Charles University’s hockey team successfully defended its title from last year in the Battle of the Universities. In the final this time, the team defeated players from the Czech Technical University in Prague. The triumph is the team’s ninth in the traditional competition of Prague universities.

The TV hockey series Lajna (Line) starring Jiří Langmajer as a despotic head coach at a crossroads in his life, proved popular each week among viewers online and ran three seasons. What you might not know is that a number of Charles University students were extras on the show as players on the team.

Czechs have been marking 17 November, commemorating the courage of students and citizens who stood up to two different totalitarian regimes: against the Nazi oppressors in 1939 and the Communists 50 years later. Students, teachers and representatives of Charles University all took part.

For the first time in its centuries-long history, Charles University will be led by a woman. Friday's election, which saw voting by CU’s Academic Senate, was won by the incumbent vice-rector for education, Milena Králíčková, who finished comfortably ahead of the only other candidate, Michal Stehlík, the former dean of the Faculty of Arts.

"I have always been attracted to science from a medical point of view. The choice of virology was a combination of relevance to human health and the technical possibilities of that time," says Professor Hans-Georg Kraeusslich, explaining why he became a virologist. Professor Kraeusslich was recently honoured by Charles University. 

Recent graduates may already have been lucky to hear the newly installed pipe organ at the Carolinum; additional invited guests will have the pleasure on Tuesday, 5 October, at a concert including works by Bach and Mozart. The new pipe organ in the Carolinum’s Great Hall has been described as a “resonant jewel”.

Over the last few years, more and more young people in the Czech Republic have taken up longboarding, a hobby and sport related to skateboarding but different in many respects. Longboards, as the name suggests, utilise a longer deck but feel very different, offering a more stable ride on softer polyurethane wheels.

Three brothers, all slalom canoeists; two have competed for the Czech Republic. That's the Hegers. Vojtěch, the middle brother, clinched a spot in canoe slalom for the Czech Republic in the upcoming Olympics. But he won’t be heading to Tokyo this summer.

Stunning landscapes, diverse in languages, home to different cultural traditions: all that and more are the Caucasus bridging Western Asia and Eastern Europe. The region has long been the focus of Faculty of Arts’ Associate Professor Petra Košťálová.

In jest, he says that a recent Amazon exhibition in Prague’s Carolinum came together only by accident, after he came across a box containing Peru’s highest state honour while cleaning up. Back in 2007, Charles University’s Bohumír Janský became the first foreigner to receive the honour.

A new book provides a fascinating look at how restoration teams revived a unique rotunda from the 11th century (dedicated to St. Wenceslas). The book was edited by Jarmila Čiháková and Martin Müller and published by the National Heritage Institute.

Václav Šňupárek is a Master’s student at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport who competed in many sports before becoming a professional cyclist. He is a member of Team Novo Nordisk, a team unlike any other whose athletes all have Type-1 diabetes. 

This Monday saw the opening of the Kings of the Sun, a major exhibition at the National Museum in Prague highlighting among the many items on display, extraordinary archaeological finds by Czech Egyptologists.