Eight scientists – three of them from Charles University – received Neuron Awards at an official ceremony at the National Museum in Prague on Wednesday.
The Neuron Awards, founded 10 years ago by Czech business leader Karel Janeček and run by the Neuron Fund, recognise outstanding work by young scientists. Over 10 years, 85 individuals have received the honour, with funding reaching an overall sum of 66 million crowns (the equivalent of around 2.8 million US dollars). Members of the public will be able to attend a debate with the newest recipients at Opero in Prague at 17:00 on Thursday.
Neuron Award recipients from Charles University:
RNDr. Martin Balko, Ph. D., is a senior assistant professor at the Department of Applied Mathematics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics. He successfully focussed on several mathematical problems in combinatorics that scientists has tried for years to solve.
Ondřej Pejcha, Ph. D., is an astrophysicist and recipient last year of a prestigious ERC grant for his work on supernovae and interactions between binary stars that play a role in the formation of celestial objects such as white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes.
Mgr. Petr Kohout, Ph. D., of the Faculty of Science’s Department of Experimental Plant Biology, conducts research into changes in the symbiotic relationship between plant life and fungi, affected, for example, by climate change.
