Governing Bodies

Born in 1972 in Prague. Studied microbiology at the Faculty of Science of the Charles University in Prague. His scientific work focuses on the ecology of soil microorganisms, contribution of bacteria and fungi to ecosystem functioning and the use of microorganisms in biotechnology.

Petr Baldrian is the head of the Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology of the Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences. He is the principal investigator of national and international projects, e.g. the Horizon 2020, FP7 – Marie Curie lnternational Training Networks, Facilities Integrating Collaborations for User Science EMSL/JGI (USA), Czech Science Foundation, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic and Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic.

He is a supervisor of students of bachelor, master and doctoral degrees and teaches „Geomicrobiology“, „Microbial processes in the Environment“ and „Microbial Ecology“ at Charles University, Prague and „Selected chapters from Microbiology“ at the Comenius University in Bratislava.

He published 11 chapters in books and 200+ papers in impact factor journals with more than 15 000 citations. His research was awarded, for example with the Prize of the President of the Czech Science Foundation for the project „Ecological role of saprotrophic fungi, degrading lignocellulose in forest soils“ (2008), Prize of the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports for excellence in research (2015) and Praemium Academiae of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (2017). Petr Baldrian is the editor of ISME Journal, Microbiome, FEMS Microbiology Ecology and Fungal Ecology. He is also the national ambassador of the lnternational Society for Microbial Ecology for the Czech Republic and the founder of a series of international conferences „Ecology of Soil Microorganisms“.

In November 2016, Petr Baldrian was nominated to be the member of Presidium of the Czech Science Foundation, since November 2021 he is the president of the Czech Science Foundation.

Prof. Hartl graduated in mechanical engineering at the Brno University of Technology. He became Associate Professor of Structural and Process Engineering in 2002 and four years later was appointed Professor of Structural and Process Engineering.

Prof. Hartl’s scientific, research and development activities are mainly focused on tribology, biotribology and high-pressure rheology. He participated in the establishment of the tribology research group at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Brno University of Technology, which has gained an international reputation especially in the field of elastohydrodynamics. He developed and implemented a method of colorimetric interferometry, enabling the determination and visualization of lubricating film thickness distribution in elastohydrodynamic contact. The method is now used by a number of research institutions worldwide.

He has published more than 120 scientific articles in high-impact journals. The acclaim of his work is evidenced by more than 1,800 citations and an H-index of 21 according to Web of Science. He has received several awards for his work, such as the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers award, and the Japanese Society of Tribologists award.

He is the director of the Institute of Machine and Industrial Design at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Brno University of Technology, which he transformed into an internationally recognized research and educational institution. He is the principal investigator within several strategic projects. He has been developing a research-oriented concept of teaching on a long-term basis.

He is the guarantor of the Master’s degree programme in Structural Engineering, which he founded, and the Doctoral degree programme in Structural and Process Engineering. He is a supervisor in doctoral studies and 7 students have defended their dissertations under his supervision. He led the translation team and scientific editorial board for the Czech translation of the world-renowned textbook Shigley’s Mechanical Engineering Design.

He was appointed member of the Presidium of the Czech Science Foundation in March 2022.

Alice Valkárová was born in 1947 in Brno. In 1970 she finished her studies of nuclear and particle physics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University in Prague. She gained her Ph.D. in 1980 in Russia (former Soviet Union) during her long-term stay (1973-1980) at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna. The subject of her studies was the analysis of antiproton-proton interactions. She was awarded with the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research prize in 1982. In 1997 she started participating in the H1 experiment which studied electron-proton interactions at the HERA electron-proton particle accelerator in DESY laboratory (Hamburg, Germany). She spent two years working at this experiment in Hamburg. She was a member of the Executive Committee of the H1 experiment for 3 years. From 2006-2014 she was the President of the Czech Physical Society and a member of the Presidium of the Union of Czech Mathematicians and Physicists. From 2012 she served six years as a member of the Evaluation Panel of the European Research Council. She has supervised nine Masters and seven PhD theses. In 2015 she received the Milada Paulová Award for physics, which was awarded to her by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Czech Republic.

Prof. Jirsa graduated from the Faculty of General Medicine and the Faculty of Science of Charles University. He received his professorship from the First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University. After obtaining specialised qualifications in clinical biochemistry, Prof. Jirsa began to deal with photodynamic therapy of tumors, soon moving on to the study of disorders and molecular mechanisms of bile secretion. Prof. Jirsa gradually extended his interest to the genetics of liver diseases. His work and publications contributed to the clarification of the molecular cause of hereditary jaundice, metabolic liver diseases, and congenital amyloidosis type AA. In addition to Mendelian inherited diseases, he is also involved in the study of hereditary factors predisposing to rapid progression of liver damage of various etiologies, and to the development of hepatocellular carcinoma, and the possibilities of suppressing their influence.

In the course of his scientific career to date, he has published more than 80 original scientific papers in international journals and supervised 10 PhD students and postdocs. From 1999 to 2002, he completed a long-term residency at the Academisch Medisch Centrum in Amsterdam. He serves on the scientific boards of IKEM, FZO PU and Crigler-Najjar Stichting, a foundation in the Netherlands. He has been awarded a number of grants and led numerous scientific projects.

In November 2021, the Government of the Czech Republic appointed Prof. Jirsa to the Presidium of the Czech Science Foundation.

Assoc. Prof. PhDr. Martina Hřebíčková, DSc. (née Míčková, born in 1963 in Opava) graduated in psychology and Russian language at the Faculty of Arts of the Masaryk University in Brno, where she continued her further studies in psychology. She completed her doctoral studies in 2005 at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. In 2009, she defended her dissertation and was awarded the degree of Doctor of Social Sciences and Humanities (DSc.) by the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS). She received her associate professorship in general psychology in 2013 at the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University. She works at the Institute of Psychology of the CAS. The focus of her research interest is personality psychology and social psychology. She researches personality traits and what is called the Five Factor Model (FFM). She also deals with social perception, intergroup relations and acculturation. She has contributed to more than 80 publications indexed in WoS, and is one of the most frequently cited social scientists in the country. In the 1990s, she spent a year as a student at the University of Bielefeld, Germany. She has also completed a number of short stays abroad (e.g. USA, Finland, UK). She is also involved in applied research. She is validating methods for trait diagnosis, which are also applied in psychological practice. On the basis of her extensive international contacts and her reputation, she receives invitations from prominent foreign scientists to collaborate on international projects, and she also regularly presents at international conferences, including invitation-only symposia. She has served on the scientific committees of several international conferences, on the steering committee of the European Association of Personality Psychology, and is also an editor of the international journal Personality Science.

She also collaborates with universities. She has taught at the Faculty of Business and Management at the Brno University of Technology, and at the Masaryk University. Since 2018, she has been a member of the Scientific Council at the Charles University and serves on the psychology discipline committees at three faculties (Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Social Sciences of the Masaryk University, and Faculty of Science of the Charles University).

She is also involved in the evaluation of science. She chaired the Social and Economic Sciences Sectoral Committee of the Grant Agency of the CAS, and is a member of the Expert Panel Social Sciences (SHVc) at the government’s Council for Research, Development and Innovations, where she serves on Expert Panel 5 (Social Sciences). She chaired the Programme Committee for the Promotion of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Charles University.

She has been awarded several times for her scientific research activities. In 2002, the Czech Academy of Sciences awarded her the Otto Wichterle Prize for Outstanding Young Scientists. In 2018, together with her co-authors, she was awarded the Prize of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Slovak Academy of Sciences on the occasion of 25 years of cooperation for the best monograph produced in this period in cooperation between Czech and Slovak scientists. In 2020, she became a laureate of the Jiří Hoskovec Prize awarded by the Czech-Moravian Psychological Association for her significant contribution to the development of Czech psychology.