Education

Science and research

Czech scientific successes

The Czech Head Award 2010 has a winner

photo: (ceskahlava.cz)

Dental implants exported into 20 countries worldwide. Software with elements of artificial intelligence used by the US army as well as by the world’s biggest producer of shaving blades. Research on retroviruses provoking cancer. Irradiated materials that exist only on Jupiter. These are the results achieved by technicians, scientists and research workers who have been awarded with the Czech Head Award 2010.

The aim of the Czech Head project, launched in 2002, is to support and promote Czech science and technology among the public as an "attractive brand". The award is considered to be the Czech Nobel Prize for Czech scientists, inventors and other experts.

In 2010, the main award – the Czech Head National Award – went to Professor Jan Svoboda from the Institute of Molecular Genetics AS CR. He is one of the world’s leading experts in retrovirology. Svoboda’s contribution to this field of study was even recognised by the winners of the Nobel Prize awarded for discovering oncogenes – Harold Elliot Varmus and John Michael Bishop.

The Invention Award was bestowed to Professors of the Czech Technical University in Prague (ČVUT) Vladimír Mařík and Michal Pěchouček. They are the inventors of the Czech automatic systems using artificial intelligence. They were awarded for their research on the “Industrial Application of Multi-Agent Technology”. The results of their research are used, for example, by the US army while searching for pirates in the Gulf of Aden.

Lasak s. r. o was awarded with the Czech Head Industrie Award of the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade for their unique development and manufacturing of special dental implants. These implants are not perceived by the human body as a foreign object, which considerably accelerates convalescence after an operation. The Industrie Award may also be awarded to foreign companies based in the Czech Republic.

On the contrary, the Patria Award is given to scientists and managers working abroad. This year, it went to Seattle to František Tureček, a professor of chemistry who works at the University of Washington.

The Doctorandus Award was bestowed on Jaromír Chalupský from the Czech Technical University (ČVUT) and the Institute of Physics AS CR for his research on the effects of extremely intense X-rays and laser beams that are capable of developing forms of mass that exist, for example, on Jupiter.