I1ASARYK
NIUERSITY RECTOR'S PRIZES
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RECTOR' S AWARDS MASARYK UNIVERSITY III   2 0 2 3
The Rector's Awards of Masaryk University are given annually in several categories in recognition of outstanding achievements in science and research, sporting achievements, teaching, art, and civic activities. According to the rules of the competition, students or employees of the University, or their collectives, can become award winners. Proposals for the awards are submitted by the heads of individual units of Masaryk University and are evaluated by special committees of the Rector. The winners receive a diploma, a medal of Masaryk University and a financial reward.
RECTOR  OF MASARYK UNIVERSITY  AWARD FOR A   SIGNIFICANT CREATIVE ACHIEVEMENT
prof. ML)Dr. Zdeněk Adam, CSc, prof. MUDr. Luděk Pour, Ph.D., ML)Dr. Ing. David Zeman, Ph.D.
Faculty of Medicine MU
The publication "Rare Diseases Accompanied by Hypergammaglobulinemia and Inflammatory Manifestations" is the imaginary culmination of several decades of work of the working group on rare diseases headed by Professor Adam. It provides clearguidance on the management of patients with this diagnosis. It is a unique work describing the differential diagnosis of a common laboratory abnormality, hyperpro-teinemia, which is extremely difficult to interpret. The publication summarizes years of demanding work in a not very well studied field of medicine and is a unique collaboration of experts from completely different disciplines, clinical and paraclinical, laboratory and imaging. The authors discuss in detail the individual rare diseases that are accompanied by hyperproteinemia. An extensive literature review identifies the optimal treatment modalities available. Examples are then shown from the authors' clinical practice, where this painstaking work has led to clear patient benefit. The named authors have been working on the issue of rare diseases throughout their time at the Internal Haemato-Oncology Clinic of the Brno University Hospital and have been introducing it to all students who are doing their internship at the MU Faculty of Medicine.
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MIASARYK UNIVERSITY RECTOR'S   PRIZE FOR A   SIGNIFICANT ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT
Mgr. Anna Kelblova
Faculty of Arts MU
Under the direction of Anna Kelblova, the graphic and animation team of the Centre for Early Medieval Studies at the Seminar of Art History of the Faculty of Arts of the Masaryk University, within the framework of the TA CR project Potential of Migration: the Contribution of (Not Only) Russian Emigrants to Interwar Europe, created a series of documentary and animated films dedicated to the fate of specific personalities of intellectual emigrants who were forced to leave their homes in present-day Russia or Ukraine as a result of the Bolshevik Revolution. The result is a series of films with a total running time of 60 minutes, which has already been viewed by several thousand viewers, both in the university's Scala cinema and through the YouTube channel of the Centre for Early Medieval Studies. Apart from the tragic topicality and the social significance of the subject, it is important to stress the artistic qualities of the images. The graphic and animation team of the Centre for Early Medieval Studies, with its exceptional artistic form and technical processing, has brought to life stories that are a hundred years old, but which have become tragically topical in the meantime. The profound impact of this work on the public, then, demonstrates how art in the service of the academy can support the third role of the university in a way that is both high qualities, poetic and deeply human.
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Be. Ondřej Dvořák,
MgA. Matěj Smetana, Ph.D.,
Be. Ondřej Voráč, MgA.
Faculty of Education MU
The team of authors from the Department of Art Education received the Rector's Award for the complex authorial implementation of the art component of the project Research--verified innovative model of identification and development of mathematically gifted primary school pupils of the Institute for Psychological Research of the Faculty of Social Sciences of MU. Matěj Smetana contributed to the script, is the author of the animation and directed the individual episodes. Ondřej Dvořák and Ondřej Voráč, a creative tandem of students of the master's degree programme at the Department of Art Education of the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University, are the authors of the drawings, graphics, editing and dubbing. Ondřej Dvořák also wrote the music and took care of the sound component of the work. The result of this team is a unique set of twenty interactive animated films with a total length of 135 minutes, whose visual effectiveness, sound, and animation quality go far beyond the standard benchmarks for this type of project. Despite the demanding assignment, the result is an exemplary example of practical cooperation between the faculty teacher and students, all while maintaining the excellent artistic value of the resulting work. Moreover, the artistic design of the interactive films is fully in line with the didactic component of the project and allows for extensive usability of the outputs in teaching in primary schools.
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MASARYK UNIVERSITY RECTOR'S AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING SPORTS PERFORMANCE
Eliška Hamzová
Faculty of Education MU
Eliška Hamzová is a basketball player of BKŽabiny Brno, one of the most successful Czech teams in the long term. She is a point guard for the team, has a solid place in the starting lineup and despite her early age she is already one of the key players. She is also the first point guard in the women's national basketball team. In her age category, she is one of the biggest hopes of Czech basketball, as evidenced by her being named the best young player in both 2021 and 2020. Eliška represented the Czech Republic in all youth categories, in which she also participated in the European Championships. She made her debut in the senior women's national team in 2021 and made her debut at the European Championships in Strasbourg. Gradually gaining a more prominent role in the national team, she is now a solid member of the core squad and regularly takes part in qualifying and friendly matches played by the national team. The year 2022 was an exceptionally successful one for Eliška Hamzová, when she and her team became the winner of the Czech Women's Basketball Cup, the winner of the Euro league and a member of the silver team of the Women's Basketball League.
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MIASARYK UNIVERSITY RECTOR'S   AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN   INTERNATIONAL GRANT C 0 1111 P E T I T I 0 N
doc. Mgr. Pavel Plevka, Ph.D.
CEITEC MU
Pavel Plevka has been awarded a 2022 ERC Consolidator Grant "BioPhage" to investigate phage infection of bacterial biofilms formed by the pathogenic bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, which is often resistant to antibiotics. The ERC Consolidator Grant is a prestigious grant awarded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Competitiveness and Innovation Programme Horizon 2020. The aim of the grant is to support researchers to achieve the freedom and independence needed to develop their own research programme. The selection process for ERC grants is competitive and only around 10% of applications are supported. ERC grants provide researchers with a significant amount of money to conduct their planned research, allowing them to conduct ambitious and innovative projects, while also providing a high degree of independence and flexibility, which is highly valued in academia. Moreover, it should be stressed that ERC grants are internationally recognized, which increases the prestige of the researcher and the institution at which he/she works, and finally, they are awarded based on scientific excellence, which means that researchers who receive ERC grants are among the best in their field.
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MIASARYK UNIVERSITY RECTOR'S   AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENTS   FOR YOUNG SCIENTISTS   UNDER 35
NATURAL  SCIENCES  AND MEDICINE RNDr. Michaela Fojtu, Ph.D.
Faculty of Medicine MU
In 2014 Michaela Fojtu already received a very prestigious scholarship for selected Ph.D. students, the so-called Ph.D. talent, which helped her, among other things, in obtaining unique experimental data and in participating in international workshops, such as EMBO Mouse Genome Engineering. During her PhD studies, she spent 6 months at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. She successfully completed her PhD studies in 2018 with her dissertation "Nanoparticles as a Tool for Targeted Cancer Therapy". In 2019, she was firstly awarded the Dean's Prize of the Faculty of Medicine for the best scientific achievement in the field of biomedical sciences and subsequently awarded the prestigious Werner von Siemens Prize for the second place in the dissertation category. After her PhD studies, she accepted a postdoc position in Prof. Pumera's team, where she was further involved in the development and testing of new nano-structures, 2D nanomaterials and the issue of nanorobots and their use in cancer therapy. In 2020, she was awarded a very prestigious Fulbright Scholarship and spent 9 months at Harvard Medical School & Brigham and Women's Hospital, Center for Engineered Therapeutics in a team led by Prof. Shiladitya Sengupta, with whom she continues to collaborate.
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SOCIAL  SCIENCES  AND HUMANITIES
Mgr. Tomáš Glomb, Ph.D.
Faculty of Arts MU
Tomáš Glomb is an outstanding young scholar, already established in the international field of digital research on religion. He has long demonstrated his ability to enrich religious research with methods of natural sciences on the topic of quantitative spatial modelling of factors influencing the spread of ancient Egyptian cults. An example is the publication Ptolemaic political activities on the west coast of Hellenistic Asia Minor had a significant impact on the local spread of the Isiac cults: A spatial network analysis. He received the Dean's Prize of the Faculty of Arts MU for his dissertation. At the end of 2022, he published a scholarly book with the prestigious Bloomsbury Academic publishing house entitled Connecting the Isiac Cults: Formal Modeling in the Hellenistic Mediterranean. Soon after completing his PhD, he was awarded the role of co-principal investigator of the standard GA CR project The Cultural Evolution of Moralizing Religions in the Ancient Mediterranean: A Distance Reading Approach (2020-2023), in which he investigates the relationship between prosperity and morality in ancient Mediterranean cults through quantitative text analysis. This project has already published a study on Affluence, Agricultural Productivity, and the Rise of Moralizing Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean, which contradicts the argument that prosperity was continuously increasing in antiquity, and shows the situation as more complex and changing, using epigraphic data, data from Mediterranean shipwrecks or animal remains as examples.
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AREA  OF   ECONOMICS  AND INFORMATICS
Ing. Dušan Mladenovič, Ph.D.
Faculty of Economics and Administration MU
Dušan Mladenovič is the first author of an article in Current Issues in Tourism on the impact of offering free vaccines on the tourism sector. The article was one of the first to respond to the Serbian government's unique move and describe its impact, while also standing out from most "covid studies" by not summarizing the negative (not just economic) impacts of the pandemic but pointing to the opportunities that are associated with the past, and potentially future, crises. Two more articles published in 2022 underline the excellent scientific work of Dušan Mladenovič in the past years. An article published in the International Journal of Consumer Studies, using two original studies, shows the implications of the use of emoticons in online reviews and extends the theory focusing on the influence of emotions in sharing customer experiences. A paper published in Online Information Review focuses on the visibility of organizations in the online environment. The paper both extends theories related to online marketing and has societal implications consisting of specific recommendations to blood banks to help increase the visibility of their services. The article also has the theoretical contribution of developing a new methodology for analyzing online search visibility that is applicable across sectors.
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MIASARYK UNIVERSITY RECTOR'S   AWARD FOR LONG-TERM EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH
NATURAL  SCIENCES  AND MEDICINE doc. MVDr. Ales Hampl, CSc.
Faculty of Medicine MU
Ales Hampl is an internationally recognized expert on stem cells and their use in biomedicine. He was the first in the Czech Republic to establish stem cell lines from human blastocysts, served as a member of the Standards Committee of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, participated in the global activity "International SC Forum" focused on the characterization of human pluripotent stem cells and contributed to two multicenter studies published in Nature Biotechnology. He is also the national representative of the Czech Republic in the Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Registry and a member of the Steering Group of the European Consortium for the Communication of Information on Gene and Cell Therapy. Ales Hampl has experience in leading large projects with an international dimension and in leading large research teams such as the Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Engineering at St. Anne's University Hospital. Since 2020, he is also scientifically responsible for the conception of a new large-scale infrastructure called BiopharmaHub, whose Preclinical Centre is being built as a facility dedicated to preclinical research in humanized in vivo and ex vivo models. Ales Hampl's cellular research, aimed at developing drugs for modern therapies, is also one of the three pillars of the CREATIC project, which was created thanks to grant support awarded to LF MU under the HEU Teaming for Excellence project call.
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SOCIAL  SCIENCES  AND HUMANITIES
doc. Mgr. Anna Ševčíková, Ph.D.
Faculty of Social Studies MU
Anna Ševčíková has long been working on the topic of health, sexuality, and relationships in the elderly population from the perspective of both basic and applied research. Due to the ageing of the population, this is a topical issue with a broad social impact. Herfindings, such as identified barriers to sexuality in older age or barriers to communicating these topics, are directly applicable to the professional community in the fields of sexology or counseling and clinical psychology. In the field of basic research, Anna Ševčíková>s work is important in the debate on conceptualizing whether and to what extent the excessive use of, for example, pornography is an addiction or a compulsive disorder. Anna Ševčíková is also one of the pioneers of research on the psychological effects of the use of digital technologies, among other things, she founded research on cyberbullying at MU. Her work was then built upon and is still being used by many researchers at our university and beyond.
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AREA  OF   ECONOMICS  AND INFORMATICS
prof. Ing. Juraj Nemec, CSc.
Faculty of Economics and Administration MU
Juraj Nemec has 40 years of experience in academic teaching. He has successfully supervised six PhD students at the Faculty of Economics and Administration, one of whom has already successfully habilitated at Charles University in the field of Public and Social Policy and is currently undergoing his professorship. He is the chairman of the doctoral programme in Public Economics. At the master's level, he supervises the follow-up master's degree programme in Public Administration, which is implemented in the mode of double degree studies in cooperation with the French Universite de Rennes. Juraj Nemec is also an excellent researcher with an international reputation, his publications in the Web of Science database will soon reach one thousand citations. At the same time, his research has overlapping application outputs. He has worked and is working as a key advisor and capacity builder in the field of public policy, legal and institutional reforms of the public sector in his home country Slovakia and in many transition countries in Central and Eastern Europe and Africa. He has extensive advisory and consultancy experience in various transition countries. During his missions to Southeastern European countries and Ukraine, he has provided public procurement activities as well as assistance in institution building and development. As a key advisor to the governments of Slovakia and the Czech Republic, he has supported all levels of government in the areas of public administration reform, health care reform and improvement of public procurement systems, both before and after the countries' accession to the European Union. In this capacity, he participated in the drafting of the first public procurement law in Slovakia.
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MIASARYK UNIVERSITY RECTOR'S AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING TEACHERS*
NATURAL  SCIENCES  AND MEDICINE
RNDr. Iva Drimalova, Ph.D.
Faculty of Science MU
Iva Drimalova is a lecturer at the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics. She teaches or co-teaches several basic subjects at the Institute. She is a lecturer in the course Linear Algebra, where she successfully strives to make students understand and be able to use basic concepts related to vector spaces and linear representations. He teaches a course called Practical Mathematics forTeachers, in which he teaches students to work collaboratively in the study of mathematics and seeks to develop their competence to learn. Before the beginning of the semester - in early September - she is usually one of the practitioners at the summer school. Her main goal is to help students who come with poorer math skills from high school to overcome their handicap so that they have a better chance of successfully completing their first year of study.
SOCIAL  SCIENCES  AND HUMANITIES
JUDr. Zuzana Vikarska, Mjur, Mphil, Ph.D.
Faculty of Law MU
Zuzana Vikarska is an assistant professor at the Department of Constitutional Law and Political Science. She teaches or co-teaches more than a dozen courses in Czech or English. The Political Science course leads students to be able to better identify the main concepts of political science, explain the functioning of political systems, recognize the advantages and disadvantages of different social arrangements, and understand the basic principles of comparison and other research methods of political science. In the Vulnerable Groups Rights Clinic, Vikarska successfully imparts basic information in the field of vulnerable groups' rights to students and introduces them to the practical implications of their (non-) implementation in practice. Learners welcome the fact that everything is demonstrated through case examples that the ombudsman encounters in his/her work.
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AREA  OF   ECONOMICS  AND INFORMATICS
doc. RNDr. Tomáš Brázdil, Ph.D.
Faculty of Informatics MU
Tomáš Brázdil works at the Department of Machine Learning and Data Processing. He teaches or co-teaches courses in Czech or English. In the Neural Networks course, Brázdil successfully strives for the student to have a comprehensive knowledge of neural networks and related areas of machine learning. Upon completion, students are better able to learn and explain neural network problems independently, solve practical problems using neural network techniques independently and in teams, and will have developed the ability to critically interpret solutions based on third-party neural networks. In the Introduction to Machine Learning course, successful lecturers develop students' basic understanding of fundamental theoretical models, their key practical applications, and the fundamental connections of machine learning to other fields, particularly mathematical statistics, logic, artificial intelligence, and optimization.
* THE MASARYK UNIVERSITY RECEPTOR'S AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING TEACHERS will be announced and presented during the Opening Ceremony on 3 October 2023.
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MASARYK UNIVERSITY RECTOR'S AWARD FOR INNOVATION   IN TEACHING
AREA  OF TEACHING Ing. Mgr. Jan Žák
Ing. Be. Sylva Žákova Talpová, Ph.D.
Faculty of Economics and Administration MU
Martin Žák and Sylva Žákova Talpová introduced a significant innovation in project management education, namely the introduction of teaching using the Lego Scrum Game simulation game. Thanks to the innovation, students will practically experience the techniques and methods of agile project management in a simulated environment through an intensive half-day workshop. Lego Scrum is a simulation game with Lego in which both processes and all other aspects are simulated in an agile way. The simulation game was created by Vice Dean Žákova Talpová and Žák based on the inspiration of an existing simulation game used abroad for corporate training. Based on this idea, the lecturers created their own set of materials and a new scenario and set up the course of the game for the target groups of students. During the game, students work with all the agile management tools used (estimation methods, velocity, and productivity-velocity charts, estimating the team's capabilities, collaborating with the team) and they also learn how to negotiate with customers, howto analyze customer requirements and presentation and communication skills.
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TEACHING   SUPPORT AREA
Ing. Jiří Petrželka
MU Centre for International Cooperation
Jiří Petrželka is the creator of the IS OIS system, which is used to manage exchange visits and to support and develop international education at MU. IS OIS is taught not only to outgoing students, academics, and other MU staff, but also to incoming students and colleagues from foreign universities. In total, over 33.5 thousand mobility administrations have been conducted in it in less than 17 years of its existence. The OIS IS is a very advanced and sophisticated tool, thanks to which MU manages to administer such a high number of international placements, thus contributing to the development of international teaching and intercultural experience. Petrželka has created a robust information system that boldly competes with and outperforms large companies such as Move On or Mobility Online. Other Czech universities are even buying our technical solutions.
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RECTOR  OF MIASARYK UNIVERSITY  AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING STUDENTS OF  MASTER'S DEGREE PROGRAMMES I1U
Mgr. Lucia Hradecka
Faculty of Informatics MU
Study programme: Visual Informatics
Lucia Hradecka is an excellentand extraordinary student who stands out from the other students in many criteria and who represents MU excellently with her activities. Hradecka has chosen Visual Informatics with a specialization in image analysis and processing as her master's degree programme. With a grade point average of 1.05, she was among the top 4% of students in that study programme. She defended her diploma thesis with the best grade and received the Dean's Prize of the Faculty of Informatics for outstanding final thesis. She was also awarded the Dean's Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement and received a red diploma. She submitted her thesis to the prestigious IT SPY 2022 competition, which was attended by almost 1200 theses from eleven leading universities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In this competition she won a beautiful second place.
Be. Michal Kovalcik
Faculty of Law MU
Study programme: Law and Legal Science
Michal Kovalcik, with an average of 1.38, is among the top 6% of students in the program. Michal does not stand out only for his academic results. Asa member of the prestigious ERC team, he focuses on research on informal practices in the judiciary. His most important publication is the article The instrumental abuse of constitutional courts: how populists can use constitutional courts against the opposition, which was published in the 7/2022 issue of the International Journal of Human Rights, one of the top human rights journals published by the prestigious Taylor & Francis. This article responds to the abuse of constitutional courts by populist politicians and produces a new typology of the instrumental use of constitutional courts to destroy the opposition. In doing so, it has contributed to an understanding of the relationship between populism and constitutional justice and highlighted some lesser-known techniques of court abuse.
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MIASARYK UNIVERSITY RECTOR'S   AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING STUDENTS OF   DOCTORAL PROGRAMMES
RNDr. Martin Toul
Faculty of Science MU
Study programme: Molecularand Cellular Biology and Genetics
In his PhD thesis, Martin Toul engages in research in the field of protein engineering and advanced enzyme kinetics, which is dealt with by only a small number of research groups worldwide. The aim is to unravel the molecular mechanisms of selected enzymes to optimize them for practical applications. The objects of research are three groups of enzymes - (i) lucif-erases, producing bioluminescent radiation, (ii) plasminogen activators, used as thrombolytics dissolving blood clots, and (iii) haloalkane dehalogenases, decontaminating and detecting toxic substances in the environment. An important result of Toul's research to date is, for example, the identification of a limiting staphylokinase thrombolytic, the removal of which may provide up to ten thousand times greater efficiency in dissolving blood clots. Equally important is the discovery of the mechanism of the enzyme luciferase, which has led to a hundredfold increase in its luminosity.
Mgr. Vojtech Mylek
Faculty of Social Studies MU Study programme: Psychology
Vojtech Mylek has already published a number of articles in top journals listed in the prestigious Web of Science (WoS) database during his doctoral studies. The main topic of his research is the social use of the Internet by adolescents-specifically online communication and personal encounters with people they know only from the Internet. Mylek systematically develops this topic in three first-authored studies. He focuses, for example, on which adolescents tend to meet in this way, and describes the context and motivations for such encounters. He critically points out that encounters with people from the Internet are not uniform, which has often been implicitly assumed in previous research. He brings an original perspective to the research on perceived risk as a key factor influencing adolescents' decision-making.
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MASARYK UNIVERSITY RECTOR'S   AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING DISSERTATION THESIS
Mgr. Martin Lesák, Ph.D.
Faculty of Arts MU
Study programme: Theory and History of Art
Martin Lesak's dissertation focuses on a topic that is crucial for medieval studies: the papal stationary liturgy in medieval Rome (795-844). The thesis of more than 550 pages is written in English and was produced under dual supervision (cotutelle), i.e., in collaboration between MU and the French Universitě de Poitiers. The evaluation committee unanimously agreed that the work was unique, and thus did not hesitate to include in the final evaluation the wording "avec les felicitations du jury" corresponding to the highest possible rating in the French system. Lesák approached his dissertation from the position of an art historian, but the results achieved represent a major contribution not only to his mother discipline, but also to the study of medieval history and liturgy. Lesák was therefore an exceptional student, which is also evident in his excellent dissertation. He has already been invited to adapt this text for book publication by the prestigious Roman publisher Viella.
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RNDr. Marek Chalupa, Ph.D.
Faculty of Informatics MU
Study programme: Computer Science
Mark Chalupa's dissertation summarizes the significant progress in the field of automatic program analysis and verification that he made during his PhD studies, which has an immediate impact on the current field of cybersecurity. The thesis contains original theoretical results as well as many implementation and experimental results. For the theoretical results, the focus is on uncovering serious flaws in existing algorithms for computing program control dependencies and proposing new algorithms that are dramatically faster in theory and practice. Another major theoretical result is a new algorithm for program verification that uses backward symbolic execution. Chalupa implemented these and many other algorithms, experimentally evaluated them, and made the implementations widely available. He incorporated most of the algorithms into the Symbiotic verification tool, which, with his substantial contributions, became the overall winner of the widely respected international program verification competition SV-COMP 2022.
Barbara Kubíčková, M.Sc, Ph.D.
Faculty of Science MU
Study programme: Environmental Health Sciences
Barbara Kubíčková was an outstanding student who worked as an Early-Stage Researcher at MU within the prestigious international MSCA (Marie Curie) project for training top students NaToxAq supported by the EU H2020 Framework Programme. She focused on research on the potential harmful effects of bioactive substances produced bycyanobacteri-al blooms, their hazard, and associated risks to human health. During her work on her PhD topic, she showed herself as a creative and independent researcher. She has conducted a number of studies on the metabolites produced by cyano-bacteria, which have yielded particularly valuable information regarding their effects on the respiratory system, gastrointestinal system, endocrine regulation, and early neurodevelop-ment, as well as the potential risks associated with exposure to these substances. The dissertation provides a detailed characterization of the various toxic effects and identifies aspects of potential hazard to human health. Her research has provided a number of important insights, particularly regarding the potential hazard of inhaled cyanotoxins and their effects on the respiratory system.
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MIASARYK UNIVERSITY RECTOR'S AWARD FOR ACTIVE DEVELOPMENT OF   CIVIL SOCIETY
Mgr. Lenka Svobodova
Faculty of Sports Studies
Lenka Svobodova and herteam of colleagues and students of FSpS MU have created an exceptional platform for social educational and research activities focused on the environment of the elderly. The primary goal of the association "JsemSen", which Svobodova founded and manages, is to improve the quality of ageing through the development of physical fitness and educational activities. The secondary goal is then gender and social inclusion of people over sixty-five. From the statements of the members of the association, it is clear that most of the graduates of the courses organized by the association have a significantly improved quality of life and are better involved in the activities of society. Volunteer assistance and the transfer of experience to the public are also inherent activities of the association. The Society is open to any senior citizen who expresses an interest in joining the activities offered, which include strength training, dancing, ball games, health exercises, parkour, English language lessons, etc. Seniors from the JsemSen association participate in a number of research and development projects of MU faculties.
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MASARYK UNIVERSITY RECTOR'S AWARD FOR VOLUNTEERING
CATEGORIES   OF STUDENTS Karolína Černoškové
Faculty of Social Studies MU
Karolína Černoškova, a student in the Security and Strategic Studies program, has been volunteering since the beginning of her studies in the fall of 2022, joining forces with the T-12 humanitarian and medical team and helping the Phoenix organization, which focuses on humanitarian aid and direct support in hospitals in Ukraine. Among other things, she helps teach basic and much needed combat medicine to Ukrainian soldiers. Caroline's admirable personal bravery and commitment to helping was on full display when she went to the Ukrainian Donbas in November 2022, directly to one of the most war-affected areas, the town of Bakhmut. She then spent a month treating wounded soldiers and civilians in the barely imaginable conditions of the makeshift hospital there. After a short break, during which she devoted herself to her study duties in Brno during the exam period and at the same time to collecting humanitarian aid for Ukraine, she returned to the same place again.
Adam Hohl Martina Poláková
Faculty of Medicine MU
Martina Poláková and Adam Hohl are actively and voluntarily involved in the activities of the IFMSA, they belong to the local coordinators of the reproductive health section. They have been actively, and long term involved in educating the public. They present themselves on social media and in other media. Projects. In addition to community service activities, Poláková and Hohl are also continuously involved in faculty teaching (Propedeutics at the MU Simulation Centre) and help organize events aimed at prospective students - open days and Live Chat days.
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CATEGORIES   OF EMPLOYEES
Ing. Marie Hladká, Ph.D.
Faculty of Economics and Administration MU
In the wake of the events in Ukraine, Marie Hladká implemented a major faculty-wide activity around volunteering and CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) at the beginning of April 2022. It was the so-called Giving Day for Ukraine. This charity buffet sent financial aid that MU announced through the MUNI HELPS Centre in support of Ukraine. This event caused a considerable wave of sympathy among the faculty staff and students. The goal of the charity buffet was not just to open people's wallets, but to open their hearts and willingness to pass on the help within their families and communities. Not only was there student involvement across the faculty, but the event itself also sparked discussions about the economic impact of war in various courses. Associate Dean Hladká has long been involved in the non-profit sector, giving and volunteering in her professional work.
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SILVER MEDAL OF MASARYK UNIVERSITY
The MU Silver Medal is usually awarded to prominent MU personalities for strengthening the significance of MU at the national and global level, deepening MU's cooperation with domestic and foreign institutions and long-term significant support of the fields developed at MU.
SILVER  HE DAL
OF  MASARYK UNIVERSITY
RNDr. Marie Fojtíková
After her studies at the Faculty of Science, Marie Fojtíková worked at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Brno. Her work for our university relates to her activities as secretary of the Club of Rectors of Czech and Slovak Universities (1992-1993) and the Czech Conference of Rectors (from 1993 to the present), which is based at the MU Rectorate. She actively participates in the creation of all basic documents of the CRC, in the creative conceptual, legislative, and coordinating activities of the CRC and in the creation of links with foreign partners. It cooperates at the international level with national rectors' conferences and with the European University Association (EUA) in the field of information exchange. With Fojtikova's active contribution, the CKR became the first conference of rectors from non-EU countries to host a meeting of the Bureau of the Confederation of Rectors' Conferences of the European Union (MU, 1997), and at the same time Fojtíková contributed to another important international event held in our country - the EUA Conference (MU, October 2006). The importance of the CCC during its term of office is also evidenced by another indicator - the number of members of the CCC increased from the original 27 (all public and state universities of the Czech Republic) to 46 (all twenty-six public universities, both state universities and eighteen private universities). The MU Silver Medal is awarded for long-term consolidation of MU's significance at the national and international level.
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prof. RNDr. Ludvík Kunz, CSc.
Ludvfk Kunz graduated from the Faculty of Science of MU. He is active in the academic bodies of this faculty and in the Central European Institute of Technology of MU. He is the Director of the Institute of Physics of Materials of the Czech Academy of Sciences. He has long been involved in a wide range of research on metallic materials and physical aspects of mechanical properties of materials. He investigated mechanical properties of materials used for new types of turbochargers. He has focused on the fatigue properties of ultra-fine-grained materials used in engineering practice with the aim of elucidating the relevant plastic deformation mechanisms in several different fine-grained materials subjected to cyclic loading, thus providing fundamental knowledge necessary for material design and structural applications. He was co-investigator on a grant from the Ministry of Industry and Trade for 3D printing of implants to treat damaged skeleton, primarily the human pelvis. He is investigating the relationship between microstructure throughout the volume and at surfaces and interfaces on the one hand and properties on the other. On this basis, both microstructure and properties can be optimized, and entirely new materials can be designed. The MU Silver Medal is awarded for merit in strengthening the significance of MU at the national and global level and deepening MU's cooperation with domestic and foreign institutions.
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Published by: Masaryk University Rectorate, Research Department
Graphic design by Milan Katovský 1st edition, 2023