HR Award – Activities
15 February 2023: Women in Science launch the Dana Hocková Lecture series
IOCB’s Women in Science group hosted the inaugural lecture of the Dana Hocková Lecture series. Named in memory of our colleague Dana Hocková, who passed away in May 2021, this was a special event where Dana’s colleague Petra Břehová paid tribute to her scientific work in a stunning tour of her chemistry research over the years. This was followed by Hana Dvořáková, founder of Experientia Foundation and a colleague of Dana’s from their time in Antonín Holý‘s laboratory, discussing her career journey in research and beyond, dipping into the theme of doing science whilst bringing up a family, as well as on the beginnings of her philanthropy journey.
Throughout the talks, the desire for junior scientists, especially women, to have role models around them to be inspired and mentored by, was evident. This is why we are pleased that this was the first one in a series of planned lectures and talks by such role models.
Future events in the Dana Hocková Lecture series will take the form of a research talk in the morning, followed by a career journey talk and an informal networking session in the afternoon.
8 November 2022: Career workshop for PhD students and postdocs
In November, the PhD student representative Terezie Páníková, together with Oldřich Hudeček from IOCB Communications organized an „alternative career options“ seminar with five external speakers to allow the PhD students and postdocs to explore potential career routes outside academia.
The career options that the early career researchers were able to learn ranged from contract research and forensic analysis through working for a funding organization to science communication and science diplomacy.
The event was popular and attended by approximately 70 people.
10–13 May 2022: Lab leadership course for group leaders
In May, the IOCB management organized a lab leadership course, provided by EMBO Solutions, for the junior group leaders and those who have only recently been promoted to senior group leader positions.
The course, led by Petra Pandur and Melanie Glickman from Leadership Sculptor, covered a wide range of topics and was extremely positively received.
„Any newly hired junior group leader should be sent on one of these courses just before they start at the IOCB,“ was the overwhelming feeling of course participants. They also agreed that a huge added value of the course was being able to network with other more junior group leaders at their own institute.
9 November 2021: Career pathway seminar with Vladimíra Petráková
IOCB’s Women in Science group, with financial support kindly provided by the director, hosted Dr. Vladimíra Petráková, a junior group leader from the J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry of the CAS, at one of the Career Stories informal seminars. After a morning lecture with a scientific focus, some of the researchers, mostly in the early stages of their careers, joined Vladimíra for a very honest and open account of how she has been able to combine a research career, partially spent as a Humboldt research fellow in Berlin, with care for a 4 children family throughout the years, with all the associated ups and downs.
Vladimíra touched upon a range of topics including how to maximize time doing the things you want to prioritize, i.e. science or time with children, how helpful it is to have a supportive mentor and role model, how it is important to ask for help and support when you need it, and how it is useful to have something other than your science to fall back on for positive vibes when the science is not going so well (Vlaďka is a cofounder of the Czexpats in Science NGO).
