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By issuing the charter on 7 April 1348 that established a university in the heart of his empire, Charles IV ensured that Prague became one of the centres of European learning, a status it retains to this day. Exactly 678 years later, members of the academic community celebrated this significant day at the historic Carolinum. On this occasion, Rector Jiří Zima also awarded individuals who have contributed to the university’s reputation or who have achieved extraordinary creative accomplishments.
Wearing the rector’s chain for the very first time, Professor Jiří Zima presided over the annual meeting at the Carolinum on 7 April; he had assumed the office of rector at the beginning of February. Although his speech also looked back to the glorious days of Charles IV’s reign – when the enlightened monarch, drawing on his experiences in Paris and Bologna, understood the importance of education for society and founded Prague’s university – the central theme of his address was firmly rooted in the present. For the university to preserve the fame it gained shortly after its founding, it must devote considerable effort to this endeavour, including major financial challenges.
“The students of Charles University have been active participants and often the driving force behind social change in what is now the Czech Republic, and the university’s history cannot be separated from our own history – a history marked by times of prosperity as well as times of hardship and adversity for higher education. We have managed to overcome it all, and today we are stronger and more resilient as a result. In any case, we must not bury our heads in the sand in the face of minor setbacks; we must confront them. One such recent setback was our inability to meet the requirements of the National Recovery Plan, which led, for various reasons, to proceedings to revoke the grant for the construction of the Albertov Campus’ Biocentre. I firmly believe that we will overcome this situation, halt the proceedings to revoke the grant, and – through the united efforts of the faculties and constituent parts, and in cooperation with state authorities – bring this largest investment project at Charles University in the last hundred years to a successful conclusion in 2028,” the rector noted, emphasising that this year marks the completion of Charles University’s second major construction project: the construction of the Mephared 2 training and research complex in Hradec Králové.
Dozens of people in the audience listened to his words, including figures from public and cultural life, ambassadors, senators, and members of parliament.
Professor Jan Konvalinka, former Vice-Rector of Charles University and currently a member of the University’s Scientific Council and Director of the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, delivered a guest speech at the ceremony. During his address, he also reflected on why Charles University – and by extension, the entire Czech Republic – still does not rank among Europe’s elite centres of science and research.
Professor Jan Konvalinka reflected on the challenges facing the Czech higher education system.
“Czech science and education are underfunded; a smaller share of the gross national product goes toward supporting universities and scientific research than in developed European countries, and what’s worse, that gap is unfortunately beginning to widen. Years ago, a widely echoed demand from the Czech scientific community was to reach the average level of this share among developed European countries at the time, which was 0.7% of GDP. A widely circulated petition was even launched on this topic, in which I participated. I still have a letter from the Minister of Education, in which he kindly chides me for preaching to the choir, since the government had long ago decided that we would reach this share next year, or the year after at the latest. That would be good news. The bad news is that the Minister of Education’s name was Ivan Pilip, and that letter was from 1995. Our science sector reached the magic threshold of 0.7% of GDP about 15 years later, mainly thanks to European funds. And now we’re back below it, and the outlook for the future doesn’t look optimistic. It is clear that the state budget has other priorities in these dramatic times and that we all have to tighten our belts today. Nevertheless, I would like to point out that the State of Israel founded and funded the Weizmann Institute – today one of the best scientific institutions in the world – at a time when it was still struggling for its very existence,” emphasised Professor Konvalinka.
On the occasion of the anniversary of Charles University’s founding, Rector Jiří Zima presented the Miloslav Petrusek Award for Representation and Promotion to selected individuals. In doing so, he recognized achievements which have a significant impact on fostering a positive image of the university in society and which fulfil the university’s so-called third mission.
The Miloslav Petrusek Prize for Representation and Promotion was presented to:
Martin Rybář, Vojtěch Pleskot, and Daniel Scheirich (CU MATHPHYS) for regularly organizing The Big Bang Stage, a programme aimed at popularizing physics and the natural sciences at the Colours of Ostrava music festival (UK Forum magazine recently published an interview with Martin Rybář about his scientific and outreach work).
Martin Rybář, Vojtěch Pleskot, and Daniel Scheirich (left to right) are the reason why audiences now come to the Colours of Ostrava festival not only for the music, but also for physics.
The Charles University hockey team (UK Kings) for representing the university in sports (nominated by the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport; the team includes students from other CU faculties as well). The award was accepted by club manager Michaela Vošahlíková and team captain Samuel Neo Kucharčík.
Iva Holmerová (CU HUM) for applying scientific findings and pedagogical practices in real-world contexts, and for her public engagement, which has had a profound impact on shifting paradigms and attitudes toward senior citizens.
An Honourable Mention was awarded to the Public Affairs and Communication Department at the Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové, Charles University, led by Radka Tobolková, for organizing the event “A Healthy Body, a Healthy Mind in Hradec,” which took place for the general public in the capital of the Hradec Králové Region last May and included hands-on workshops, preventive screenings, discussions, and interactive lectures.
During the ceremony, Charles University Rector Jiří Zima also presented the Bedřich Hrozný Award for Creative Initiative. Following the recommendation of a committee composed of representatives from the university and other institutions, the award is presented to selected individuals for significant and original creative achievements, such as scholarly journal or book publications, works of art, the organisation of exhibitions, or successful patents.
This year’s Bedřich Hrozný Award for Creative Initiative was presented to:
Associate Professor Tomáš Uher for his monograph Mimics and Red Flags of Multiple Sclerosis (CU MED 1ST). The book provides a comprehensive overview of neurological disorders that can mimic multiple sclerosis (MS) or be confused with it at various stages of the diagnostic process. The publication offers detailed descriptions of a wide range of diseases that can be confused with MS and highlights their clinical manifestations, biochemical characteristics, and imaging findings, which may be similar to those of MS or, conversely, diagnostically distinct. A Czech translation of this book is also planned for release this year.
Associate Professor Hana Kubátová for her publication Christian Nationalism, Nation-Building, and the Making of the Holocaust in Slovakia (CU SOC). In it, the author presents a comprehensive analysis of the role of Christian nationalism in the construction of the Slovak state during World War II and its contribution to the implementation of the Holocaust. Hana Kubátová’s work significantly contributes to raising the profile of Czech scholarship in a global context and engages in the broader international debate on the nature of fascism, collaboration, and ethnic violence. Although the work addresses a historical topic, its conclusions regarding the mechanisms of societal radicalisation and the exploitation of religious and national identity for political ends are highly relevant to the present day. Hana Kubátová is currently on a research fellowship in Vienna, and therefore was unable to attend the ceremony in person.
Professor Ivan Čepička and doctoral student Marek Valt for an extraordinary discovery that significantly advances our current understanding of the evolution of eukaryotic organisms (CU SCI). Their research team’s discovery of the new protist Solarion arienae, published in the prestigious Nature journal, represents the result of exceptional scientific ingenuity, methodological precision, and a deep understanding of microbial diversity. This single-celled organism, previously overlooked due to its extreme rarity and minuscule size, has proven to be the key to the discovery of an entirely new eukaryotic supergroup, Disparia, thereby fundamentally altering the current structure of the eukaryotic tree of life.
Associate Professor Tomáš Petříček for his monograph Cultures of Programming (CU MATHPHYS). Petříček’s monograph, published last year by Cambridge University Press, traces how the fundamental concepts and methodologies of programming took shape and evolved from their origins in the 1940s to the present day. Key moments in history are interpreted in the book as interactions between five different programming cultures, which shape the fundamental intellectual foundations of their protagonists.
An Honourable mention was awarded to Associate Professor Jakub Jirsa for his monograph The Function Argument in Aristotle’s Ethics (CU ARTS). This is the first book-length treatment of the argument concerning human work (ergon), which is one of the central and most debated arguments in Aristotle’s ethics. With exceptional systematic rigor and interpretive precision, the author traces the genesis of this argument from Plato’s Republic through Aristotle’s Protrepticus to Eudemian and Nicomachean Ethics. The publication is distinguished by extraordinary philological and philosophical insight. Jakub Jirsa was unable to attend the ceremony at the Carolinum for serious reasons.
The ceremonial event at the Carolinum marking the 678th anniversary of the founding of Charles University concluded with a musical performance by Jers Duo.
A recording of the meeting is available for viewing:
TEXT: Helena Zdráhalová
PHOTO: Vladimír Šigut