Displaying items by tag: research

Charles University, founded on 7 April 1348, is celebrating its 674th birthday. On this occasion, the university awarded five scientists Donatio Universitatis Carolinae prizes. They are worth a financial reward of one million crowns.

Martin Kozák from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics has been awarded a prestigious ERC Starting Grant. It will go towards research of new electron microscopy techniques that will allow capturing the motion of electrons in matter.

The physicist Tim Verhagen comes from the Netherlands but has been working in the Czech Republic for eight years, currently at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics. He has just received a prestigious ERC Starting Grant for his research into new materials – “2D-sandwiches”.

Dr. Erik Meijaard is a highly-recognised ecologist and conservationist who has been based in Borneo since the early 1990s.  Last semester, students were able to attend his course on conservation practices and management at Charles University’s Faculty of Science, based on studies and research he and his team have conducted for years.

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.

“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?

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.

“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.

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 Church of St. Bartholomew in Kolín is a national cultural monument and for  good reason. It is one of the most impressive examples of Gothic architecture in Central Bohemia. Among the church’s many gems are extraordinary stained glass windows. These caught Anna Bartoňová's eye.; she is a student at the Catholic Theological Faculty.

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