News
People around the country including Charles University this week marked the 55th anniversary of Faculty of Arts student Jan Palach’s self-immolation in January 1969. The drastic sacrifice, meant to rouse fellow citizens from resignation following the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia that crushed the Prague Spring, deeply shocked fellow citizens.
Thousands of people, including many students and staff, took part in a commemorative event at Charles University on Thursday, 4 January – fourteen days after an unprecedented tragedy unfolded at the Faculty of Arts. A commemorative procession honoured the 14 people whose lives were tragically cut short on 21 December, and served as a symbolic embrace of the faculty as it mourns and recovers in this difficult period.
Dear colleagues, students and friends: on behalf of the whole management of the University I wish you and your loved ones good health, personal joy and professional success for the new year. And I wish for all of us to keep up our good spirits and for our University to continue to be an inspirational, creative environment in which we are glad to meet and communicate with each other.
Charles University has once again confirmed its scientific excellence by being awarded 86 standard and postdoctoral projects by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (GA CR) on 30 November 2023. The GA CR has also recently awarded financial support to four scientific projects in the highly selective Junior Star competition.
Charles University was today ranked 172nd out of 1,403 ranked universities in the QS World University Rankings: Sustainability and 75th out of 493 ranked universities in Europe. This is the second year that the ranking of universities' contribution to addressing the challenges of sustainable development has been expanded from last year to include Governance in addition to the Environmental Impact and Social Impact pillars.
Charles University and its faculties launched a joint project with Taiwan's National Chengchi University on Friday to establish a Supply Chain Resilience Center. The universities will jointly explore supply chain resilience. The centre is part of a multi-project in which the Taiwanese government is supporting the development of the semiconductor environment in the Czech Republic.
Two biologists, Dr. Zuzana Musilová and Dr. Matyáš Fendrych (both from the Faculty of Science of Charles University), have been awarded Consolidator grants from the European Research Council (ERC). With the significant financial support they receive from the research grants, they can now consolidate research teams and further research in their fields.
Charles University and the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics (BIG) are happy to announce the winner of 2023 Essay Prize. Following a competitive selection process, we are thrilled to reveal that the winner is Matěj Prášil from the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University was awarded this prestigious honour for his outstanding essay on the question Which partners in the ‘Global South’ are the most strategic for the European Union and why? Matěj will have the unique opportunity to spend six months as a research assistant at the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics.
International Students' Day and the Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day were marked on Friday 17 November by citizens, students, and academics across the Czech Republic. Traditionally, the main figures of the celebrations in Prague included the highest representatives of Charles University, who honoured the students' struggle for freedom in 1939 and 1989.
November 17 is Struggle for Democracy and Freedom Day, commemorating students and others who protested against the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, as well as students 50 years later - in 1989 - who were savagely beaten by communist riot police. The infamous event sparked the Velvet Revolution that would bring down communism in Czechoslovakia. A revolution which Montreal-based historian James Krapfl says was distinctive in its appeal to humanity, humanness and non-violence.
Monday evening, 13 November 2023, saw a panel discussion entitled Urban Talk: Female Empowerment take place at Charles University. The central theme of the debate, as the title suggests, was empowerment and gender equality. Four successful women representing very different professional sectors presented their insights, experience and outlook for the future.
The Faculty of Science has succeeded in the call for proposals of the Programme Johannes Amos Comenius (OP JAK). The new project, under the leadership of Professor Vojtěch Ettler, will focus on natural and anthropogenic geohazards. The aim of the project is to study in detail the threats in the Earth's upper spheres, to understand the causes of their occurrence and to quantify the possible impacts on human society.
Charles University hockey players the UK Kings Prague defeated rivals the ČVUT Engineers Prague representing 4:3 in the annual Battle of the Universities on Ice. The match was played in the Holešovice Sports Hall as part of the University Ice Hockey League. In case you are wondering the UK stands for Charles University in Czech.
Charles University and delegates from the University of St Andrews had a chance to catch up this week in Prague, to reflect on past successes within their partnership agreement and build on further cooperation in the future. Representatives from both schools met at the foyer of the rectorate and historic Carolinum to open an exhibition before sitting down to a day of presentations and looking ahead.
Researchers from the Jan Dobeš laboratory have made a significant discovery uncovering a novel immune response in the intestinal epithelium. Furthermore, their study delineates a mechanism that controls this immune response. Their findings were recently published in the renowned Journal of Experimental Medicine in a paper authored by Tomáš Brabec and other members of Jan Dobeš's laboratory at the Faculty of Science, Charles University.