Jan Rejšek of the Department of Geological Processes was awarded the first prize in the Competition of Young Spectroscopists 2018 organized by the Ioannes Marcus Marci Spectroscopic Society in the category of published scientific papers. The competition was held during the session of the main committee of the Ioannes Marcus Marci Spectroscopic Society in Pardubice on 28 November 2018. The award honoured Jan Rejšekʼs results in mass spectrometry published during his doctoral studies. For additional information click here.

Ing. Šárka Křížová of the Department of Analytical Methods was awarded the 2018 Outstanding Student Poster Award at the International European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC 2018) held in Berlin on September 16–21, 2018. The award honored her results in the study of Australasian tektites.

Macrofungi (mushrooms) may accumulate high concentrations of toxic metals in their fruit-bodies. The team led by Jan Borovička of the Department of Environmental Geology and Geochemistry (GLI) has focused on the saprotrophic fungus Cystoderma carcharias. According to the joint study published together with collaborating laboratories (University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, University of Graz, Nuclear Physics Institute CAS, Charles University), cadmium concentrations in C. carcharias are elevated at pristine sites. However, concentrations reaching 600 mg/kg in dry weight, the highest ever reported in macrofungi under natural conditions, have been found from a polluted site in the vicinity of Příbram (Central Bohemia, Czech Republic). In the study published in Science of the Total Environment (IF 4.610) the authors investigated the chemical species of the accumulated elements, particularly cadmium and arsenic. Cadmium appeared to be associated with specific proteins (possibly metallothioneins) but arsenic was present in numerous low-molecular-weight methylated compounds of which two have been known only from marine environments yet.

The Institute of Geology of the Czech Academy of Sciences organized the 19th Czech–Slovak–Polish Palaeontological Conference together with the 11th MIKRO 2018 Worskshop on 18th–20th October 2018. The conference took place in Villa Lanna, a beautiful architectonic place and a representative residence of the Czech Academy of Sciences. One-hundred and two researchers from the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Poland, Ukraine and Slovenia participated in the conference. There were representatives of a wide range of interests including palaeobotany, palaeozoology, micropalaeontology and also anthropology. Forty-four lectures and forty-seven posters were presented during this conference. The last day, a guided field excursion focused on stratigraphy and tectonics of the Prague Basin was led by František Vacek of the National Museum. A special issue of the Folia journal dedicated to this conference was published. It is available through the Library of the Institute of Geology or on the official webpage of the Folia journal.