Last February saw the cancellation of Venkov 2021 due to the pandemic. The popular conference hosted by the Department of Social Geography and Regional Development and organised by Dr. Radim Perlín, has always been an opportunity for regional stakeholders to connect with researchers and government planners. Luckily, this year, it returned.

“They are fighting for our freedom here as well,” was the message sent by the Faculty of Arts’ Dr. Radomyr Mokryk, currently in Lviv. He was one of the panellists at a student event held at Kampus Hybernská. The happening took place a day after Russian military forces attacked Ukraine.

Science communication – raising  awareness and understanding among the general public, while capturing the thrill of successful science – is something of an art. It isn’t always easy to communicate effectively. But British experts agree, it is essential and it's important to get it right.

Tomáš Weiss from the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Charles University is the editor of a new book on the influence of small states in international security. “It may be interesting for Czech readers that the book devotes several chapters to the Czech Republic,” he says.

“We really had no idea how big a role the Aborigines played,” say Petr Kuneš. An associate professor at CU, Dr. Kuneš was a member an international team that examined how colonisation changed vegetation management in Australia.

The Olympics are not just about sports and the joy of winning: sociologists also look at the role that money, politics and globalisation play. “Basically, all Olympics suffer some controversy,” says Matouš Veselský, a sociologist at the Faculty of Humanities.

Friday, 11 February, marks the seventh International Day of Women and Girls in Science, celebrating the role of women in the scientific world and promoting gender equality. What do women scientists at Charles University enjoy the most about their work and what kind of challenges did they face?

Charles University, Professor Milena Králíčková, met for the first time in the historic Carolinum’. Králíčková was elected to head Charles University by the Academic Senate in October 2021 and then appointed by the Czech head of state at the end of January. The very first meeting addressed a number of specific points and challenges.

Innovation Breakfasts, organised by the Centre for Knowledge and Technology Transfer, have been running since last September. The series provides participants with new opportunities to broaden their outlook and a chance to connect with professionals from different backgrounds.

The UN estimates that by 2050, there will be 9.7 billion people on Earth. Facing problems such as overpopulation and the climate crisis, some people are opting to remain childless. Šárka Stříbrská, a CU graduate student who conducted research into the reasons some people choose not to have kids.

Kuks Hospital, located just outside the town of Jaroměř, dates back to the 17^th century, and is also home to a stunning Baroque pharmacy overseen by the Czech Pharmaceutical Museum. CU's Jana Karlíčková highly recommends the museum for anyone interested in medicinal history.

Dánská politička a evropská komisařka „pro digitální věk“‎ Margrethe Vestagerová bývá nazývána „drakobijcem“‎ a „nejhorší noční můrou Googlu“‎, nejslavnější regulátorkou na světě, ale také inovátorkou. V pondělí 24. ledna navštívila Univerzitu Karlovu.

She has been called a dragon slayer and the world’s most famous regulator, but also a democrat dedicated to fairness in markets paving the way for innovation: Danish politician Margrethe Vestager, the EC's executive vice-president for digital transformation. Vestager was a keynote speaker on Monday at the Faculty of Law.

Jan Exner has taken part in more Olympic Games than many, first as a volunteer and later as a lawyer for the Czech Olympic Committee. He was in PyeongChang and Tokyo, but he won’t be headed to Beijing; he discovered he enjoys teaching at university most of all.

“Our goal is to create a universal natural language generator that will be able to learn from only a few examples and will not make mistakes,” says Ondřej Dušek from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics. His work landed him a prestigious ERC grant.

At present, the Faculty of Science of Charles University boasts a herbarium containing almost 2.5 million items. “Such herbaria (or collections of pressed and dried plant or flower samples) are living archives of plant biodiversity,” says botanist Patrik Mráz.

The TV hockey series Lajna (Line) starring Jiří Langmajer as a despotic head coach at a crossroads in his life, proved popular each week among viewers online and ran three seasons. What you might not know is that a number of Charles University students were extras on the show as players on the team.

Charles Games was founded in 2020 as a successful spin-off at Charles University. The firm is the name behind the highly successful historical games Attentát 1942 and its sequel Svoboda 1945: Liberation. Forum spoke to project director Lukáš Kolek.

The year 2021 saw no end to the pandemic, which brought numerous complications, including for scientists. Nevertheless, scientific research continued with positive results. We offer a look back at science at Charles University over the course of the year.

The founder of modern Czechoslovak epidemiology, Karel Raška, who contributed to the worldwide eradication of smallpox, is to receive the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, First Class, in memoriam. His son, Professor Ivan Raška, writes about his father's contributions and career.