Oldest Czech foundation honors six young scientists from BUT for outstanding achievements in their fields
On the eve of celebrations commemorating the events of November 17, 1939, and 1989 in the Czech Republic, the Hlávka Foundation held its traditional ceremony to award the Josef Hlávka Prize to talented scientists under the age of 33. Five recent graduates of the Brno University of Technology received the award and a financial contribution for their exceptional academic and scientific achievements. Another BUT graduate received the Professor Daniel Mayer Award for the best students and graduates of electrical engineering faculties. The Hlávka Foundation is the oldest Czech institution of its kind, focusing on the promotion of culture, art, education, and science.
The Josef Hlávka Awards are decided by the foundation's board of trustees based on nominations from university rectors. Based on the proposal of the BUT rector, the awards were presented at the Josef Hlávka Castle in Lužany near Přeštice to:
- Viktória Parobková from CEITEC BUT
- Tamara Spalajković from the Faculty of Fine Arts, BUT (FFA BUT)
- Anna Mária Dávidíková from the Faculty of Chemistry at BUT (FCH BUT)
- Filip Macák from the Faculty of Information Technology at BUT (FIT BUT)
- František Jeřábek from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at BUT (FME BUT)
On the occasion of the Hlávka Talent Awards, the Professor Daniel Mayer Award is traditionally presented to the best students of the electrical engineering faculties of the Prague and Brno technical universities and the Pilsen university. (The award is named after its donor, a prominent scientist and inventor in the field of electrical engineering, professor at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen – editor's note). The award was won by:
- Kateřina Krejčí from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication, BUT (FEEC BUT)
Viktória Parobková is a graduate of the master's program in Biomedical Engineering and Bioinformatics at FEEC BUT and a doctoral student in the Advanced Nanotechnologies and Microtechnologies program at CEITEC BUT. She has long focused on the analysis of microplastics in biological tissues and their health and environmental impacts. She is researching tomographic and spectroscopic methods for their detection. She gained international recognition for her study on the use of micro-CT technology for non-destructive imaging of microplastics in biological samples. She is active in international collaboration and long-term research projects. She received the Brno Ph.D. Talent award.
Tamara Spalajković completed her master's degree at the Video Studio at FFA BUT, where she is currently a doctoral student. As part of her artistic research, she shoots documentary-fictional videos dealing with the impacts of urbanization on the coexistence of humans and nature. One project that has attracted professional attention focuses on biodiversity in the Planýrka area in the Ponava district of Brno, where urban development is planned. She has long strengthened interdisciplinary cooperation between FFA and the Faculty of Architecture BUT, where she has participated in the management of an interdisciplinary studio, among other things. In 2024, she received the BUT Rector's Award for her exceptional results in her doctoral studies. Since September 2025, she has been working as an assistant in the Audiovisual Technologies Department at FFA BUT.
Anna Mária Dávidíková is a graduate of the double-degree master's program in Environmental Sciences and Engineering at FCH BUT. During the first semester of her master's studies, she worked at the University of RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau in Germany. After returning to BUT, she began work on her diploma thesis, which she prepared at CEITEC BUT in cooperation with FCH BUT. She focused on the preparation – photopolymerization – of thermosensitive polymer drug carriers (hydrogels – ed.), using a completely unique method involving non-toxic substances based on flavins, i.e., vitamin B2 and its derivatives. In the future, these could replace the much more toxic and more commonly used lithium-based initiators. The work has extraordinary potential for medical and biological applications, and the possibility of filing a patent application is being considered.
Filip Macák is a graduate of the master's program in Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence at FIT BUT. He is currently continuing his studies in the third year of the doctoral program in Information Technology. His research focuses on the use of formal methods for safe and explainable planning in environments with uncertainty. After starting his doctoral studies, he became a key member of the VeriFIT research group led by Milan Češka at the Institute of Intelligent Systems at FIT BUT. He has contributed significantly to six publications and two research projects. Two of the publications received awards at leading international conferences. For this, he received the VUT Rector's Award. In 2023, he also took third place in IT SPY, a prestigious competition for the best diploma theses in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. He is currently completing a several-month internship at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. More information is available on the FIT BUT website.
František Jeřábek is a graduate of the master's program in Physical Engineering and Nanotechnology at FME BUT. Already during his bachelor's studies, he was involved in research activities at the faculty and in the shared CEITEC Nano laboratory. During this period, he co-authored a research article published in the leading journal ACS Nano. For his thesis, he chose a challenging topic being worked on as part of the ongoing Horizon Europe project – correlative analysis of line defects in a wide bandgap semiconductor (gallium nitride – ed.), which has applications as an effective semiconductor platform for transport and energy, among other things. The result is a database of more than 10,000 characterized defects, which has attracted the attention of project partners, including renowned companies in the field of semiconductors and electron microscopy. For his subsequent doctoral studies, he was accepted at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) in Vienna, where he is currently working on projects in the field of quantum technologies.
Kateřina Krejčí is a graduate of the master's program in Biomedical Engineering and Bioinformatics at FEEC BUT. In 2024, she completed a research internship at the NeuroPoly laboratory at Polytechnique Montréal. She followed up on this internship by writing her thesis, Segmentation and Analysis of Spinal Nerve Roots in MR Image Data, on which she collaborated with experts from Palacký University and the University Hospital in Olomouc. Based on her work, she prepared a contribution for the prestigious international conference of the European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology 2025 in Marseille. She continues her research while studying the doctoral program in Biomedical Technology and Bioinformatics at FEEC BUT.
"I would like to congratulate all our award winners, who are now graduates of our technical university. I am proud of them, and I am also proud that these awards are presented by the Foundation associated with the name of Josef Hlávka, an architect and philanthropist who did so much to support Czech higher education and Czech science. With this support, Josef Hlávka, in his will when he established the Foundation in 1904, intended to support not only Prague's universities and the Academy of Sciences, but also the Brno University of Technology, founded in 1899, which was then the only Czech university in Moravia. That is why I travel every year to the castle in Lužany near Přeštice to personally support and congratulate our award-winning graduates, but also to pay tribute on behalf of our university and thank the Foundation for the opportunity to be part of this venerable community of the oldest Czech universities," said Ladislav Janíček, Rector of BUT, adding, "On this occasion, I also personally thanked Professor Daniel Mayer, who is the donor of the award, which is presented annually. said Ladislav Janíček, Rector of BUT, adding "On this occasion, I also personally thanked Professor Daniel Mayer, who is the donor of the award, which is given annually to the best students of electrical engineering faculties. I am delighted that this year's winners included a BUT student, whom I congratulate on her award."
| The talent of Josef, Marie, and Zdenka Hlávka, commonly known as the Hlávkova nadace, is the oldest existing Czech foundation, established on January 25, 1904, by the prominent architect and builder Josef Hlávka. After 1953, the foundation was allowed to exist only formally by decision of the communist government. It fully resumed its activities thanks to the social changes after 1989. The mission of the Foundation is to support the scientific, literary, and artistic endeavors of the Czech nation, to contribute to the satisfaction of its cultural needs, and to support needy and talented students at Czech public universities in accordance with the will of the founder of the Foundation. The Josef Hlávka Award for the best students and graduates is awarded on the recommendation of rectors to students and graduates of Prague public universities, Brno University of Technology, and talented young researchers at the Czech Academy of Sciences. |
Source: vut.cz/en
| Responsible person | Ing. Zdeňka Koubová |
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