News: Faculty of Science

Palacký University has joined the prestigious IBM Quantum Innovation Centre project. Thanks to its collaboration with the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU), the Olomouc university has become part of the global IBM Quantum Network, which provides access to state-of-the-art quantum computers and technologies via its cloud platform. Palacký University is one of seven Czech universities that, together with the Czech Academy of Sciences, have gained access to IBM’s quantum infrastructure through this project.

Quantum computers developed by IBM enable complex calculations using the principles of quantum physics. IBM also offers Quantum Safe technology, which addresses new challenges in cybersecurity. IBM is today the only provider of such comprehensive quantum services in the world.

“Our involvement in the project builds on many years of research in the field of quantum optics, quantum information processing, and quantum technologies. However, access to quantum infrastructure is not only intended for physicists – it can also be used by IT specialists, chemists, mathematicians, and materials experts,” said Jaromír Fiurášek, head of the Department of Optics at the UP Faculty of Science.

The access agreements to the Quantum Innovation Centre were signed on 11 June at the headquarters of the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics at CTU. The lead partner is CTU, while the University of Defence, the military institution of higher education of the Czech Armed Forces, also plays an important role, as it has provided financial support for the project. The Quantum Innovation Centre is also supposed to strengthen the Czech Republic’s technological and security readiness for the advent of quantum computing systems.

Matěj Dostálek, Vice-Rector for Communication and Social Responsibility, attended the ceremony on behalf of Palacký University. “We have a unique opportunity to participate in the exclusive development of the technologies of the future and discover their potential. At the same time, we can contribute to society by preparing our students as well as the greater public for this future through the popularisation of topics related to quantum technology,” Dostálek added.

What lies ahead for the university in the coming years? What kind of changes are necessary? Answers to these questions and more can be found in the latest issue of UP Žurnál magazine, which features an in-depth interview with the new rector, Michael Kohajda.

Forty pages dedicated to Palacký University Olomouc – that’s UP Žurnál. The opening article focuses on artificial intelligence and introduces readers to the newly patented Cloakspeech software developed by linguists at the UP Faculty of Arts. Among other things, it can create personalised advertising tailored to a specific customer, craft a political campaign slogan precisely directed at a selected voter, or identify the author of anonymous hate speech posts on social networks.

Other pages are devoted to the phenomenon that Academia Film Olomouc has become. How has AFO changed over the past six decades, and how has the world of science changed, the one that this film festival seeks to make its audiences familiar with? “For quite a long time, until the Velvet Revolution, the festival was seen as more of a professional environment for creators, academics, and filmmakers to meet. A place they could have discussions, exchange experience, and push the genre forward. It was open to the public from the very beginning, but there was no huge interest in it from Olomouc residents,” recalls Jiří Slavík, a long-time AFO programmer.

As always, art and culture receive a lot of attention in the “summer edition” of our UP magazine. This is how you can get to know – unless you’ve been at her concerts already – Kateřina Kouláková a/k/a Kaczi, a musician and Faculty of Physical Culture graduate. Are you interested in how physiotherapy and dance go together? Then don’t miss the story of Hana Němcová, a Faculty of Health Sciences student.

“I would like to treat every faculty the same, to fairly devote equal time and space to each of them. It shouldn’t be the squeaky wheel getting the grease. For me, all faculties are equally important and significant,” says Rector Michael Kohajda, and that’s just for starters. In the interview, he presents his realistic view on the economics of universities, mentions the current geopolitical context, highlights the importance of offering students a good environment for both studies and for relaxation, and points out to the necessity to work with alumni.

That’s not all that the latest issue of UP Žurnál has to offer. In the Portrait section, for example, we introduce special educator Veronika Růžičková from the UP Faculty of Education. Italian postdoc Luca Chiurchiu reflects on Olomouc and the university, and young scientist Veronika Šedajová shares her experiences from the University of Cambridge.

The UP Žurnál is also available in electronic form.

The editorial team wishes you pleasant reading!

AMULET enables efficient and accurate measurement of morphological and physiological characteristics of plants. Plant research experts and computer scientists from CATRIN at Palacký University, VŠB-Technical University Ostrava and Imperial College London collaborated in its development and presented the results in the journal Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. By combining a range of imaging methods with advanced machine learning algorithms, the system can predict the future development and condition of plants based on the data obtained, which is crucial information for farmers and crop breeders.

“In this study, we have shown that AMULET can significantly improve the process of phenotyping data, i.e. monitoring and evaluating plant traits in relation to the environment. This is crucial for plant breeding and agricultural research. This approach allows faster and more accurate analysis of plant traits, which can contribute to the development of more resistant and profitable crops,” said Nuria De Diego, one of the authors.

The AMULET model processes images acquired using an affordable RGB camera. The researchers have trained it on more than 30,000 images of a model plant, the Arabidopsis thaliana, but have shown that it can also be used on agricultural crops such as potatoes.

 “The system includes plant detection, estimation of future development, sorting and data analysis. It improves phenotyping by using an advanced artificial intelligence model that can predict the evolution of image data with high accuracy. This capability benefits a wide range of users – from scientists to farmers – for example, by shortening the duration of experiments, enabling early detection of plant stress or faster identification of unhealthy individuals,” explained the paper’s first author Jan Zdražil from CATRIN and a PhD student at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Power Engineering at VŠB-TUO.

The researchers have also tested AMULET in plants that had “encountered” the pathogen Pseudomonas syringae. AMULET was also able to detect plant traits that are difficult for the human eye to perceive, but contribute significantly to understanding the response of plants to specific growth conditions.

“AMULET has also proven itself in predicting disease onset in plants before the first visible symptoms appear, allowing early intervention and minimising yield loss. This will allow for faster and more responsive intervention to protect crop health more effectively,” added De Diego.

AMULET was developed with the support of the European project PATAFEST from the Horizon Europe RIA programme.  Although experts say the system’s functionality still needs to be further tested in a wide range of conditions and plant species, it is already a breakthrough tool that can fundamentally improve phenotyping – from detection to data analysis. If data can be obtained from the field to validate the model, its use in breeding programmes and agriculture may in the foreseeable future contribute to higher crop vigour and yield and enable proactive plant care with less time and labour.

Professor Jaroslav Peprník, a prominent Czech scholar in English and American Studies, author of many monographs and textbooks on the English-speaking world and the English language, one of the founders of the Department of English and American Studies in Olomouc, has been granted the František Palacký Prize. He received this prestigious Palacký University award in the Corpus Christi Chapel in the UP Arts Centre from UP Rector Michael Kohajda.

This was only the thirteenth time Palacký University has awarded the František Palacký Prize. This time it was given to Prof Jaroslav Peprník, a distinguished Czech philologist and linguist. He has been active in three areas: teaching, writing textbooks, and collecting materials on the history of contacts between Czechs and English-speaking countries. One of the striking aspects of his professional activity is his extensive, far-ranging knowledge of the literatures and cultures of the English-speaking countries. Due to his work in the field of lexicology, he is one of the leading Czech experts in this linguistic discipline. For a long time, English classes in Czech universities and secondary schools were dependent on Prof Peprník’s textbooks.

Peprník received the František Palacký Prize during a ceremonial meeting of the Palacký University scholarly boards and academic senates, on the occasion of the 227th anniversary of the Palacký’s birth, a historian and leading figure in the Czech National Revival. In Peprník’s speech saturated with life experience, he recalled some of his teachers and students and commented on the circumstances that brought him to English studies, emphasising the importance of humility, which is, according to him, essential for mastering English.

“Thank you so much for the František Palacký Prize! I am proud that seventy-one years of my life have been closely linked to Palacký University, and I am also very happy that I have been able to spend the last third of my life without fear, with freedom of speech and the freedom to travel. Let us not take freedom for granted! During the era of ‘normalisation’ after the year 1968, one Austrian friend of mine told me: ‘I thank God that I was not born seventy kilometres further north.’ So let us thank Destiny that we were not born in Bangladesh or eastern Ukraine,” said the award recipient, who has served for one hundred and twenty-four semesters and has been going to his office at Olomouc’s university for seventy-one years.

According to Jan Stejskal, Dean of the Palacký University Faculty of Arts, who delivered a laudation to this year’s laureate in the Corpus Christi Chapel, Prof Peprník is an exceptional person whose life path, scholarly work, and educational activities have been not only an inspiration, but also proof that kindness, perseverance, and love for one’s discipline can overcome even the most difficult obstacles.

“His path to English Studies was guided not only by the school curriculum, but above all by his personal passion. He began studying English as a self-taught student, inspired by adventure stories from English-speaking countries that he discovered in his father’s library. This intrinsic motivation has accompanied him throughout his life and has become the basis of his extraordinary teaching and research career,” said Stejskal. He also recalled Peprník’s secondary school period, during which he had to work in the Bučovice aircraft factory and experienced dramatic moments during a bombing, as well his stay in England in 1948, where he studied and travelled. He mentioned the following political events due to which Peprník was assigned after his graduation to the infamous Technical Auxiliary Battalions, where he spent four years in harsh conditions as a “politically suspect person”. In this context, he praised Prof Peprník’s belief in democratic values and his love for his profession.

The ceremony was attended by academic staff of Palacký University as well as other universities, and the representatives of the City of Olomouc, the Olomouc Region, and Hodslavice, František Palacký’s birthplace. When presenting the award, UP Rector Michael Kohajda also emphasised the laureate’s diligence. “Professor Peprník has made an indelible mark in the history of our university and in the hearts of many generations of students and colleagues. His work is both academically admirable and humanly inspiring. With his erudition, humility, and passion for language, he has encouraged hundreds of students, many of whom are now educators themselves,” he said.

Jaroslav Peprník (b. 1927) graduated in English and History at the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University in Brno. His dissertation (1950) was entitled Nominal Tendencies in Modern English Prose. Since 1954 he has been working at the UP Faculty of Arts in Olomouc. At the Department of English and American Studies, he specialises in contemporary English, particularly lexicology. Peprník’s first university textbook Angličtina pro lékaře [English for Physicians, 1966] was republished several times and used also at the Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague. This was followed by the textbook Angličtina pro filology I–II [English for Philologists I–II. 1984, 1987]. Thanks to his work on the Slovník amerikanismů [Dictionary of American Usage], he was the only Czech professor to receive a Fulbright scholarship in 1969, with a six-month stay in the USA. Another successful textbook was Angličtina pro jazykové školy [English for Language Schools]. It was not until 1986 that he was able to obtain the academic degree of “candidate of philological sciences”, on the basis of his candidate dissertation Sémantika pojmenování barev v angličtině a češtině [The Semantics of Naming Colours in English and Czech]. He was not habilitated as associate professor until after the fall of the communist regime in 1989. His professional work has focused on research of the contacts between the Czech lands and the English-speaking world, culminating in the publications Anglie očima české literatury [England through the Eyes of Czech Literature, 2001], Amerika očima české literatury [America through the Eyes of Czech Literature, 2002], Češi a anglofonní svět: kontakty a percepce [The Czechs and the English-speaking World: Contacts and Perceptions, 2012], and Anglofonní svět a Češi [The English-speaking World and the Czechs, 2016]. His works for the general public include the history book Británie a USA: Ilustrované reálie [Great Britain and the United States: Illustrated Facts, 2004] and an anthology of short texts from The Times of London, called Journalistic English (2005). After 1990, he devoted great efforts to the revision of English passages in Oldřich Švarný’s textbook Hovorová čínština v příkladech [Conversational Chinese via Examples] and a revision of Velký česko-anglický slovník [Large Czech-English Dictionary] by Josef Fronek. In 2021, UP Press published his memoirs Vzpomínky anglisty [Memoirs of an English Studies Scholar].

Jaroslav Peprník is the holder of several awards. In 2003 he received the City of Olomouc Award, and in 2023 he received the highest ministerial award, the first-degree medal, which was granted to him by the Czech Minister of Education, Youth and Sports at Palacký University. Prof Peprník’s entire speech is available here.

 

The František Palacký Prize honours outstanding creative activities in the fields of science and culture, which have contributed to the prestige of the Czech Republic and Palacký University Olomouc. It was established on the occasion of the bicentennial of František Palacký’s birth in 1998. Ever since its establishment and its first bestowal, the birthplace of František Palacký, the village of Hodslavice, and the town of Neratovice, where František Palacký often stayed, have been cooperating with Palacký University Olomouc. It is awarded on behalf of Palacký University, usually once every two years, by the UP Rector. This year, the František Palacký Prize was awarded for the thirteenth time. Among the winners to date are the American Studies scholar and UP rector emeritus Josef Jařab, Tomáš Josef Cardinal Špidlík, expert on Constitutional Law Pavel Rychetský, and prominent Czech historian and art and architecture theoretician Rostislav Švácha.

He has always loved numbers and counting. He was so good at it that he voluntarily chose maths for his school leaving certificate subject. However, he did not become a professional “number-cruncher” but instead chose a career at first glance seemingly distant from the natural sciences: law. This year marks a quarter-century since his name and in fact his life have been attached to Palacký University. As a student, graduate, academic, vice-dean, and now... rector. As of May, jurist Michael Kohajda is the new rector of the second oldest university in the Czech Republic.

How would he like to reshape the school? What qualities should its graduates have, and how will the university stand up to these dynamic times? You’ll find out all this and more in our interview with Palacký University’s new rector.

Your professional academic career path in Olomouc has been quite direct. From student to teacher, to vice-dean, and now to the very top position.

I wasn’t only in Olomouc. I completed my doctoral studies in Prague at the Charles University Faculty of Law. In my opinion, that was where the best financial law was being taught, under the tutelage of Prof Bakeš. That I was able to get two degrees at two such hallowed and traditional universities is an experience I consider positive and beneficial. I actually deviate a bit from that frequent “inbreeding” – when someone gets their Master’s degree and doctorate at the same school and then stays there teaching and doing research, never leaving it for the rest of their professional life. I think it’s better to go to different institutions; it brings one more experiences and inspiration.

With that point of view, what would you like to bring into higher education in Olomouc, a university which has been around for some 450 years?

Traditional values are important to me, and universities have them. Respect for the heritage of the mantle I am assuming is one of the reasons why I decided to have the inauguration take place in the university Church of Our Lady of the Snows. I wanted to make it clear that we are continuing the work of our predecessors. Especially in today’s hectic geopolitical times, it is important to emphasise the existence of a stable institution with a four-hundred-and-fifty-year history which has maintained its same principles and ideals. The world around us is changing, but the university remains, and we should not forget our historical roots. They are part of the narrative which we at Palacký University are living and writing every day.

That’s the continuity you mentioned. But what is your conception for the future existence of Palacký University?

First, we must ensure that the university functions and continues further development. That may seem as obvious to some and that there’s nothing too complicated in that. But I perceive many risks: especially in the proper functioning of academic self-government. If we are not able or will not be able to effectively govern ourselves, then we are handing someone else the argument that there should be changes made.

This is a very hot political topic today, whether or not academic self-governance is proper. As an MP in Parliament, you must have certainly clocked the debates on this...

I often hear this when discussing the financing of universities. Universities are always asking for more money, arguing that they are underfunded. Of course it is legitimate to try to get more finances for development. But that is the view from inside the university. I feel it is also necessary to see how the outside world looks at us. And what they are looking at are our numbers and all the money that goes to us. Just to illustrate: as a year-on-year increase, the university received almost 10 million euros, and if you compare the roughly 1.25 million which we received in 2023 from contracted research, it is obvious that we are completely dependent on public funding. The money we earn is just a drop in the bucket of our total budget, which is in the tens of millions of euros. So then we should not be surprised that the authority who sends us the money wants us to budget it wisely and keep our house in order. There are relevant objections, and we have to show that we are capable of governing ourselves and that we are using the funds entrusted to us effectively.

We probably need to be much more aware of the reality in which we live. The Czech Republic is going to have to invest more into areas such as defence...

I have a realistic view on the economics of universities, it’s a topic I’ve done some serious thinking on. I’ve been a member of the parliamentary Budget Committee for four years, so let me mention that as a nation, we have a huge, systemic deficit, on the level of somewhere around 10 billion euros. Next year, spending will certainly increase in two key areas: defence and healthcare. Given that situation, I don’t think higher education can be a priority at present. And when someone sends us 10 million euros as a year-on-year increase, that is a very fine outcome. We are talking about money which we are not automatically entitled to.

Shouldn’t we be prepared in the event another year-on-year increase doesn’t happen, or even, as we have seen abroad, that our funding will be decreased?

I think our universities are not mentally prepared for that event. A few weeks back, I lectured at a university in Nebraska. Not a day goes by when their academic newsletter doesn’t have information from the president that the school will be losing ten million dollars here or twenty million there, and what the practical impacts will be. The situation can change here, too, and we will have to deal with it. We have to be prepared systematically, mentally, and search for alternatives. One of my goals for UP in my four-year term is to increase non-public funding sources, and if from public sources, then on the basis of contractual agreements, in a kind of civil law relationship.

Certainly not everyone in the ivory tower will be happy to hear we ought to also “raise” money.

Naturally, these opinions are not categorical. Some academics would consider it quite matter-of-fact, they already have established relationships outside the university, while others would say that such activities would take them away from their “pure” science. Okay, but that science is financed entirely by public funds. I would like the university to discuss this topic openly, because if we were to have a wider portfolio of funding sources, then we would be more resilient to outside influences.

In your opinion, do you think the mission of Palacký University should be transformed? Should we launch a technical faculty, for example?

I don’t agree with launching a new faculty in the next four years. I strongly believe we must first resolve the essential problems now facing us. The first is the relationship between CATRIN and the Faculty of Science. The second essential thing is the discomfort of students at one of our faculties. I’m talking about the Faculty of Health Sciences.

You mean that FHS does not have its own building, and that this has been a long-term problem?

Yes, we should go back and see what FHS was meant to be when it was established seventeen years ago. How many students should it have? Where should they be taught? I cannot fathom how one could found a new faculty and not think about how it would work in practice. The reality is that in some sections there are more students than seats. This is then the second problem we must resolve – to get this faculty working effectively. And unless if we have managed to resolve these two systemic issues, we are not in a situation within a four-year mandate to even think about founding a new, independent faculty. What we can do is give more support to the economic-managerial direction of studies which we already have, something also sought by the business sphere in both the Olomouc and the Moravian-Silesian regions.

So the first thing you want to do is get the essential things into working order?

I think that we ought to admit that some things are not working and then have a serious talk about how to fix them. The university should consider things more strategically – for example, big investments. It shouldn’t be business as usual that some areas are able to get a lot more money than others. This is a systemic problem. Only once we have determined our workloads, our classroom and laboratory capacities, etc., does it make sense to talk about new building construction. We lack such university-wide analyses. And once we do have them, we will know better how and where to expand.

Ideally, the university should be like a glass house: it should be clear to all what is going on inside, what the rules are, where it is going, and how and on what it spends the money entrusted to it.

With a touch of idealism, I would like agreements made on all of this. In my opinion, it’s about the mutual trust which should certainly prevail at the university, and which is necessary to renew, whether between various units or between employees. I would like to treat every faculty the same, to fairly devote equal time and space to each of them. It shouldn’t be the squeaky wheel getting the grease. For me, all faculties are equally important and significant.

You teach at the Faculty of Law. What do you like about working with students?

Teaching keeps me young. I’m always out there in front of young people and it’s thanks to them, actually, that I sometimes forget I’m advancing in years.

That’s Michael Kohajda the teacher. But how does Michael Kohajda the rector see students?

I would like the students to fully enjoy the university experience and for the university to give them enough space and opportunities to do so. In addition to interesting study programmes, we also have to offer them a good environment. For studies and for relaxation. For example, I really miss the old U-klub, where I went to many concerts and where students could also realise their own projects, etc. In recent years it has been partly turned into a storage area and no longer serves the student body. I’m not okay with that, although I know restoring it to its former glory won’t be easy. I also see a lack of athletic fields and study relaxation zones. I know that some will say: “We never had those, and we did just fine.” But the times and the standards have changed, and if we want the narrative which the students here live for five years to be not only theirs but also the university’s, we have to do something about it.

Working with alumni is built upon working with students. How do you see that?

I believe that we should strengthen our work with alumni so that they feel themselves to be part of the university community even after they finish school. I’m aware that much has already been done in this area, but it’s necessary that that work should be systematic. We ought to take advantage of modern tools. If we have an app for students which makes their studies easier, then it would be great if that tool wasn’t discarded after their studies are over. If we were able to shift it into “Alumni mode”, then it could be a means of keeping in touch with our alumni. It could offer them information according to their choices, for example from their faculties or fields of study, allowing us all to keep in mutual contact. This way that student university narrative I mentioned could keep being written as an alumni narrative. The university could profit by that, too. We would get so much necessary feedback in practice to find out how our alumni are doing in the job market, and we could even do alumni fundraising on a system-wide basis.

Perhaps we could take inspiration from the West, where universities have a good working relationship with donors, naming things after them. You have experienced that in the USA, haven’t you?

I saw a building named after a Supreme Court justice who died. His family wanted his legacy to live on, so they paid for the construction and the faculty named a new building wing after him. But universities there also know how to work with smaller donations. For example, renaming an auditorium after a company for a certain period of time. I think we are going to have that debate here as well. Do we need the money, or not? What can we offer, and where are the boundaries beyond which we do not want to go? Is it acceptable to name an auditorium after Michael Kohajda because he gives us a million a year for the privilege? I do think it is important for those who give us the money to know exactly where it is going. That they can decide if they want to support a specific faculty or a specific student. We don’t know how to do that at present.

That was Michael Kohajda the teacher and rector. What about Michael Kohajda the lawyer? You were good at maths, but you became a legal expert. Yet you have found a place where numbers and paragraphs meet. One of your areas of interest is cryptocurrency, something you even recently lectured on in the USA. What interests you about that?

It’s a new phenomenon, one which can even threaten a state’s sovereignty. Money and currency have always been an instrument of power for the sovereign – i.e. a ruler or the state. It’s not for nothing that we have laws to protect currencies. But once all money – in the ordinary meaning of the word – spills over into decentralised activities where the state has no control, then of course the state loses some of its power, and that has a direct impact on its economic policies. Let’s say for instance that you have a billion crowns in bitcoins. You do something for which you are legally liable to the tune of one million crowns. But you turn around and say you don’t have that kind of money, and the state does not know how to enforce the fine, which is a highly abnormal situation, because the state can take money from a normal bank account, even confiscate your house and sell it. The state does not know what to do about these new currencies, and then its power to enforce the law is quite limited. These are uncharted waters, and new legislation must be written, which interests me greatly.

You’re an academic, a lawyer, but you’ve always been engaged in the community, in local politics, and now even in parliament. What led you to take such an active role as a citizen?

It’s important. I was a town councillor for twelve years in Šumperk, and before that I was on various commissions. Taking an active part just seems natural to me. If someone has the opportunity and the abilities, they should do it. Not because of the money, but because you have the chance to make a difference in the place you live.

By the way, how do you relax? You’re a dog lover, aren’t you?

Yes, I like to go for walks with my Tibetan mastiff. He’s quite deliberate himself, so time permitting, we’ll go out together for several hours at a time. But I don’t take him to work, because he’s quite protective and wouldn’t let anyone get near me. I also go to animal shelters and rescue stations, bringing food donations. The animals there have often had quite tragic histories, so I try to help them a bit. Otherwise, I like to play squash, I go mountain biking, and I love downhill skiing. But actually, I don’t really have a great need for relaxation, I’m used to working hard. I’m lucky that in my work life, I can do what I like and what is fulfilling to me.

Michael Kohajda (b. 1981)

He completed his Master’s degree in Law and Legal Science at the UP Faculty of Law. He got his doctorate and habilitation in Financial Law from the Charles University Faculty of Law. He has been teaching at the UP Faculty of Law for almost twenty years. Since 2020 he has been a vice-dean, first for Doctoral Studies, Qualification Proceedings and Finances including investments, and later for External Relations and Investments.

His research and publication activities are concentrated on financial law, especially public budgets, taxation, banking, insurance, and capital markets. Since 2024, he has been the principal investigator of the Czech Science Foundation project Crypto Assets as a Threat to Sovereignty. He has had a number of research and teaching stays in Europe, the USA, and Australia. In addition to his work in academia, he also has a successful legal practice. In 2021 voters from the Olomouc Region chose him to be their representative in the Czech Parliament through preferential voting.

The NATO Science Technology Organization collaborative panels, one of the key advisory bodies of the alliance for defence research and innovation, met in May at Palacký University. The prestigious conference was hosted by the UP Faculty of Arts, which thus joined the ranks of selected European institutions that have had the opportunity to participate in the organisation of an international scientific meeting within the North Atlantic Alliance.

NATO SCI and SET panel meetings are usually held twice a year, and their organisation is taken care of by individual NATO member states in turn. Due to their number, the Czech Republic takes over the organisation approximately once every fifteen years. This year, an offer to hold the meeting outside the capital city was accepted, allowing the centre of international science diplomacy to move temporarily to Olomouc.

Commenting on the meeting, John-Mikal Størdal, Director of the NATO Collaboration Support Office (CSO), said, “Conferences such as this SCI and SET panel meeting provide valuable scientific topics and research initiatives that have a direct impact on the capability of the Alliance’s forces in terms of actual deployment. They contribute to strengthening NATO’s ability to counter potential threats and to meet its defence and security commitments.”

The meeting was attended by more than 100 representatives from NATO member countries, including top defence research experts, analysts, and international research structures representatives. “We value the Alliance and we are grateful for our membership, especially in these turbulent times. It should be noted that mainly defence researchers came to Olomouc. Palacký University scientists were thus given a unique opportunity to present their results at this forum, which was essentially closed to the public, and to apply for broad cooperation and further grant support. I am very glad that linguists representing my home Faculty of Arts could also actively participate,” said Jan Stejskal, UP Faculty of Arts Dean.

Discussions took place not only in the premises of the Faculty of Arts, but also in the Rector’s Office historic fresco conference room, the Archbishop’s Palace, and the Fort Science interactive centre. The conference programme was accompanied by educational and cultural activities.

Special thanks for their support – along with personal attendance – go to UP Rector Michael Kohajda and his predecessor Martin Procházka. “It is certainly a great honour for our university to participate in the organisation of an event where the Alliance’s advisory bodies representatives could meet, and I’d love to thank all my colleagues who contributed to the success of the event. At the same time, it was a great opportunity for us to present ourselves as a reliable partner for possible collaboration with the top international structures of the Alliance that is so crucial for freedom and security in the world,” added Rector Kohajda. The students and organisers from the Faculty of Arts, who gained valuable experience in organising an international meeting of this format, also played a significant role in making the event a resounding success.

Killing bacteria using light. That’s how simple surface disinfection could become in the future. That’s why scientists from EMPA (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology), CATRIN at Palacký University, and the Centre for Energy and Environmental Technologies (CEET) at VSB–TUO have begun developing a special coating whose antimicrobial effect can be activated by infrared light. This material is also gentle on the skin and environmentally friendly – and it could become a new weapon in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Its first practical use is currently being prepared in the field of dentistry. The results were published in the journal EcoMat.

A novel material that is eco-friendly, biocompatible, and metal-free is designed to rapidly and locally eliminate microorganisms. It is based on polyvinyl alcohol—a biocompatible plastic commonly used, for example, in the food industry. “A specially synthesized, nitrogen-enriched graphene acid has been incorporated into this matrix. Thanks to its chemical properties, it has significant antimicrobial potential. Its full effect is unleashed when exposed to near-infrared light. The material then employs a dual strategy: it converts light energy into heat, which kills bacteria, and at the same time generates oxygen radicals that disrupt the membranes of pathogens,” explained Radek Zbořil from CATRIN and CEET.

The advantage of this approach is that it works entirely differently from conventional antibiotics. The material thus protects against a wide spectrum of microorganisms without contributing to the development of resistance. “Our laboratory tests clearly confirmed the material’s effectiveness against both bacteria and viruses. Surfaces that frequently come into contact with infectious agents—such as door handles in hospitals or furnishing in operating theatres—are particularly well-suited for this innovation,” said Giacomo Reina from EMPA.

The first practical use of the new coating is being developed for dental medicine. EMPA is collaborating with the Center for Dental Medicine at the University of Zurich to develop a dental splint with firmly embedded graphene acid. Since near-infrared light penetrates several centimetres into tissue, the splint can be placed in the mouth, repeatedly activated by an external light source, and used to destroy microorganisms inside the oral cavity. Oral microflora is an especially tough opponent—complex bacterial communities hide in hard-to-reach niches, protected by layers of their own mucus. Antibiotics and conventional disinfectants struggle to penetrate these biofilms. This allows bacteria to damage teeth or even cause serious infections elsewhere in the body.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria and emerging viruses pose an increasingly serious threat to the global healthcare system. They are associated with approximately 5 million deaths annually, with the COVID-19 pandemic alone accounting for over 20 million fatalities. Scientists are therefore seeking new strategies to combat these pathogens. One of their goals is to prevent the spread of resistant bacteria and viruses through smart materials and technologies.

Several months ago, an Irish Corner was opened in the department library of the Department of English and American Studies, FF UP with the participation of the Irish ambassador Alan Gibbons, our former Rector Martin Procházka and additional representatives from our university, the city of Olomouc and the Olomouc Region. This cooperation with the only native English speaking country remaining in the European Union continued on May 24 with a concert of traditional Irish music by the Prague based band Conamara Chaos in Jazz Tibet Club in Olomouc.

Conamara Chaos is a folk band led by Doc. Radvan Markus, lecturer in Irish language and literature at Charles University. Doc. Markus has also been teaching the Irish language part-time at the Department of English and American Studies in Olomouc for over ten years. Apart from his academic pursuits, he is also a renowned translator (having received the Magnesia Litera award in 2017 for his translation from Irish to Czech of Máirtín Ó Cadhain novel Cré na Cille (Graveyard Clay in English, in Czech Hřbitovní hlína) and last but not least a talented musician. Doc. Markus plays the flute, the recorder, the Irish whistle and even the bouzouki. His wife, Jana Markusová plays the violin, Martin Jankovec the guitar and Ladislav Veselý the bodhrán. Vocals and the stand-up bass are provided by Svatka Hlávková Štěpánková. The name of the band makes reference to a region in the west of Ireland as well as to part of the planet Jupiter’s moon Europa. They recently released a CD entitled Anord consisting of a mix of traditional tunes and their own compositions. These, and other songs, were performed at the concert in Jazz Tibet. Further information about the band: www.conamarachaos.cz.

The concert was organised and sponsored by both the university and the city of Olomouc. From the university side, financial support was provided by the Rectorate, the Faculty of Arts and the Department of English and American Studies. Special thanks go out to Ms. Tereza Kalousková, from the International Department, for her assistance with the organisation. The City of Olomouc also provided financing and support and thanks once again go to the members of the Department of Foreign Relations, specifically Ms. Hana Ederová and her team. The Lord Mayor of Olomouc, Mr. Miroslav Žbánek, even attended the event and said a few words of support prior to the concert. There was a full audience, consisting of people of a range of nationalities and ages, for the approximate two hour show. Many of the adults and children danced through much of the performance. Our thanks also go out to Mr. Roman Fojtášek, the manager of the club, for his assistance with the organisation of the concert.

The evening was enjoyed by all, both audience and performers, and provided further proof of the rich connection between Ireland and Czechia. It will hopefully lead to further cooperation on the university, city and regional levels.

Scientists from the Joint Laboratory of Optics, a workplace of Palacký University Olomouc and the Institute of Physics at the Czech Academy of Sciences, are the first in the world to experimentally confirm the relation between the quantum state of uncertainty and quantum entanglement, theoretically predicted by physicists from Japan and Taiwan. The result of this scientific work, published in the prestigious journal Springer Nature, introduces a completely new perspective on the previously unknown implications of how nature functions at the quantum level.

“In quantum physics, there are very peculiar rules according to which, say, a measurement will affect the measured state and the result of a measurement can be random. So we never know in advance how our measurements will turn out. On the other hand, we do know that there is a phenomenon that is crucial for a number of applications in quantum physics, and that is quantum entanglement. Now what we have been able to discover is a fairly fundamental relation between the uncertainty inherent in quantum measurement and quantum entanglement. We have literally found an equation, or rather an inequality, that reveals a relation between these two fundamental concepts in quantum physics,” said Karel Lemr of the Joint Laboratory of Optics.

An experiment was carried out in the Olomouc laboratory in which physicists prepared special quantum entangled states of light. Using photon pairs, they created states upon which they then made measurements. The outcomes confirmed the validity of the theoretically predicted inequality.

“We have found and confirmed a new law of quantum physics. We have been able to validate the theoretical framework experimentally, which is a significant advance in fundamental research. It helps us better understand how the world around us works at the quantum level," added Antonín Černoch, who collaborated on the experiment.

Read the full article here.

The question of how to deal with an ageing workforce is becoming pressing, considering the demographic situation in developed countries. The challenges faced by employees who entered the labour market several decades ago are being addressed by experts within the international project COST Action LeverAge. The meeting, bringing together over a hundred researchers from this initiative, is currently being hosted by Palacký University.

“The ability to adapt to the ever-accelerating changes in the labour market is one of the greatest challenges we face,” says Dr. Hila Axelrad, a researcher at Reichman University in Israel and one of the conference participants.

What is your main area of research and scientific focus?

I am a senior scholar at the Aaron Institute for Economic Policy of Reichman University, Israel, which is a think tank dedicated to shaping socio-economic policies through impactful research and strategic initiatives. Specifically, my work explores issues such as age discrimination, employment and unemployment trends among older workers, retirement transitions, and workforce participation in later life.

What is your role within the COST Action LeverAge network?

I am an active member of two working groups within this network. One is focused on the multi-age workforce and its organization, and the other covers career development in later life, as well as retirement.

Over the past year, I’ve also been involved in several collaborative initiatives within the network, resulting in co-authoring a publication, contributing to a book chapter, and organizing a symposium at an international conference. The current meeting in Olomouc presents a valuable opportunity to reconnect with colleagues and further advance our shared research and project development.

Why is it important that such a large international and multidisciplinary group of experts is focusing on the issue of an ageing workforce?

Ageing populations pose a major economic and social challenge for many developed countries. A cross-national, interdisciplinary collaboration allows us to exchange diverse insights from different countries, evidence-based practices, and policy perspectives. It fosters knowledge transfer and joint learning that can help promote employment opportunities for older adults, combat age discrimination, and support inclusive and sustainable social policies.

What is the biggest challenge we will face in connection with the demographic situation and an ageing workforce?

One of the most pressing challenges is the need for older workers to adapt to a rapidly evolving labour market shaped by technological advancement and the rise of AI. Many of these workers entered the workforce decades ago, under very different conditions. Today, they must continuously update their skills and adapt to remain competitive and relevant in the labour market. This is not easy for many of them, and our work is to find ways to help them – from the perspective of employers, governments, and younger colleagues.

 

What are you most looking forward to during your stay in Olomouc?

Beyond experiencing the city, which I’ve heard is both beautiful and culturally rich, I am especially looking forward to meeting colleagues and friends, both old and new. I hope to deepen existing collaborations, initiate new ones, and engage in meaningful dialogue that will expand our shared knowledge and impact in the field. Especially after COVID, we truly appreciate every opportunity to meet in person.

Once again, Palacký University Olomouc wants to award its best teachers. The second year of the university-wide competition UP Teaching Awards has been announced, whereby students themselves can nominate their teachers. Nominations can be submitted until October this year. As in the first year, the award will have two categories based on the length of teaching experience. The best teachers can receive either the Junior Teaching Award if they have been teaching for less than five years, or the Senior Teaching Award if they have been teaching longer.

Last year’s pilot edition established a new tradition, aiming to acknowledge the educational efforts of individual teachers from various faculties. “What is crucial is the involvement of students in this competition. They are the ones who select the teachers they consider not only professionally accomplished but also innovative and inspiring. I believe their feedback is very important for all teachers as it motivates them in their further work,” said Jitka Petrová, Vice-Rector for Studies and Lifelong Learning.

To submit proposals, students use the university’s evaluation system, which they are familiar with. They are asked to employ five criteria to evaluate the selected teacher. They should consider, for example, whether the teacher is an expert in their field or innovative enough to master new technologies. Once the nominations have been concluded, the five teachers with the most votes in each category will move on to the next round of the competition. Subsequently, they will present themselves and their work to the UP Teaching Board with a prepared portfolio. The board will then select the winner in each category. Prizes for the most popular Palacký University teachers will be awarded in February 2026 at a ceremony during UP Academic Week.

More than eight hundred students participated in the first year, nominating three hundred teachers. The winners were two teachers from the Faculty of Education. I Kamil Kopecký from the Department of Czech Language and Literature won in the senior category, and Kateřina Valchářová from the Institute of Education and Social Studies won in the junior category.

“The very fact that I won was an immense surprise for me – I really did not expect that. After the competition results were announced, I was also surprised that other universities started to approach me with requests for lectures on how to teach and what is the key to engaging students. This is a question I often think about, and I actually think the number one key is that I really enjoy going to the class and seeing the students – and that I often find great inspiration in their views and opinions. It has also energised and reassured me that what I’m doing is meaningful and that students feel that their time, such a valuable resource, is not being wasted in my classes,” said Valchářová when asked about the importance of the award for her future work.

Through this competition, the university is also trying to highlight the importance of quality teaching. “The introduction of the annual process of awarding outstanding teaching activities is part of the Programme for the Support of Strategic Management of Higher Education Institutions for 2022–2025. The course of the competition can be followed on the Centre of Excellence in Education website and is regularly reported by the university media,” said Klára Tesaříková Čermáková, Head of the UP Continuing Education and Teaching Innovations Office, the guarantor of the competition.

The first year of the competition has been documented in detail here.

Digitalisation, artificial intelligence, and new technologies are fundamentally changing the way we live, work, and communicate. And so Palacký University Olomouc has now launched the new Digital Society, Social Innovation and Global Citizenship (DIGISOC) Master’s degree programme, jointly developed with the University of Innsbruck and University of Naples Federico II. It will provide students with key skills for the future via some of the best experts from the three universities in order to understand not only technology, but also its impact on society. Its accreditation was approved by the UP Internal Assessment Board at the end of April and applications are being accepted until the end of June.

The DIGISOC study programme responds to the growing need for professionals able to navigate the dynamically changing environment of the digital society. The study will be conducted entirely in English and in a hybrid format combining online learning with in-person classes in blocks. International mobility, internships, and summer schools are also part of the programme. Students will thus gain not only academic knowledge, but also valuable intercultural experience and the ability to work in international teams at universities, as well as in companies and other institutions.

At UP, the course will be held under the auspices of the Faculty of Law in cooperation with the Faculties of Science and Arts. Palacký University will be the guarantor of education in law (including international and digital law), social and economic geography, and media and communication, with the participation of the University of Naples Federico II. The latter will also provide education in sociology and social education. The University of Innsbruck will be responsible for digital humanities, IT, and digital platforms.

Emphasis will be placed on the development of critical thinking, interdisciplinary approaches, and the ability to use digital tools in the context of socially responsible innovation. Graduates may find employment in a variety of fields – from public administration and the non-profit sector to technology companies and international organisations.

“The study programme is one of the key outputs of the EURIDICE project. I am pleased that we have managed to achieve this milestone so that the first students can enrol this September. Another output of the project will be, for example, lifelong learning courses for academics and the public, which will be acknowledged with microcertificates,” says Markéta Šemberová, the Euridice project coordinator at UP.

The EURIDICE project, and thus the study programme, would not have been possible without the prior establishment of close cooperation in Aurora, the European university network. “We are thus fulfilling the European Commission’s intention for European universities to cooperate closely not only in science and research but also in education, for example in the form of joint study programmes. At the same time, we are applying for the prestigious European Degree Label certification, which ensures the recognition of diplomas in all EU countries and increases the competitiveness of graduates on the international labour market,” adds Michal Malacka, principal investigator of the EURIDICE project at UP.

Those interested in enrolling in the DIGISOC programme can look forward to classes led by experts from various European universities, access to current research, and the opportunity to become part of an active international community. Applications are open until the end of June, and online information sessions are also available. Further information is available here.

Czech universities have been supporting the development of Ukrainian studies, raising awareness of Ukrainian culture, language, and history, and the mutual exchange of experts and students. Cooperation in these areas with the Foundation of the President of Ukraine for Support of Education, Science and Sports has been formalised during a meeting between the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, the Czech Minister of Education, Mikuláš Bek, and the representatives of four Czech universities, including Palacký University.

UP Rector Michael Kohajda signed a Letter of Intent at the meeting. This document expresses the university’s commitment to initiate negotiations with the Foundation of the President of Ukraine on closer cooperation in education and research with the aim of signing a Memorandum of Understanding, which will form the basis for such cooperation in the future within the framework of the Global Coalition of Ukrainian Studies.

This coalition brings together Ukrainian studies centres around the world. Its activities aim to support their development, including Crimean Tatar studies, and to popularise Ukrainian culture, language, and history abroad; among other things as a counterweight to the disinformation spread by Russian propaganda.

Masaryk University has also signed such a Letter of Intent; meanwhile, representatives of Charles University and the University of Hradec Králové have signed Memorandums of Cooperation with the Foundation of the President of Ukraine, thus becoming members of the coalition.

There are currently 268 Ukrainian students studying at Palacký University Olomouc, with most of them at the Faculties of Arts and Science. Their number has doubled in the last three years. “Many students and academics from Ukraine are already part of our university community today, and their interest in UP is growing, for which we are happy indeed. It was a true honour and a pleasure to meet Olena Zelenska, the First Lady of that war-torn country. I am proud that we are among those universities who have been helping Ukraine from the very beginning. In the future, we also want to cooperate towards the development of Ukrainian studies, and the main partner of UP in this respect will be our Faculty of Arts and its Department of Slavonic Studies,” said UP Rector Kohajda.

The meeting with the First Lady of Ukraine was also attended by the UP Faculty of Arts Dean, Jan Stejskal, and Uljana Cholodová from the Ukrainian Studies Section at the UP Faculty of Arts Department of Slavonic Studies.

Jurist Michael Kohajda takes over the rector’s mace of Palacký University in Olomouc. He replaces doctor Martin Procházka as the head of the oldest Moravian university. He will lead this institution dedicated to education and scientific research, the third largest public university in the country with four thousand employees and 23 thousand students, for the next four years.

“By the end of 2025 we must have completed a strategy for the development of the university for the next five years, which must be approved by the university authorities and submitted to the Czech Ministry of Education. By September at the latest, we also need to prepare everything related to the reform of doctoral studies, which is due to the amendment to the Higher Education Act that came into force in March. And last but not least, I have promised to make maximum progress in resolving the dispute between the UP Faculty of Science and the CATRIN institute of higher education no later than one year after taking office,” the new rector said, summarising his plans for the upcoming months.

Along with him, a new team of vice-rectors will also take over the leadership of UP. “As of the first of May, five vice-rectors will be entrusted with their duties, while the remaining two members will join the new team by September at the latest, due to their obligations to current employers,” said Rector Kohajda.

The International Relations Division will be headed by Ivona Barešová, an Anglicist and Japanologist; the Studies and Lifelong Learning Division will be headed by Jitka Petrová, an educator focused on educational diagnostics and methodology; the Doctoral Studies and Junior Science Division will be headed by Miroslav Dopita, an expert in sociology, andragogy, and research in education and training; the Science, Creative Activities and Knowledge Transfer Division  will be headed by molecular geneticist Jiří Drábek; and the Communications and Social Responsibility Division will be headed by Matěj Dostálek, director of Fort Science, the science centre at the UP Faculty of Science.

The UP Academic Senate elected Kohajda to head the university at its January meeting, when fourteen senators gave him their votes in the second round of the secret ballot. Kohajda received his appointment decree at Prague Castle from the hands of Czech President Petr Pavel in mid-April. The UP Rector’s term of office is four years, so Kohajda will lead Palacký University until 30 April 2029.

In the modern era of the reinstated university in Olomouc, altogether fifteen rectors have headed it since 1946: 13 men and 2 women. Kohajda will become the sixteenth.

doc. JUDr. Michael Kohajda, Ph.D. (b. 1981)

He graduated from the UP Faculty of Law (UP FL) with a Master’s degree in Law and Legal Science. He obtained his doctoral degree and received his habilitation in Financial Law at the Charles University Faculty of Law. He has taught at UP FL for almost twenty years. Since 2020, he has held the position of Vice-Dean – (first for Doctoral Studies, Qualification Procedures, and Finances, including investments; currently he is Vice-Dean for External Relations and Investments). He is a member of the UP FL Scholarly Board and several other boards at the law faculties in Olomouc and Prague.

His research and publication activities focus on financial law, especially on public budgets, taxation, banking, insurance, and capital markets. His main professional interest involves financial system rules and supervision. In recent years, he has also focused on the legal rules related to the issuance and handling of crypto assets. Since 2024 he has been the principal investigator of the Czech Science Foundation standard project Crypto Assets as a Threat to Sovereignty. As regards international cooperation, he has undertaken a number of international research and teaching stays in Europe, the USA, and Australia. In addition to his academic activities, he has a successful legal practice.

In order to contribute to the development of society, he has been involved in politics. Between 2014 and 2022, he was a member of the Šumperk City Council, where he focused on budget policy and investments. In 2021, thanks to preferential votes, he won a seat in the Parliament of the Czech Republic for the Olomouc Region. He serves, among others, as a member of the Budget Committee in the Parliament. He was also a member of the Chamber of Deputies’ special investigative commission on the tragic event that took place at the Charles University Faculty of Arts in December 2023.

 

Scientists from the Department of Optics at the Palacký University Faculty of Science have introduced a new microscopic technique, marking a fundamental shift in the rules of cellular imaging. It allows for rapid, contactless, and non-invasive analysis of cells in high definition. Their results have been published in the prestigious scientific journal Optica.

Their method allows capturing the interior structure of cells with a resolution of 250 nanometres and a phase accuracy below 2 nanometres. It can thus capture optical path differences corresponding to the size of just a few molecules. In addition, it works with conventional non-coherent illumination and thus eliminates artifact interference, allowing for sharper and more rapid imaging. Thanks to the new optical arrangement, the method is vibration resistant and ideal for consistent time-lapse measurements.

“We have shown that lateral shearing digital holographic microscopy can work even in conventional lighting, with shearing distances exceeding the coherence area of the illumination source. By doing so, we are opening up new possibilities for rapid, contactless, and non-invasive analysis of cells with high precision,” said the article’s main author, Jaromír Běhal.

The successful publication of their research results is a springboard for the resolution of a Postdoc Individual Fellowship Incoming grant by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic – MAGICY (Machine‑learning Assisted tomoGraphic phase Imaging flow CYtometry) – which Jaromír Běhal received after returning from a two-and-a-half-year postdoctoral stay in the group under Prof Pietro Ferraro in Naples.

The new research group, Advanced Functional Imaging (AFI), under Běhal’s helm will now focus on connecting quantitative phase microscopy with flow tomographic cytometry and AI. Their goal is to detect and sort individual cells in real time and create their 3D models within a fraction of a second.

“The newly-developed technology makes possible cellular analysis without the use of staining agents to obtain precise, nanometre-accurate information on the thickness and refractive index of subcellular structures,” said Miroslav Ježek, head of the QOLO group. “Jaromír has done a tremendous job. In just a short time after returning from Italy, he has built his own team and been awarded an important grant. For our QOLO group, it is a great honour to be there with him and to support his start as a junior group leader,” Ježek added, in appreciation of the scientific work of his younger colleague.

Financing: The research was supported by the Czech Science Foundation (project no. 25-17712I).

Links:

Optica article

QOLO Laboratory at the UP Faculty of Science Department of Optics

This year’s edition of one of the biggest European festivals of popular science documentaries – Academia Film Olomouc (AFO) – has just wound up at Palacký University. Its 60th jubilee, with the theme Work in Progress, had 8,139 accredited visitors and 500 events to choose from.

Audiences had the unique opportunity to view films reflecting hot trends in global audiovisual production and those used as a medium for basic communication of scientific research. “AFO’s sixty years is proof that combining science, film, and human curiosity truly makes a lot of sense. The festival is the result of the shared passion of many generations and a massive amount of teamwork. We would like to thank everyone who has been and are a part of it,” summarised AFO director Eva Navrátilová.

And what is trending now in popular science?

The International Competition jury chose Turtle Walker as the Best International Science Documentary Film. This portrait of the Indian turtle researcher Satish Bhaskara is a fascinating study of scientific enthusiasm, curiosity, and discovery. “This was our European premiere, and the film had a wonderful reception. We spent years preparing the film. It’s a tender story, and we’re happy that it has inspired others, showing how a person can put their heart and hard work into something as a legacy to influence future generations. Today we desperately need such stories, because so much is going on and people can sometimes be overwhelmed by it all,” said Jill Ferguson, the film’s producer.

As part of the Science Communication Award, the jury also awarded Special Mention to The Forest by British director and producer Jamie E. Lochhead, which tells the story of the misinterpretation of the findings that our planet is capable of accommodating another trillion trees, highlighting the importance of proper communication of scientific data. First Prize for Science Communication went to the Canadian film Animal Pride, which deals with diverse forms of love in nature.

The Czech & Slovak Competition offered a wide range of diverse topics

The jury awarded four prizes. The prize for the Best Czech & Slovak film went to Zuzana Piussi’s documentary The Scent Trail. The film presents a disturbing flaw in the Czech justice system and stands as an excellent example of a thorough investigative documentary approach. Lapilli stands out as a formal opposite. This Slovak experimental film constitutes a visual poem and a form of therapy for director Paula Ďurinová. The film received Honourable Mention. The Best Science Communication Award went to David Čálek for Doctor on a Trip. “Science documentary films are not mainly what I do, this was kind of an exception. But when I saw the films in the competition, I thought that this film belonged here, because it’s about psychological well-being and treating depression, combining Western medicine with the shamanic traditions of the Amazon. Thank you for this award, I really appreciate it,” the director said.

Short Film Competition

The Best Short Film Award in the Short Film Competition went to Wetlands – Life Blood. The film presents the audience with the genius loci of wetlands and organisms that live there. The short film Testerep received Honourable Mention. It uses modern technology to reconstruct historical landscapes that no longer exist.

New at AFO this year was the Immersive Competition

Honourable Mention went to the project Wilfred Buck’s Star Stories. The programme screened at the Fort Science planetarium tells the story of an astronomer and folklorist Wilfred Buck navigating the night sky. The Best Immersive Work Award went to the augmented reality project Turbulence: Jamais Vu. It simulates an inner ear disorder and disrupts the viewers’ senses to represent what it is like to live with such a condition. The Best First or Second Science Documentary Award, another new category, went to the film Burkitt.

“Philosopher Mark Fisher has written that ‘real wealth is the collective capacity to produce, care, and enjoy’. Since its inception, AFO as a film festival has also been about that. The importance of science itself and of science documentaries lies in the fact that they carefully examine reality and attempt to discover the facts in it, whatever they may be,” Ondřej Kazík, programme director of the festival, pointed out. He also added that this year’s festival, among other things, offered an exhibition of a new subgenre of documentaries as well as reflections on its own history.

And what did the audiences vote for?

The Audience Award went to Sběratelé kratomu (The Kratom Collectors). This Czech medium-length documentary examines the phenomenon of a substance, which is a medicine for some and a recreational drug for others. “AFO is something I’ve always admired – the combination of science and art. This is what influenced my decision to study multimedia production at Silesian University in Opava. This festival sets the bar for all of us. I’m overjoyed by this award,” said Libor Cinegr, director of The Kratom Collectors, expressing his enthusiasm. The film had its world premiere in Olomouc.

This year, the company Sandbox Films again awarded the best projects of participants in the Camp4Science programme. Honourable Mention and a prize of 10,000 USD went to the projects Yet the Faces and Snow Globe. First Prize and an award of 25,000 USD went to the project The Archipelago  – a powerful coming of age story. “I love AFO, this is my fifth time here. It’s a place which is all about the audiences and the filmmakers, which makes it unique. It’s obvious that people come here because they are interested, they want to talk about things. Popular science is something that really matters to them, and they want to try new things,” said Jessica Harrop, co-founder of Sandbox Films and a mentor at Camp4Science.

The Student Jury Award was given to the emotionally-charged, character-driven documentary Light Darkness Light in which blind priest Ian Nichols undergoes a bionic eye implant in order to see again.

Academia Film Olomouc – AFO is a festival aimed at documentary films which are about science, social themes, scientists, scientific findings, ethics connected to pushing the boundaries of human knowledge, and approaches to education. The aim of the festival is also to show that film, television, and other audiovisual work continues to be the most effective medium to popularise science.

Localy adapted crop genotypes and organic farming may be the answer to climate change.  This is according to the first ever study investigating the impact of drought on yield and seed quality of different common bean genotypes, published in the European Journal of Agronomy. In this paper, scientists from the Czech Institute for Research and Advanced Technologies – CATRIN at Palacký University, together with colleagues from Spain and the USA, summarize the results of a pioneering three-year field experiment in both organic farming and conventional management. They showed that drought and agriculture practices significantly affect both yield and quality of beans, with extreme temperatures being a key factor.

Common bean is an important crop for sustainable food security. With climate change and increasing drought, farmers face a number of challenges in ensuring sufficient production. Selecting appropriate genotypes adapted to climate change, including drought, within different management systems is a viable strategy to mitigate the impacts of such conditions.

“The aim of the study was to evaluate different common bean genotypes – both landraces and commercially available ones – under different environmental conditions, different management systems and irrigation methods to understand how different growing conditions affect their yield and seed quality,” said one of the authors of the paper, Nuria De Diego of CATRIN.

During the three-year field experiment, researchers grew twelve different genotypes under irrigated and rainfed conditions using conventional and organic farming practices. They evaluated plant physiological responses, seed yield and quality parameters and their associations to identify potential biomarkers suitable for identifying resistant genotypes.

“The research has shown that both drought and management significantly affect bean yield and quality, with temperature extremes being a key factor affecting the observed parameters. Under irrigation, organic farming achieved comparable yields to conventional management and improved seed quality under conditions without irrigation. The landrace Arrocina de Álava was found to be drought tolerant with higher seed quality when grown without irrigation. This underlines the importance of landraces for the selection of genotypes resistant to climate change,” the scientist outlined some of the findings of the research.

The study has also confirmed that carbon isotope discrimination in seeds (Δ13C) is a reliable indicator for selecting stress-tolerant genotypes and highlighted the effect of extreme temperatures on seed fat and energy content. It also shows that it is essential to incorporate climate resilience considerations into crop breeding and the selection of agricultural practices.

CATRIN scientists collaborated on the research with colleagues from the University of the Basque Country and Auburn University.

Czech President Petr Pavel appointed the new rector of Palacký University Olomouc at Prague Castle. On 1 May, jurist Michael Kohajda is going to take over the leadership of the second oldest university in the country.

The term of office of the current UP rector, Dr Martin Procházka, terminates on the last day of April. The very next day, 1 May, Michael Kohajda will take over the office. The UP Academic Senate elected him to head the university at its January meeting, when fourteen senators gave him their votes in the second round of the secret ballot.

The election results and the protocol on the UP Rector election, along with the documents for the appointment, were handed over by the President of the UP Academic Senate, Irena Smolová, to the Czech Minister of Education. He submitted the documents to the Office of the President of the Czech Republic, which set the date of the ceremony for 15 April.

The UP Rector’s term of office is four years, so Michael Kohajda will head Palacký University Olomouc until 30 April 2029.

In the modern era of the reinstated university in Olomouc, altogether fifteen rectors have headed it since 1946: 13 men and 2 women. Kohajda will become the sixteenth. The university he will manage currently has roughly twenty-three thousand students studying at eight faculties and more than four thousand employees.

doc. JUDr. Michael Kohajda, Ph.D. (b. 1981)

He graduated from the UP Faculty of Law (UP FL) with a Master’s degree in Law and Legal Science. He obtained his doctoral degree and received his habilitation in Financial Law at the Charles University Faculty of Law. He has taught at UP FL for almost twenty years. Since 2020, he has held the position of Vice-Dean – (first for Doctoral Studies, Qualification Procedures, and Finances, including investments; currently he is Vice-Dean for External Relations and Investments). He is a member of the UP FL Scholarly Board and several other boards at the law faculties in Olomouc and Prague.

His research and publication activities focus on financial law, especially on public budgets, taxation, banking, insurance, and capital markets. His main professional interest involves financial system rules and supervision. In recent years, he has also focused on the legal rules related to the issuance and handling of crypto assets. Since 2024 he has been the principal investigator of the Czech Science Foundation standard project Crypto Assets as a Threat to Sovereignty. As regards international cooperation, he has undertaken a number of international research and teaching stays in Europe, the USA, and Australia. In addition to his academic activities, he has a successful legal practice.

In order to contribute to the development of society, he has been involved in politics. Between 2014 and 2022, he was a member of the Šumperk City Council, where he focused on budget policy and investments. In 2021, thanks to preferential votes, he won a seat in the Parliament of the Czech Republic for the Olomouc Region. He serves, among others, as a member of the Budget Committee in the Parliament. He was also a member of the Chamber of Deputies’ special investigative commission on the tragic event that took place at the Charles University Faculty of Arts in December 2023.

The sixtieth jubilee of the international Academia Film Olomouc (AFO) festival of popular science documentaries, taking place from 22–27 April, will bring a selection of the best Czech and international films to Olomouc. This year its scope has expanded to new forms of storytelling – for instance extended and virtual reality, fulldome films, and desktop documentaries. The organisers have loaded the 2025 edition with strong themes, prominent personalities, and sections connecting science with everyday life.

The programme boasts over 500 items. Attendees can look forward to film screenings, debates, workshops, exhibitions, walks, concerts and DJ sets, a mobile planetarium, plus a university brewery beer tasting and an original science game for families with children.

Prominent international personalities in the fields of documentary, experimental, and immersive films will visit Olomouc. Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian, a film director and artist working with NASA, will introduce her new film Doppelgängers³, which recently premiered at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival in the USA.

Belgian director and astrophysicist Vincent Langouche will present his film Testerep. Brooklyn auteurs Sean Paulsen and Brad Wickham will introduce the international premiere of their short film Habbal et al., while the Australian duo of Ben Joseph Andrews and Emma Roberts will present their immersive project Turbulence: Jamais Vu.

The artist Sister Sylvester, who has performed in festivals in Venice, Amsterdam, and New York, will present her project Drinking Brecht, which she describes as an automated laboratory performance. Australian MC, presenter, edu-tainer, and children’s book author Lee Constable – also famous for her Antarctica: The Twitch-u-mentary, an eight-hour livestreamed experience on her Twitch channel – will also be on hand in Olomouc.

Czech films play a big role

“In the Czechoslovak competition, I’m looking forward to the film Lapilli by first-time Slovak director Paula Ďurinová; and the meditation on the fascinating creatures Lichens are the Way by Ondřej Vavrečka, which is having its premiere at AFO, together with the film Czechia Deforested. David Čálek’s Doctor on a Trip shows the breakthrough research being done by Dr Tomáš Páleníček and his international scientific team on the use of psychedelic substances in therapy. The very topical Because of Bear series by director Mira Rema will have its festival premiere at AFO; the Slovak government has approved the culling of 350 bears this very month, and the series gives you the background on this controversial topic,” said programme director Ondřej Kazík.

In the Roomies section, zoologist and ecologist Anna Vedralová –who has inspired the public to protect “unloved” creatures such as spiders, frogs, and insects – will be in attendance. The Beer Culture section will introduce Milan Starec, a historian and brewer who has also brought back historic brewing techologies. The emotional Touch section will offer reflections on physical contact and human intimacy in the digital age.

Current audiovisual trends and archival curios

The exhibition File Explorer: I Like the Pictures in Your Living Room bridges two venues – Gallery XY and Vitrína Deniska – showcasing audiovisual works that use computer screen-capturing techniques in office-like settings. “We’re interested in how the digital environment changes one’s perspective on films, images, and narrative. The art exhibition allows for posing these questions in a slightly differently way than in a cinema,” says the main programmer, Zdeněk Rychtera. The digital present is balanced by a retrospective experience in the Videoforum 2025 exhibition at the Olomouc Regional Museum. Using period technology and the original format of Academia Video Olomouc projection booths, archival films from the 80s, 90s, and 00s  will be brought back to life.

Full Moon lights up the music scene

The carefully prepared musical line-up will introduce artists who are unafraid of unexpected musical confrontations. This year, AFO has started a new collaboration with Full Moon Zine, bringing to the festival its feeling for contemporary musical currents. “This year’s line-up maps a terrain full of undiscovered treasures; at the same time the attentive ear will detect several remarkable déjà vus,” revealed Kateřina Sovová, on behalf of the organisers, adding that futuristic pop musician Mart Avi of Estonia will make his Czech debut at AFO.

“We have built the programme with an accent on local, contemporary names, regardless of genre or other barriers. Names such as Dukla, Kodiki, SJ Yellow, and Temný Rudo are among the very best performers currently on the Czech scene, and artists like OGmiaG and Dasa are definitely up-and-coming. For example Slovak musican Erika Rein’s album Kamibe was recently nominated in three categories for the Radio_Head Awards,” said Michal Pařízek, editor-in-chief of Full Moon Zine. The musical programme will take place outside under an awning on the Town Bailey adjacent to the Konvikt Arts Centre.

Children’s events at AFO

This year’s AFO Junior programme, in cooperation with Fort Science, the Czech Academy of Sciences and Czech Television, explores what remains hidden to the ordinary eye – from microscopic organisms and other hidden aspects of our everyday lives to the distant universe. The programme also reflects the themes of the other festival sections and offers a comprehensive view of science and the world from different perspectives.

“I have two children, and their perspective on the world often opens up new horizons for me. Their perceptions are dramatically different from those of adults and force me to discover new perspectives. It was this principle that inspired me this year to call the children’s section Beyond the Visible. What is hidden beyond that which we do not see or perceive? The theme incorporates a whole spectrum of phenomena, from natural ones undetectable to the naked eye, to the invisible mechanisms of our thoughts, emotions, and creativity,” said programmer Ksenia Hain.

AFO at 60

Sixty years ago, AFO’s founders were inspired by a similar event in Padua, Italy, also located at the university there. The idea for AFO came from Short Film Prague and the Czech Academy of Sciences. From its humble origins, the festival has come a gigantic way, becoming the longest continously running European festival of popular science films. Each year, well-known personalities not only in the field of filmmaking come to Olomouc to meet some nine thousand accredited audience members.

Visit afo.cz for the festival progamme, where you can also sign up for three levels of accreditation: Basic (free), the new Teleport with reserved seating, Music is Science  (live music pass), and two VIP packages, Star and Galaxy.

Before AFO starts, you can make the waiting more pleasant by going to its Watch and Know platform. This online library of films and more is the perfect place for anyone who wants to learn, discover interesting stories, and tune into the science documentary atmosphere.

The full programme is available here.

A review article in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics summarizes the computational methods currently used to study and design lipid-based drug carriers (LNCs). The article was co-authored by researchers from CATRIN at Palacký University, IT4Innovations at VSB-TUO and colleagues from French universities and Sanofi. The valuable insights gained from integrating experimental and theoretical approaches can contribute to improving the properties of lipid nanocarriers, thereby ensuring more effective and safer drug therapy.

Liposomes and lipid nanoparticles are used to transport drugs into cells. Thanks to computational methods, researchers can explore the structure of these nanoparticles and the individual steps involved in their transport.

“These insights are crucial for designing new and efficient therapeutics that enhance the effectiveness of drug delivery systems. Our review article examines how computational methods, particularly molecular dynamics simulations, can reveal complex relationships between the composition, structure and function of LNCs. Additionally, we present the potential of machine learning—data-driven learning—in the design of lipid carriers,” summarized the key contributions of the article its first author, Markéta Paloncýová from CATRIN.

The researchers also utilized the computing power of supercomputers at the IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center. The study, which was conducted with the support of the TECHSCALE, MINIGRAPH and REFRESH projects, is accompanied by a supplementary cover art in the journal.

LNCs are nanoparticles composed of lipids used for delivering active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in medicine. Their advantage lies in their ability to transport even water-insoluble substances, protect the body from certain adverse drug effects and safeguard fragile molecules such as nucleic acids or proteins. They enhance treatment effectiveness by enabling targeted drug delivery to specific locations in the body. In modern medicine, LNCs are used, for example, in mRNA vaccines and targeted cancer therapy.