prof. RNDr. Helena Illnerová, DrSc.

(born in 1937 Prague)

In 1961, Helena Illnerová graduated in chemistry (with a specialisation in biochemistry) from the Faculty of Science at Charles University in Prague. The same year, she began graduate studies at the Institute of Physiology of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (since 1993, the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, ASCR) where she has worked since that time. In 1966, she defended a CSc. (PhD) thesis on the topic "Production of Urea in the Rat Liver During Ontogenesis". In 1967, she earned the degree of RNDr. (Rerum Naturalium Doctor). In 1990, she received a DrSc. degree for a doctoral thesis entitled "Regulation of Circadian Rhythms in the Rat Pineal Gland". In the years 1990–2008 Helena Illnerová lectured also at the Faculty of Science of Charles University. In 1989, she became a member of the Chamber of Elected Representatives of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and since 1993 till 2005 she was a member of the Academy Assembly of the ASCR. In the years 1993–2001 she was a member of the Academy Council of the ASCR in the position of a Vice-President responsible for chemical and biological sciences and in the years 2001–2005 Helena Illnerová was President of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.
Her main research interest has been the time-keeping system of mammals, its synchronisation with the 24-hour-day and seasons of the year and development of the biological clock. She has published more than 100 primary papers, one monography and many chapters in books.
Helena Illnerova is a member of the Advisory Board of the Journal of Biological Rhythms in the U.S.A., the Czech Learned Society, the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (Salzburg) and the European Academy of Sciences (Brussels). She has been invited to lecture or to chair sessions at numerous international conferences and symposia, e.g., repeatedly at Gordon Conferences on Chronobiology or on Pineal Cell Biology. Currently she is a member of Scientific Councils of ASCR, of Charles University in Prague and three of its faculties, of the University of Southern Bohemia in České Budějovice and of the Institute of Physiology of the ASCR. In the years 2001–2004, she was a member of the Grand Jury for Descartes Prize and in 2001–2007, she was a member of the European Research Advisory Board (EURAB). At present, she is President of the Committee for Scientific Integrity of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, of the Czech Commission for UNESCO and of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic.
Among numerous honours, Professor Helena Illnerová received the NIH Fogarthy International Center Award for Seniors in Neuroscience, was awarded by the Medal of Merit of the Czech Republic, Second Grade, by the Medal of the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic, First Grade, by the Medal De Scientia et Humanitate Optime Meritis of the ASCR, by the Golden Medal of the Charles University in Prague and was named Officer of Academic Palms by the French Ministry for Education.