rd April in Olomouc as part of the Institute of the Experimantal Botany ASCR. The festive visitation of the lab was completed by Triticeae Genomics – Current Status and Utility of the Chromosome Based Strategies seminary. In the coming years, the new research establishment will be a part of an international wheat-genome-reading team, a prestigious task that can aid the undertstanding of one of the main crop-plants.
News
15 Sep 2011 World-leading scientists will shed new light on climate
World-leading climate scientists gather in Germany 18-23 September 2011 to present new research on how Earth’s land areas – forests, soils, permanently frozen regions, deserts, croplands and pastures – affect the global climate.
14 Sep 2011 The key breakthroughs will come in future from exceptional physicists, not from philosophers
Martin Rees is Master of Trinity College and Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge. He holds the honorary title of Astronomer Royal and also Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and at Leicester University. After studying at the University of Cambridge, he held post-doctoral positions in the UK and the USA, before becoming a professor at Sussex University. In 1973, he became a fellow of King's College and Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at Cambridge (continuing in the latter post until 1991) and served for ten years as director of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy. From 1992 to 2003 he was a Royal Society Research Professor.
30 Aug 2011 European Heritage Days in Château Liblice
The Prize is to be given annually. The prize will include a monetary award of 1200 USD. The charter of the prize is attached. The deadline for accepting this year's contribution is December 31, 2011. Dr. Zdenek P. Bazant, McCormick Institute Professor at Northwestern University, Evanston, member of NAS, NAE and AAAS, and a famous alumnus of CTU in Prague.
21 Jun 2011 Tony Martinek have been named as the 2011 recipients of the Blake H. Gooding Memorial Award
Conestoga’s developers of an exam program for Certified Engineering Technologists and Technicians will be recognized for their significant contribution to the profession at a gala awards ceremony to be held in Toronto in October 2011. Tony Martinek, P.Eng., former Dean of Conestoga’s School of Engineering Technology and Principal of the Doon Campus, and Jeff Schelling, LLB, corporate solicitor for the Regional Government of Waterloo, have been named as the 2011 recipients of the Blake H. Gooding Memorial Award bestowed by the Ontario Association of Certified Engineering Technicians and Technologists (0ACETT), as professional association established in 1962 to maintain high standards for the profession of Engineering/Applied Science Technology.
7 Jun 2011 Honorary Fellowship for Professor Jan Palouš
The Royal Astronomical Society honored Professor Jan Palouš from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic as an Honorary Fellow of the Society.
22 Apr 2011 ELI Beamlines gets the green light!
The European Commission finally approved the ELI Beamlines project. This is the first of the large projects of the Operational Programme Research and Development for Innovation (OP RDI) to be approved. The main purpose of the project consists of the construction of a cutting-edge research complex in the central Bohemian town of Dolní Břežany for a budget of almost 7 billion Czech crowns. The center should become operational at the beginning of the year 2016. ELI will be a top-of-the class research infrastructure providing the best conditions of access to the international scientific community.
20 Apr 2011 Representatives of the Czech Republic visited ESO at Paranal
On 6 April 2011, the ESO Paranal Observatory was honoured with a visit from the President of the Czech Republic, Václav Klaus, who also took the opportunity to admire Cerro Armazones, the future site of the planned E-ELT. The distinguished visitor was shown the technical installations at the observatory, and was present when the dome of one of the four 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes of ESO's Very Large Telescope opened for a night's observing at Cerro Paranal, the world's most advanced visible-light observatory.
19 Apr 2011 Results of International Audit on Research, Development & Innovation
The province of Carinthia is making two grants available for participation in the Management of Protected Areas MSc course. The grant of € 6,200 is targeted at applicants from Central and Eastern Europe, which have a need to make up economic ground on other European states. It gives applicants access to international expertise and global networks. Both grants will be awarded as part of a competition. Apply now, the terms and conditions are detailed below.
15 Mar 2011 Celebrating the spirit of invention
Czech scientist Professor Blanka Říhová of Microbiology Institute of the Academy of Sciences has been nominated for the prestigious European Inventor Award 2011 for her research and development of synthetic polymeric drugs to combat cancer. The driving force and motor behind the innovation process is people with a passion for discovery. Without the inquisitive mind, the search for new ideas, and creativity of human beings there would be no inventive spirit and no progress. As one of the most prestigious competitions of its type, the European Inventor Award pays tribute to the creativity of all inventors who, in applying their technical, scientific and intellectual skills, make a major contribution to technological impact, economic growth, and improvement in people's daily lives.
14 Mar 2011 EUSJA Study Trip to Prague
On the Verge of International Year of Chemistry was the theme of the first study trip for European journalists united in the European Union of Science Journalists’Association (EUSJA) organized by the Czech Science Journalists Club, the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (IOCB ASCR). The purpose of the three-day meeting (November 29 – December 1, 2010) was to improve communication between the Czech scientific community and society and to promote contacts between journalists in the field of scientific and technical communication. The study trip was supported by the ASCR Centre for Administration and Operations.
13 Mar 2011 Brain awareness week
During the Brain Awareness Week, held worldwide annually in March, the neuroscientists and other brain scientists inform the wide public on their research activities and their achievements to advance public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research. The Brain Awareness Week was created in USA by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives in 1996, the European activities are coordinated by the European Dana Alliance for the Brain (EDAB). In 2011, the thirteenth year of the Brain Awareness Week in the Czech Republic is taking place from Mach 14, 2011. The main events are held in the main building of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The organizers are: Institute of Experimantal Medicine, v. v. i., ASCR, Czech Neuroscience Society and Media Communication Department, ASCR.
4 Feb 2011 The conference Universities in Central Europe
The conference Universities in Central Europe – Crossroads of Scholars from all over the world (Prague, 29 September 2011 – 1 October, 2011, Charles University, Czech Republic) will follow up on an international meeting dedicated to the issue of Scientists in Exile and the Dictatorships of the 20th Century, which will take place in Prague on May 24‒26 (see http://www.science.usd.cas.cz/cs/aktuality.html) While the May conference focuses on forced migration, the September conference deals with voluntary migration of scientists.
4 Feb 2011 New Round of Newton International Fellowships
A new round of Newton International Fellowships - an initiative to fund research collaborations and improve links between UK and overseas researchers - has now opened. The Newton International Fellowships are funded by the British Academy and the Royal Society and aim to attract the most promising early-career post-doctoral researchers from overseas in the fields of the humanities, the natural, physical and social sciences. The Fellowships enable researchers to work for two years at a UK research institution with the aim of fostering long-term international collaborations.
31 Jan 2011 Invitation to the Conference
May 24-26 2011 will take place in the Prague National Technical Museum the international conference SCHOLARS IN EXILE AND DICTATORSHIPS OF THE 20TH CENTURY organized by the Centre for the History of Sciences and Humanities, Institute for Contemporary History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in cooperation with the National Technical Museum in Prague and the Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Applications can be sent before March 15, 2011 to the contact address nytrovaz@vcdv.cas.cz.
25 Jan 2011 Institutes of the ASCR received support from Research Support Fund
The National Training Fund organized a meeting on the occasion of finalizing the research subprojects, which received the grants from the Research Support Fund. Among the invited guests were Norwegian Ambasador to the Czech Republic His Excellency Jens Eikaas or Josef Syka, the member of the Steering Committee of the Fund.
7 Dec 2010 110th Anniversary of formulation of the Max Planck quantum theory
For decades, physicists had been trying to understand the surprising results they continued to measure from heating black bodies (a surface that absorbs all frequencies of light that hits it). Try as they might, scientists could not explain the results using classical physics. On December 14, 1900, German theoretical physicist Max Planck (1858–1947) discovered an equation that explained the results of these measurements.
7 Dec 2010 New International Competition Focuses on Early Career Scientists
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is launching an international competition to select up to 35 early career scientists working at academic institutions in 18 countries including the Czech Republic.
8 Oct 2010 Interview with the new Director-General at DG Research
The European Commission has appointed Robert-Jan Smits as new Director General for Research on 2 June 2010. He has a lot of experience in many areas, especially in coordination research programmes and moves to get small and medium-sized enterprises into the Framework Programmes. Previous assignment of Robert-Jan Smits was in JRC as a Deputy Director General. He was also responsible for developing the European Research Council (ERC), the European Technology Platforms (ETPs) as well as for the shaping of the Joint Technology Initiatives (JTI). His interview with CZELO office is focused mainly on the 7. Framework Programme and its results and future perspectives.
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