<p><strong>In October 2023, the <a href="https://gcms.labrulez.com/companies/11"><strong>UCT Prague</strong></a> Academic Senate elected Professor Milan Pospíšil as their choice for Rector. As of 1 January 2024, he will succeed Pavel Matějka in the top university position and begin a four-year term. In this interview, the long-term Vice-Rector for Strategies and Development and the Council of Czech Universities Chair talks about his intention to adjust the core curriculum and the need to diversify income sources, about his priorities in relation to employees, as well as about support for student associations and his ongoing hobby interest in photography.</strong></p>
<h5><strong>Is UCT Prague in good shape as you become Rector on 1 January 2024?</strong></h5>
<p>Our university is not in bad shape. R&amp;D and instruction are functioning. We are still perceived as a high-quality, competitive university in the Czech context. Pavel Matějka has achieved a lot in four years and there is much to build upon. However, I see challenges in that the world around us is changing quite a bit and we will be forced to respond to those changes.</p>
<h5><strong>What do you mean by such changes?</strong></h5>
<p>Above all, potential student interest in going into technical fields, including chemistry, has been stagnating or even declining for some time. Many students prefer easier paths of study in order to have enough time for extracurricular activities. The views of fresh high school graduates are changing, and they have increasing demands about what university education should look like in terms of levels of difficulty, structure, student support, and the use of information technology.</p>
<p>After a period of sustained economic growth, the Czech Republic has fallen into an economic and energy crisis, with growing frustrations and societal concerns about conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. The standard of living of the vast majority of the Czech population is declining.</p>
<p>We are also confronted with far greater competition from international universities, which are more attractive to students thanks to instruction in English and which can offer researchers better salaries and benefits.</p>
<h5><strong>How do you plan to address the decline in interest in studying chemistry?</strong></h5>
<p>Based on discussion and agreement with the UCT Prague Faculties, our core curriculum should evolve. We can tell ourselves over and over again that the current set up is ideal. But if we don’t have enough students, what good will our thoughts about this do? In any case, I don’t mean lowering standards, but exploring possibilities of distributing course loads in a more flexible way, making course choices more aligned with specific study programs and profiles, and taking student and employee preferences into more urgent consideration.</p>
<p>In cooperation with other universities, we must ensure that there are high-quality mathematics, chemistry, and physics teachers at the secondary school level. At UCT Prague, we already have a program in which we can train high-quality teachers who are keenly interest in chemistry. Other universities should do the same for physics and mathematics. This investment would pay off for us in more motivated, more prepared secondary school graduates.</p>
<h5><strong>Another problem is the real drop in university income with regard to inflation and the government’s inadequate higher education funding policy…</strong></h5>
<p>Teaching, training, and R&amp;D at UCT Prague are expensive because of necessary instrumentation and chemicals. The government has funded higher education at low levels for a long time, and the basic governmental funding intended to operate our institution cannot even offset inflation. As a result, we have to compete hard with other universities and institutes of the Czech Academy of Science for grants to supplement governmental funding. Since Czech grant funding sources are not sufficiently high and considering the enormous competition on the national level, success in obtaining such grant funding is generally low. As a result, our instructors and researchers are frustrated by the inefficient use of their time in applying for grants instead of conducting research or improving their teaching competencies. Unfortunately, the chances are that the situation will stay the same for the next five years, if it doesn’t worsen. So, we will need to change our approach to gaining funding and try to diversify our funding sources more.</p>
<h5><strong>Where do you want to get such funding?</strong></h5>
<p>Funding sources that hold the greatest potential are in applied industrial and corporate activities. We will need to switch back from a pervasive model where it was profitable to simply conduct research and publish and return to our technological roots. We also need to get more funding from international research grants. Our success rate with international grants is not bad at all, but we need to prepare and submit higher-quality proposals. I would therefore like to support research groups who have the potential to break into prestigious European grant structures and to apply regularly for grant funding. The university is currently able to withstand the current adverse budget situation thanks to financial reserves, but the reserve funding pool is not endless.</p>
<h5><strong>How specifically do you want to raise funds from the commercial sector?</strong></h5>
<p>We need to learn how to better connect our knowledge and skills in order to provide comprehensive offers of research cooperation to interested commercial partners. With this, I do not mean just routine lab testing and measuring, but rather providing quality corporate research that companies do not have the space or human capacity to conduct on their own. We can take advantage of the fact that many of our colleagues prefer more hands-on applications and collaborations with the applied sector over publishing. Virtually no one in the Czech Republic is doing chemical-technological research at our scale and quality level. I want to emphasize that this does not mean giving up on competitive, basic and applied research, especially when our goal is to attract and keep high-quality doctoral students, who are literarily indispensable for UCT Prague.</p>
<p>We must not forget our up-to-now underutilized potential for providing continuing education and customized retraining to our industrial partners and the specific government agencies. If some of UCT Prague’s Faculties show interest, I am more than willing to contact the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs regarding the possibility of financing these activities. I know that interest also exists at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic, and the Federation of the Food and Drink Industries of the Czech Republic (FFDI).</p>
<h5><strong>It is common in the corporate sector that if funding and new income streams are not sufficient, expenditures are also cut. Will you be considering savings in university operations?</strong></h5>
<p>A huge advantage of our university is the low student-to-teacher ratio, which is crucial from the point of view of training experts who are, as we can see, very competitive on the international job market. The downside of this, however, is a relatively large financial burden. Of course, we can consider how to save here, but I think that it would be a big mistake and that one of the great competitive edges of our university would be eroded. So we will look for saving opportunities together with the Deans and Vice-Rectors, primarily in operating expenses, not in personnel costs. Quality people are and always will be our best investment.</p>
<h5><strong>Let’s look at it from another angle. Aren’t you afraid that quality people will leave UCT Prague for better opportunities?</strong></h5>
<p>For me, it is a priority that university employees are satisfied and that they are paid decently for a job well done. I would like to continue gradually increasing basic salaries. Due to the developments in public financing anticipated in the coming years, this will mean lower individual percentage increases rather than tens of percentages year-to-year, but I would like to let employees know that they are important to the university. The first step after taking up the issue will be negotiations with the Faculty Deans about setting up a system for long-term employee motivation. We can start from the already-existing Employee Profile database, which can be used as a valuable initial data source.</p>
<h5><strong>What will Step Number Two be?</strong></h5>
<p>We need to conduct an analysis of services the Rectorate provides in order to determine which of them are more or less useful for the individual Faculties. Based on a statistical evaluation, we will propose their optimization and will prepare a catalogue of services provided by the Rectorate. Such an analysis has not been performed for twenty years and we are currently operating according to established habits. Today, we have a situation where various duplications appear, and some services are fine, but we don’t know if all of them are really necessary and if we can sustain them over the long term.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/VSCHT_Svet_kolem_nas_se_meni_09e1f9c1f4/VSCHT-Svet-kolem-nas-se-meni.jpg" alt="UCT Prague: Milan Pospíšil: The world around us is changing and we have to react."/></p>
<h5><strong>The closest collaborators for the Rector are the Vice-Rectors. Can you tell me their names already?</strong></h5>
<p>First, I would like to do some reorganization. So far, I am not counting on having a Vice-Rector for Strategies and Development position, since this agenda better fits the Rector’s responsibilities. In its place, I would like to create a Vice-Rector without a pre-existing portfolio position. Her primary responsibility for the next four years would be doctoral student support and doctoral studies in general. Considering the recent legal changes, there will be a lot of work related to this agenda since we are a university that depends on high-quality doctoral students. As a Vice-Rector for Doctoral Studies, I would like to see Prof. Michaela Rumlová (Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technology).</p>
<p>As for the Vice-Rector for R&amp;D, I would like to work with Prof. Pavel Novák (Faculty of Chemical Technology) who will receive two important tasks from me: to start cooperation with the Czech commercial sector on a larger scale and to support and motivate our research groups for more active involvement in international grant competitions. I would like Associate Professor Milan Jahoda (Faculty of Chemical Engineering) to continue as Vice-Rector for Education. In addition to the many responsibilities he already has on his shoulders, I would like him to focus on extending partnerships with secondary schools and educating future chemistry teachers for primary and secondary schools.</p>
<h5><strong>The Vice-Rector for External Relations and Communications remains…</strong></h5>
<p>I will make a partial adjustment here as well and would like to have the Communications department report directly to the Rector, as is customary at other universities. The Vice-Rector’s agenda will therefore focus exclusively on internationalization and international cooperation. The main goal will be to involve UCT Prague in one of the university alliances; we also need to be more active in Brussels when negotiating scientific and research cooperation activities. I would be very happy if Prof. Pavel Matějka (Faculty of Chemical Engineering) would fill this role. I would also like to add that I, as Rector, would like to take responsibility for the Department of Safety and Risk Prevention’s agenda, which is crucial from the point of view of eliminating risks in operating a chemistry university.</p>
<h5><strong>You have announced that you want to involve the Faculty Deans more in university management. Why?</strong></h5>
<p>Most teaching and research takes place at the Faculties, and the powers of the Deans are therefore absolutely and legally essential. Faculties de facto determine basic directions of research and instruction. As Rector, my task will be to prepare optimal conditions for the Faculties and their core activities and, to this end, to ensure for them optimal functioning of the services provided by Rector’s Office. Furthermore, the Rector must coordinate the activities of the Faculties and, if necessary, act as a mediator, must be able to convince the faculties to pursue a common goal. Beyond UCT Prague, the Rector must be able to use diplomacy to ensure that the university as a whole can develop in the right direction. This applies, for example, to raising money for infrastructure development, promoting the interests of UCT Prague in decision-making processes, and in creating strategic documents on the national level.</p>
<p>Examples from the past show that if a Rector has communicated well with the Faculty Deans, university operations were very efficient. It is not a matter of resolving trifles, but of reaching a consensus on fundamental and conceptual matters.</p>
<h5><strong>Will you have enough time to manage the Departments that report to you?</strong></h5>
<p>This will depend on how we agree to set up the levels of managerial responsibilities. Of course, it can be overwhelming to deal with too many details, but that’s why there are very capable leaders as Heads of the Rectorate Departments. These departments work well and independently. I see my role primarily in the discussion of concepts, competences, goals and their implementation. It’s definitely not my intention to micromanage them.</p>
<h5><strong>What about instruction and research. Can you still perform these activities as Rector?</strong></h5>
<p>The position of Rector is more than a full-time job. I am internally reconciled to the fact that I will largely have to give up both research and teaching. However, I will keep participating in the Academic Council for the doctoral study programs at my home Faculty, will be ready to serve on examination committees, and count with supervising one or two doctoral students.</p>
<h5><strong>As Rector, you can no longer chair the Council of Universities. Won’t UCT Prague lose its influence there?</strong></h5>
<p>I don’t think so. We are an important member of the Association of Research Universities, an active part of the community of technology universities, and we are going to be more involved in the Czech Conference of Rectors. We will still have many quality contacts and connections and will make an effort to keep and extend them. I believe that I have done enough useful work for the entire higher education community in the role of Chair of the Council of Universities and will not lose my informal influence.</p>
<h5><strong>Rector Matějka strongly supported social and cultural activities for students. Will you continue to do this?</strong></h5>
<p>Clearly. Our student associations have a good reputation, even beyond our university. For example, many people marvel at our orchestra and say that we have such a wonderful and large orchestra at a tech university. The same applies to our theatre actors in Divoch. I would also add sports activities to the list because they also belong to being a student and can equip you with a number of competencies that come useful in life, especially team sports. I myself played basketball for UCT Prague for many years, so I know what I’m talking about.</p>
<p>What concerns me is the lack of infrastructure for leisure activities. I want to think things through with the Faculty Deans and to try to accommodate students as much as possible so that they have appropriate venues to meet and rest. On the other hand, I can’t work miracles. Only the new building on Vítězné náměstí will significantly improve the recent situation.</p>
<h5><strong>Professionally, you have primarily devoted your entire career to fuels. What drew you to investigating them?</strong></h5>
<p>Fuels were only an alternative path for me in the beginning. In elementary school, I wanted to study natural sciences, i.e., botany. When I was about the high school age, my teachers told me: Well, you are not suitable for natural sciences and you should go into the humanities (laughs). I was not particularly interested in Latin or history, however. So I successfully represented my humanities-oriented high school program in the mathematics and physics competitions, which was quite intimidating for the schoolmates from the science-oriented programs. Thanks to a nice chemistry teacher, I eventually decided to go study chemistry at UCT Prague. I wanted to focus on water, but at the admissions office I was told that water technology would probably be beyond my capabilities and that I should rather consider fuels (laughs). I met great people investigating fuel and stuck with the topic. Fuels were, are, and will be extremely important to society as is their impact on the environment. As a matter of fact, I am currently involved in preparation of a national, ten-year strategic plan for the use and modelling of the optimal composition of alternative energies as a part of a 20-member cross-sectoral expert team.</p>
<h5><strong>What was it about UCT Prague that made you entwine your entire adult life with it?</strong></h5>
<p>Above all, I have enjoyed the research topics, I met there excellent instructors and colleagues. I liked that our research outcomes have direct applied implications. I’m not the type of person who is satisfied solely with theoretical outputs. Furthermore, we all know each other at UCT Prague, the environment and inter-personal relations were always nice, enabling us to communicate and work together without any problems. I must also mention our students, who give us, older colleagues, energy and who enrich us.</p>
<h5><strong>What type of student were you? A slacker or a hard worker?</strong></h5>
<p>I was definitely good at chemistry; thus, my studies didn’t overwhelm me. I didn’t have to fool around all the time, I was able to deduce a lot of things, and so I also had time to play with experiments in the lab. Eventually I graduated with the highest grades and honours. I was also very involved in extracurricular student life. All the time I felt the urge to organize and invent something so that we didn’t get bored in the dorms.</p>
<h5><strong>You mentioned that you played basketball for UCT Prague. How long?</strong></h5>
<p>I started playing right after coming to the university in 1981 and quit in around 2005. In addition to the game itself, I enjoyed the incredibly diverse team, which included assistants, students, both Associate and Full Professors. In order to win, we had to be able to cooperate and communicate on the basketball court as we went, often suppressing our egos. For me, it was a valuable school for managerial skills as well as a great way to relax.</p>
<h5><strong>How do you relieve stress and work commitments these days?</strong></h5>
<p>I like to disappear into nature where I don’t have to think about anything. I also like to go to concerts and prefer quality over genre. Even cooking is a chemical discipline, so I’m happy to get behind the stove on weekends. I’ve also been taking nature and landscape photos all my life, and many of my shots are used in bookmark designs. Thanks to this, I have a rather funny deviation: I often perceive the surrounding world as a panorama, in 1:3 or 3:1 format (laughs).</p>


The world around us is changing and we have to react

<p><strong>In April this year, the American cell biologist and Nobel Prize winner Randy Schekman visited Brno to give a presentation on intercellular transfer of proteins and RNA at the renowned Mendel Lectures. Before sharing his research with the audience in Mendel Refectory, he gave us an interview on the topic of science communication.</strong></p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/CEITEC_Nobel_Prize_Winner_Randy_Schekman_Teaching_undergraduates_helps_researchers_learn_to_explain_science_dcf4d715ae.jpg" alt="CEITEC: Nobel Prize Winner Randy Schekman: Teaching undergraduates helps researchers learn to explain science."/></p>
<h5><strong>Mr. Schekman, in your speech at the Nobel Blanket in 2013, you mentioned that no one could have predicted the practical application of botulotoxin in the beauty industry. But if someone did, it could have been a great story that would have attracted peoples’ curiosity to the research. So, how bad is it when science communicators “speculate” about results in basic research?</strong></h5>
<p><strong>Randy Schekman (RS):</strong> You can always speculate but it would be better to go back to discoveries that we have now and anticipate the benefits. There are untold stories like that one. Besides, the practical application is not what motivates scientists. Scientists are motivated by curiosity of the natural world and it is this curiosity that brings these stories to the world. If microbiologists hadn‘t been studying how bacteria fight viruses, no one outside of the academic community would know about the technology that has led to cures to genetic diseases. But as a result, we&#39;ve developed the new technology of genome editing which will lead to a revolution in medicine and agriculture.</p>
<p>When I won the Nobel Prize, I was often asked what’s the practical application. But my work was entirely basic science. I only cared about how yeast cells work, and I believed that what I learned in yeast would apply elsewhere but I didn’t really care. But as a result of what I found, yeast turns out to be so similar to human cells in the way it manufactures and exports proteins that the biotech industry which was growing up in San Francisco Bay area was able to use yeast as a production platform.  Many years later, we now know that one-third of the world’s supply of human recombinant insulin and hepatitis B vaccine is made in yeast. Although I consulted for the company that did this, I never did any of the experiments to do the application in my lab because that would not have uncovered the basic cellular processes that fascinated me.</p>
<h5><strong>As a kid, you liked to go to science fair and explain what you discovered to other people. So, is it the personality that determines whether a scientist will be a good communicator?</strong></h5>
<p><strong>RS:</strong> No, it&#39;s not given. Most scientists are quite awkward [laughs] and not good at public communication. But those who are good really should be asked to help in that respect. There are some fantastic people who’ve given up on their own science to be public communicators – they should be respected and valued.</p>
<h5><strong>What helps you personally to find a way to the general public when you are supposed to explain what you do?</strong></h5>
<p><strong>RS:</strong> For me, it’s been teaching undergraduates at a public university. I think it’s really important to teach undergraduates. People who are smart but don’t have the knowledge base yet. And then, it’s a challenge to explain to them in a way that maintains their interest and understanding. And so, I think, all academics should be teaching and not just teaching professionally. They should stretch their skills explaining their thrill for research to uninitiated undergraduate students. I feel that all the time that I&#39;ve put into this has really helped me to be able to explain myself better. It was a struggle at first because I wasn&#39;t good at explaining but later on, I gained experience and now I enjoy it. But it’s not only about practice, it’s also about the right audience – intelligent people who just don’t know the basics and you get them excited about the process of discovery. We should all be teaching. Not only because it serves a purpose, but it helps the individual to learn how to explain things.</p>
<p>Communication both oral and written is very important. When I was in university, all I cared about was working in the lab. I didn&#39;t take classes where I would have enhanced by verbal or written communication skills. And at first, it was really tough. I was very awkward because I hadn’t developed my communication skills.</p>
<h5><strong>Scientists are usually so absorbed in their work in the labs that they don’t think about the importance of communicating to the general public…</strong></h5>
<p><strong>RS:</strong> That, unfortunately, will have negative consequences. If they don’t communicate what they’re doing to the general public, then the politicians who determine budgets won’t be willing to give them funding.</p>
<p>In the US, the scientific societies have done a great job. We have something called the Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus in Congress, which was organised by groups of biological science societies. And they have a regular seminar series that the Congress people, but usually their staff, come to learn about what&#39;s going on. And they pick the best people in the country to go and give talks about work that obviously has a practical application and as a result, the National Institutes of Health has enjoyed steady growth all the time. Even during the Trump regime, every year Trump would put in for a big cut in the federal budget for biomedical science and every year that he was overruled even by Republicans in Congress because they see the benefit of an investment in basic science. And they wouldn’t be aware of it if scientists didn’t communicate with them.</p>


Nobel Prize Winner Randy Schekman: Teaching undergraduates helps researchers learn to explain science

<p><strong>For 24 years, Karel Šmejkal of the Faculty of Pharmacy has focused on pharmacognosy and phytochemistry. This year he received the MU Rector’s Award for long-term excellence in research in the field of natural sciences and medicine.</strong></p>
<h5><strong>How did you feel when you accepted the award?</strong></h5>
<p>I was happy of course, it’s an important award. But at the same time, I was a bit surprised to find out that I had been recognised for my long-term contribution. It almost felt like I was about to retire! But I hope I haven’t said the last word in my research. I’m definitely not quitting, on the contrary – I have many new challenges ahead of me. There is still room for progress and training in new technologies.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/Magazin_M_Radek_Mica_Vyzkum_je_pro_me_porad_vzrusujici_hra_cover_photo_f9db602277.jpg" alt="Magazín M / Radek Miča: Karel Šmejkal"/></p>
<h5><strong>You specialise mainly in the study of natural substances. Why did they become the object of your interest?</strong></h5>
<p>It started at university when I was looking for a topic for my diploma thesis. I originally wanted to focus on pharmacology, but there were a lot of people interested in that topic, so I ended up with natural substances. I dug deeper into it and thought that was where the interesting stuff was. And it hasn’t really left me to this day. Since ancient times, medicinal and poisonous plants have served as a source of various medicinal applications and diverse uses. In the last 30 years, natural substances have been involved in the development and introduction of about 30 per cent of new medicines. Nature is very powerful in this respect. It&#39;s fascinating how every plant contains many specific substances that can be extracted, broken down and studied. The process of extracting natural substances is very interesting and adventurous. The more you get into it, the more you enjoy it. A friend of mine once told me that I was chasing coloured water from flask to flask for a living, and he was basically right.</p>
<blockquote>
<h4><strong>I originally wanted to focus on pharmacology, but there were a lot of people interested in that topic, so I ended up with natural substances. I dug deeper into it and thought that was where the interesting stuff was. And it hasn’t really left me to this day.</strong></h4>
</blockquote>
<h5><strong>The PSE Trends in Natural Products 2024 pharmaceutical conference, which your faculty is organising in Brno from 21 to 24 May, will focus on the natural sciences. How prestigious is this event?</strong></h5>
<p>It is a travelling conference that has been held in Paris and Crete in previous years. We applied to host the event before Covid-19 and now it has finally come to fruition. The event was sponsored by the Rector of Masaryk University and traditionally by the Phytochemical Society of Europe, of which I am a member and have been a board member in previous years. Coincidentally, this was the first international conference in 2008 that I actively participated in. This event is mainly aimed at young assistant professors and postgraduate students, giving them the opportunity to present their research to an international audience. It is a unique opportunity for supervisors and professors to share information and experience with young people in the field. We have 140 registered participants, and the programme will include around 50 presentations by students, PhD students and other distinguished guests. The main topic will be new developments in the field and the use of natural products in phytochemistry, pharmacy, food industry and cosmetics.</p>
<h5><strong>Your secondary focus is on bioassays of natural products, especially their anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial effects. What results have you achieved in this area?</strong></h5>
<p>Our long-term focus has been on the effect of natural products on chronic inflammatory diseases, in particular the study of plant-derived polyphenols and their potential for practical application. We have isolated a number of substances called prenylated phenolics, e.g. from plants of the Moraceae family, which have anti-inflammatory properties comparable to reference corticosteroids. We are currently investigating modifications of such compounds to improve their solubility and bioavailability and thus potential practical applications. We have also investigated the effects of compounds on tumour growth. In this area, we have mainly collaborated with colleagues from Slovakia. With colleagues from the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Medicine, we have worked on the problem of multidrug resistance (MDR), which is a common problem in the treatment of cancer with chemotherapy.</p>
<h5><strong>For the first time this academic year, the Faculty of Pharmacy is offering a new Bachelor’s degree in Cosmetic Products. What feedback have you received?</strong></h5>
<p>We have been pleasantly surprised by the level of interest, which is expected to continue for years to come. We have already seen the number of applications for the next academic year almost double. It’s always great when we can choose from among the applicants and select the best candidates. But there has been a consistently high demand for our faculty for many years. Indeed, the pharmaceutical market is large and unsaturated, so the job prospects for our Master’s graduates are excellent, with a 99.9 per cent success rate. Most graduates go on to work in pharmacies, but there are also opportunities as clinical pharmacists, in research, in the pharmaceutical industry or in regulatory bodies.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/Magazin_M_Radek_Mica_Vyzkum_je_pro_me_porad_vzrusujici_hra_b4f236c373.jpg" alt="Magazín M / Radek Miča: Karel Šmejkal: I still find research an exciting game."/></p>
<h5><strong>How much will the Faculty’s move to the MUNI BioPharma Hub on the Bohunice campus contribute to additional opportunities for students?</strong></h5>
<p>This is of course an excellent opportunity, as we will have modern facilities fully equipped with everything we need. It will be especially great that all three faculties and other associated institutes of Masaryk University – the Faculties of Medicine, Science and Pharmacy, CEITEC and RECETOX – will be under one roof on the campus. We will be even more closely linked and have more opportunities for cooperation. The premises will also include a GMP laboratory, which will further strengthen the possibilities of scientific research and its practical application.</p>
<h5><strong>You also serve as Vice-Dean for International Relations and Internationalisation. How is the Faculty’s involvement in international projects going?</strong></h5>
<p>We greatly benefit in this respect from our internal Support for Strategic Management Projects programme, which I believe is the most useful programme of its kind at Masaryk University in terms of internationalisation. Thanks to it, we can welcome many international researchers and visiting professors to the Faculty of Pharmacy. Every semester we have about 10 experts from abroad who give lectures mainly to Master’s students. This is a great way to establish international contacts and cooperation.</p>
<h5><strong>Being Vice-Dean of the Faculty involves a lot of administrative and office work. How do you balance this with your research?</strong></h5>
<p>I try to keep in touch with the field. I continue to lecture, for example in the Toxicology of Natural Compounds course, which I am really passionate about. And I’m still active in the lab, helping to write new grant projects. I don’t want to lose the joy that has been with me since I started doing science. For me, research is still an exciting game where you’re playing with sophisticated, expensive instruments and gadgets. What I enjoy most is the contrast between precise and detailed research work and a certain playfulness that gives it a different perspective.</p>


Karel Šmejkal: I still find research an exciting game

<p><strong>Alexandr Malijevský, now a full professor, joined UCT Prague in 2000 as a doctoral student. He completed his Master&#39;s degree at the Charles University Faculty of Mathematics and Physics , where he studied theoretical physics. Since 2006, he has also worked at the Institute of Chemical Processes Fundamentals  at the Czech Academy of Sciences. He conducted postdoctoral research at Imperial College London for two years  and eventually found his workplace of choice at <a href="https://gcms.labrulez.com/companies/11"><strong>UCT Prague</strong></a>, where he was appointed a full professorship at the end of 2023. The line between his personal life and his research activities is often blurred; in his free time, he likes to play chess.</strong></p>
<h5><strong>What brought you to UCT Prague from Charles University’s Faculty of Mathematics and Physics?</strong></h5>
<p>I have asked myself this question more than once, given that my research fits into physics more than chemistry. My life path started out very straight, and I inclined towards mathematics in primary school. Next came high school, where I focused on mathematics and physics, and then Charles University‘s Department of Mathematics and Physics, where I studied theoretical physics. At Charles, I became one of the many „victims“ of the beauty of probably the most elegant physical theory ever, Einstein‘s theory of general relativity, and was also charmed by the professor who lectured on this topic, Professor Bičák. I did my Master thesis with him on a topic related to the problem of the energy of a gravitational field. This research was undeniably engaging, as were my discussions with Bičák, and I always looked forward to those, even if they sometimes only happened once in a couple of months, depending on the length of his many stays abroad. We would talk about domestic and international politics, the Březin brothers, religion, music, and so on. And if there was any time left, we‘d chat a little about my calculations too. I look back fondly to those times. However, after defending my Master thesis, I wasn‘t sure if I should continue in this direction, because the theory is quite well developed. The idea that I would be able to come up with something truly new was kind of naive. That‘s when my father, who was a professor at the UCT Prague Department of Physical Chemistry, noticed my hesitation. He mentioned to me a modern theory within the statistical mechanics of fluids that seemed very promising in terms of future research possibilities. I read something about it, it piqued my curiosity, so I decided to do my doctorate at UCT Prague‘s Department of Physical Chemistry. It was a bit of a shot in the dark, but it worked out as time went on.</p>
<h5><strong>What was the hardest part of making the transition to UCT Prague?</strong></h5>
<p>I had to get used to a different environment. In short, the mentality here is different, more focused on „performances“ and a bit of PR flair (these things are not interesting to me, even today). More than once, I was criticized for „not showing up much“. Many of my colleagues did not have a problem with this. And then, the level of UCT Prague students was somewhat different, especially where mathematics was concerned, which is totally understandable. I had to adapt. For example, it took me some time to align my research within the field of food technology. After an initial misunderstanding, I understood that I should start each exercise giving colleagues a gentle mathematical introduction, and then it settled down. On the other hand, my non-chemical background and technical ineptitude sometimes showed. For example, during laboratory exercises, which I also had to lead, this was sometimes quite adventurous.</p>
<h5><strong>What was it like starting work in a completely new field?</strong></h5>
<p>At that time, no one in the Czech Republic was dealing with the aforementioned theory, the subject of my doctoral thesis, so I was not assigned a classical supervisor with focused expertise in the field. I had to read a lot at first and gain a bit more knowledge on the topic. But the hardest thing was that, at the beginning, I didn’t know what exactly to aim for, i.e. what specific issue to focus my research on. Trips abroad helped me a lot, and I always tried to absorb as much as possible during these visits. All of this, at the same time, led to the fact that my work lacked a systematic nature for quite a while. I did a lot of work yet without getting the full picture. I only started to have greater consistency in my research efforts over time.</p>
<h5><strong>Are you happy or do you regret the transition, in retrospect?</strong></h5>
<p>A person would need to live two lives, or at least parts of them, in order to be able to evaluate which of the two fundamental decisions was the right one. We don’t have this option, so we can either complain about our life choices or, on the contrary, rejoice about them in the spirit of Nietzsche’s amor fati. I have every reason to be happy. I have both scientific and pedagogical freedom here. I was never assigned to teach a class that would take me beyond my comfort zone. No one is interfering with my research. Before I left for a postdoc at Imperial College London, I was still in touch with Charles University’s Department of Mathematics and Physics, but then I definitely decided to focus on just one field and to fully devote myself to it. By the way, I have visited Charles a few times recently (for example, I gave a popularization lecture there earlier this year), and I can’t say I miss the atmosphere there.</p>
<h5><strong>How would you describe your experience at Imperial College London and what did you take away from your time there?</strong></h5>
<p>It was definitely a great experience. Very positive in many ways, because you get a glimpse of how one of the most famous universities in the world works behind the scenes. For example, the great thing was that you don‘t have to travel anywhere to meet the best scholars in your field (and not only your field!); they „come to you“. But in time you discover that all that glitters is not gold. I had my first strange experience quite early on, after I handed over an almost finished manuscript of an article to my boss (in the first weeks there, I usually spent about fifteen hours a day, including weekends, at the university). I was told I must have co-authors for a manuscript on which I worked entirely alone. With genuine surprise, I asked what the contribution of the co-authors was supposed to have been. The answer surprised me: their contribution was to the writing of the grant project from which I was funded. This is apparently a common practice, but I refused to accept this argument. The article was shelved following this discussion and published only many years later. By the way, I still don‘t understand the practice of arbitrary attribution for articles in general; I would feel awkward and uncomfortable to be attributed to a work that I hadn‘t contributed to. What if someone asks me something from that article?</p>
<p>But to return to the more positive experiences. Over time, I established the cooperation with the Mathematical Physics Group, from whom I learned a lot. This collaboration actually continues to this day.</p>
<h5><strong>What were others differences compared to our academic environment?</strong></h5>
<p>I was used to more directness. I understand academia as being a specific independent environment that should be free-spirited and healthily confrontational. But I discovered there that criticism of opinions, within seminar lectures, for example, could be taken quite offensively and as an indication of a lack of respect. The pursuit of scientific debate was sometimes mistaken for a personal attack. But I would not like to generalize too much; it could have been a completely local experience.</p>
<p>Because I still visit Imperial College regularly, I notice the developments there over the years. And I can say that I’m not always very happy, and I observe the same (delayed) trends here as well. I mean, a kind of activism that jumps on modern political issues and that sometimes stands in stark contrast to the interpretation of an academic environment as I described it above.</p>
<h5><strong>Can you introduce us to your team’s research?</strong></h5>
<p>Very generally: we deal with the description of many-particle systems. We know that matter consists of an enormous number of interacting microparticles whose motion cannot be described deterministically. However, we do not need to know the state of each individual particle to describe a given system, but we are interested in how such a system behaves collectively, i.e. as a whole. For such a description, we use the methods of statistical physics, in the language of probabilities, mean values, fluctuations, correlations, and the like. With the help of appropriate microscopic models, we can predict the macroscopic properties of the system, and this relationship between the micro- and macroworld allows us to interpret the observed phenomena. We then specifically deal with, for example, the description of the phase behaviour of systems in an extremely limited environment, which is dramatically different from our normal experience. Here, theory typically precedes experiments.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/VSCHT_Zivot_je_vyborny_model_pro_sachy_Alexandr_Malijevsky_68112d8717.jpg" alt="UCT Prague: Alexandr Malijevský."/></p>
<h5><strong>How is your work useful for society and what real applications does it have?</strong></h5>
<p>I am engaged in basic research, the primary motivation of which is a deeper understanding of natural laws. As for its technological application, that is a job for our engineering colleagues, for whom, it can be said, we are preparing a good terrain. Nevertheless, it could be said that our research does have the potential to be applied in modern nanotechnology.</p>
<p>Concerning my teaching, I see my primary role as motivating enthusiastic students who don’t just want a degree, but who genuinely want to pursue science and who have the capacity for this.</p>
<h5><strong>What classes do you teach?</strong></h5>
<p>I currently teach Mathematical Methods for Physical Chemistry and Advanced Methods of Mathematical Methods for Physical Chemistry, Statistical Thermodynamics, and an Introduction to the Modern Theory of Phase Transitions. These are courses for Master’s and doctoral levels students.</p>
<h5><strong>Which of them are popular among students, and which courses are rather challenging?</strong></h5>
<p>Challenging for me or for students? For me, the beginnings of lectures are the most challenging, regardless of what course it is. You are fully concentrated on solving a problem, but then you have to interrupt it and refocus on something completely different. This eventually engulfs me, so I completely refocus on the lecture and try to do my best. I usually end up with a sweaty shirt and strained vocal cords. They say that I speak quite loudly, but at least no one falls asleep. As for feedback, it depends more on the students than the specific class. In any case, whenever a student mentions your lecture in a favourable manner, it gives you satisfaction.</p>
<h5><strong>What was your primary motivation to become a professor?</strong></h5>
<p>The title of professor is (in addition to DSc.) the highest academic rank. In order to fulfil its prerequisites, you need to conduct long-term pedagogical and scientific work. And you do it because you enjoy it and you see the point of it. All the other benefits of this title, including promotion to a higher pay grade, may be nice, but for me they are not motivating enough. As for social prestige, if you look around and see who is also a full professor (including, for example, candidates for the high political appointments and the circumstances they obtained their titles), you start having some doubts about that prestige. What I am happy about, however, is a certain sense of freedom that comes from knowing that I no longer have to prove to anyone that my work is meaningful and that I am doing it well.</p>
<h5><strong>How about your personal life, what do you like to do in your free time?</strong></h5>
<p>The ideal state is for me is actually when I have no personal life. When the problem I’m working on becomes so engrossing that it wakes me up at night, and in the morning, when I can’t wait to continue solving it. Fortunately, this does not happen very often; it would not even be sustainable in the long term, to state it in modern terminology. Thus all I usually do in my free time is living normally. Or normally…I used to play chess a lot during my studies, now I am returning to it, very slowly and within my severely limited schedule. What fascinates me about chess is its parallel with real life: in both life and in chess, you are looking for (or at least you should be looking for) the optimal moves, regardless of the position you are in, trying to predict the consequences of your moves as far as possible. However, it’s often the case that there is objectively no best move; so you choose the one that is at hand, which causes the complexity on both playing fields. As a theorist, I can responsibly declare: life is an excellent model for chess.</p>


Life is an excellent model for chess

<p><strong>Although he originally wanted to study mathematics, Tomáš Janoš eventually became an environmental epidemiologist. He completed his doctorate at RECETOX focusing on human biomonitoring, for which he received the Dean’s Award of the MU Faculty of Science. When he was in Spain, analyzing mortality due to heat and cold, he realized that he wanted to devote himself to studying the impact of extreme temperatures on human health. In the interview, he explains the origins of his interest in climate change, how such a topic is communicated to the public, and why he believes it is crucial for scientists in the Czech Republic to focus more on this issue.</strong></p>
<h5><strong>How did you become interested in climate change in your scientific work?</strong></h5>
<p>I was interested in climate change and the impacts of extreme temperatures on human health for most of my doctorate but I found space for this topic only at the very end. I noticed that in southern European countries, research on the impact of temperature on health is advancing, while Central and Eastern Europe is lagging. So, I thought exploring whether high and low temperatures have similar effects here would be interesting. At that time, I contacted colleagues from the Institute for Global Health in Barcelona, who have extensive experience with research on this topic. Then, I went to Spain with Czech data to learn how to process and analyze them. The topic intrigued me during my three months there, so I decided to write my own project and focus more on this direction.</p>
<h5><strong>In October 2023, a study on the relationship between mortality rates and extreme temperatures was published based on your work. Are you still dealing with this topic?</strong></h5>
<p>Yes, in connection with extreme temperatures, I also started to examine ambulance dispatches in the Czech Republic, which have not yet been explored on the national level in Europe. Such research examines different socio-economic groups and locations, which is important because temperatures vary from place to place. We have written a scientific article on this topic, which we hope to publish by the end of the year. Interestingly, not just elderly people, but also small children, teenagers, and young adults are at high risk. I also have a project studying the impact of short-term temperature fluctuations in combination with polluted air, such as smog, on the number of work accidents, especially among outdoor workers. I will be doing research for another two years, again with people from Barcelona, who are trying to create a European-wide database of work accidents, which already includes the Czech Republic, among others.</p>
<h5><strong>Is it difficult to get data for this type of research?</strong></h5>
<p>Data on deaths is obtained through excellent cooperation with the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic. On the other hand, data on ambulance dispatches are much more difficult to obtain because of their sensitivity. We get them for certain territorial units, ambulance dispatches for example for districts, which is a terribly large territorial unit. If we went lower, we would get to the numbers of one, two dispatches a day, from which it would already be possible to deduce who it was specifically on a smaller territory. Also, not in all countries have data on ambulance dispatches collected and a database is made. Here, the information is again collected by the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic from insurance companies, so a summary can be made. However, not in all countries does it work so comprehensively.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/RECETOX_In_the_next_years_climate_change_will_affect_everything_says_environmental_epidemiologist_Tomas_Janos_1_53337bc013.jpg" alt="RECETOX: In the next years, climate change will affect everything, says environmental epidemiologist Tomáš Janoš 1."/></p>
<h5><strong>So you work more with a summary of data, how do you find out that the dispatches were related to the temperature?</strong></h5>
<p>In general, attributing something to the weather is extremely difficult, something like that is not often even part of the diagnosis. Then there are epidemiological models that calculate with daily temperature and dispatches, and when they see some fluctuation that cannot be explained by anything else, they attribute it to the temperature. So we just get specific numbers and we do the calculations through models.</p>
<h5><strong>As for extreme temperatures in cities in general, can the aforementioned health risks be systematically prevented?</strong></h5>
<p>Definitely. Mortality studies for example show that in greener cities it is generally cooler by one to two degrees, which can save several lives a year. Furthermore, a network of fountains can be built, where a person can cool down. In Barcelona, for example, they have so-called climate refuges. It is a network of places where people from can hide in case of a heat wave. It’s nothing special, they are usually air-conditioned public places like supermarkets, libraries or museums, for which a map is created. Thanks to it, people find out where they can go in case of need and where they will be accepted. Therefore, it is important to inform the public and communicate the existence of refuges well, especially to populations which are at a higher risk, such as the elderly, and lower socioeconomic groups, for example by distributing leaflets. In Spain, they also created an early warning system, which several days in advance reports how high is the probability that due to high temperatures a certain number of people will die. Although it sounds morbid, it allows public institutions, such as hospitals and rescue services, to prepare for such a risk.</p>
<h5><strong>As for communication with the public, do you cooperate with other organizations or other public actors?</strong></h5>
<p>As an expert, I cooperate externally for example with Klimatická koalice, which is a platform of Czech non-profit organizations dealing with climate protection. One of their recent activities is the education of medical students in the field of climate change and how it can affect human health, because it is completely missing in the curriculum. The idea is that older people, for whom climate change poses the highest risk in terms of health, but at the same time tend to underestimate it the most, could draw information from doctors, who are a trustworthy authority for them.</p>
<h5><strong>And what does such cooperation bring to you as a scientist?</strong></h5>
<p>From my point of view as a scientist, it is often difficult to get the information to the right place where it will have an effect. Organizations like Klimatická koalice, Fakta o klimatu or the Institute for Czech Policy EUROPEUM help me a lot in this. When we published the study, thanks to the fact that I sent the information about it to everyone I knew would be interested in it, several public or media outputs were created. I probably wouldn’t be able to get it into awareness like this myself.</p>
<h5><strong>So do you have to initiate the first dissemination of information yourself?</strong></h5>
<p>Yes, we as scientists are not pushed into popularizing science much. It is usually more our own interest and it is not part of our performance. Communication is important and should be taken care of. In science, we often pat ourselves on the back, what a great article we published, but when you come to ordinary people outside the scientific sphere, they are interested in information, not the impact of the journal. Of course, at the beginning there must be a quality scientific study, but the actual effect should not be forgotten. Another thing is that it is difficult to communicate a complex problem well and convey it in a few sentences. To do it well, you need to educate yourself. But in practice, there is no time to do either.</p>
<h5><strong>What is it like to communicate the topic of climate change from the perspective of science?</strong></h5>
<p>There is definitely interest in the climate among the public, but when you say climate, it acts like a red rag. It evokes in people things that they will not be able to do or something for which others will condemn them. Moreover, I am afraid that over time it will rather worsen. At the same time, I think that people are interested in climate protection and the environment, we are just at it again, that it is necessary to communicate it all better.</p>
<h5><strong>How does the scientific community react to the topic of climate change? Is there interest there too?</strong></h5>
<p>I feel that the interest is primarily abroad so far. The impacts of it probably do not affect the Czech Republic so much yet, but it certainly awaits us. In the next fifty years, climate change will affect everything, including environmental epidemiology. I am dealing with a very limited section of the whole issue, but there are many more aspects. Through new invasive species, it will be necessary to change the way pesticides are used, there will be an increase in the incidence of infectious diseases, floods, cloudbursts, the change will affect air research, food safety or migration. We should not close our eyes to such a complex and difficult to explain problem as climate change. Whole research groups are devoted to it at foreign institutes, so the Czech Republic should not miss the boat.</p>


In the next years, climate change will affect everything, says environmental epidemiologist Tomáš Janoš.

<p><strong>When George Whitesides started as a teenage technician in his father’s Kentucky lab in the early 1950s, the bond was immediate — and lasting.</strong></p>
<p>Today one of the <a href="https://www.rsc.org/images/H-index%20ranking%20of%20living%20chemists(December%202011)_tcm18-211414.pdf"><strong>world’s most influential chemists</strong></a>, Whitesides, the Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Research Professor, has worked on a wide array of scientific problems, shifting focus periodically to uncharted territory. Over the course of his long career — Harvard College, Cal Tech, MIT, and more than four decades as a researcher and teacher back at Harvard — he’s explored nuclear magnetic spectroscopy, organometallic chemistry, molecular self-assembly, soft robotics, unconventional data storage, microfabrication, nanotechnology, and the origin of life. He has published more than 1,200 scientific articles and holds more than 100 patents, and his many honors include the National Medal of Science. He’s also known for his ability to spin discoveries into new companies, including biotech giant Genzyme, purchased in 2011 by Sanofi.</p>
<p>In a conversation with the Gazette, Whitesides looked back on his life and career. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/The_Harvard_Gazette_Stephanie_Mitchell_The_scientist_is_not_in_the_business_of_following_instructions_cover_image_0c9f968871.jpg" alt="The Harvard Gazette / Stephanie Mitchell / Harvard Staff Photographer: ‘The scientist is not in the business of following instructions.’"/></p>
<h5><strong>Your interest in chemistry starts in your father’s lab?</strong></h5>
<p>I don’t know where it came from. It was always interesting to me that the world was made of atoms and how those atoms combined, and I was a good chemist from the very beginning, so studying chemistry seemed like a sensible thing to do. I assumed I would end up working in the chemical industry.</p>
<h5><strong>It must have been a cut above the typical teenage summer job.</strong></h5>
<p>It was much more boring than that. I measured the pour-point viscosity of coal tar. You heat it up and put it in a cup. The cup has a hole of calibrated size in it and this very thick liquid dribbles out of the hole. You measure how long it takes for a given amount of liquid to dribble out and record that, then you can calculate from those data pour-point viscosity. It was part of the process of producing a standardized product and was boring to do, but it was also satisfying and something a high school student could manage.</p>
<h5><strong>You were at Phillips Andover before enrolling at Harvard. How was that experience?</strong></h5>
<p>I enjoyed Andover. I had a couple of teachers who were very good. I learned how to study and I certainly learned some chemistry. It was pretty standard for students who’d done well in prep schools to get early admission to Harvard, which I got. But I was not a star student. I got advanced placement in one course, maybe analytical chemistry. I took the first hour exam and got an F. I took the second hour exam and got an F. That same thing happened for the third hour exam. I don’t remember exactly how long the string went on, but I went to the teacher and said, <em>“What do I do to salvage this? It’s going really badly.”</em> And he looked at me very briefly and said, <em>“Learn the material.”</em> That was a very useful lesson. So I went away and learned the material.</p>
<h5><strong>What was Harvard like in the late 1950s?</strong></h5>
<p>It was the usual undergraduate experience. I knew it mostly from the collection of courses that I took. I had a good time while I was here but most of the good time came from courses I took and people who took the same courses. The one woman I met would eventually become my wife, Barbara. Her brother was my roommate, arbitrarily assigned at some point.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/The_Harvard_Gazette_Stephanie_Mitchell_The_scientist_is_not_in_the_business_of_following_instructions_With_wife_Barbara_at_home_8d5a801eab.jpg" alt="The Harvard Gazette / Stephanie Mitchell / Harvard Staff Photographer: With wife Barbara at home."/></p>
<h5><strong>After Harvard, you headed to Cal Tech.</strong></h5>
<p>I ended up in the lab of a guy named Jack Roberts, who turned out to be a perfect fit for me. He was in physical organic chemistry, which made sense. You looked at previous reactions and you learned how they went. Then, if you had a new reaction or a new process, you asked “What is it analogous to?” And you predicted that if all the pieces were the same, the reaction would probably go roughly the same way. And it often did, which made it a pretty logical discipline.</p>
<p>The nice thing about Roberts was that, unlike many research directors, he never told me what to do. I would come up with an idea and do the research. Then I would write a draft of a paper and send him the draft, and he would look at it, correct it — largely the grammar but sometimes the chemistry — and give it back to me. After I’d done the necessary work, I’d give it back to him. This would usually go on for a couple of cycles and then we’d send it off to the journal.</p>
<h5><strong>It’s easy to look back at a career and imagine that one step led to another. But when you’re living it, the next step is often not clear. Were there times when you wondered whether you should be doing something other than chemistry?</strong></h5>
<p>No. I thought chemistry was pretty straightforward, very general, very interesting, and a good thing to do. I was enjoying it and making some progress.</p>
<blockquote>
<h4><strong>“I prefer to think that, to the extent that we’ve been successful, it’s because we do stuff that’s simple and useful and solves problems.”</strong></h4>
</blockquote>
<h5><strong>Your focus has shifted periodically from one major area to another. Were those shifts intentional, evolutionary, or accidental?</strong></h5>
<p>It was intentional. My central point of instruction to students is this: If somebody else is working on something, don’t work on it. There’s an old saying in chemistry that if somebody else has developed something and you work on it, you are working for them. If you produce an idea and someone else works on it, they’re working for you.</p>
<p>An example of where this has succeeded is in something called self-assembled monolayers. There is a very highly developed chemistry focused on making and observing the smallest causal structures: nanostructures. This fits in a peripheral way with the general importance of nanoscience in making electronic components. But if there are billions of dollars being spent by industry making electronic components, why should a little university research group do that?</p>
<p>So we worked on an alternative way to do this without expensive equipment. We worked out a technique in which you basically take a gold film and dip it in a solution of appropriate chemical. You reliably get a monolayer film one molecule thick. That can then be manipulated using the tools of physical organic chemistry to give you very, very small structures. We’ve made structures that are a couple of angstroms wide and connected in various ways. The reason that’s important is it makes it possible for organic chemists, inorganic chemists, and biochemists to use this technique to enter nanoscience. It’s a technique that everybody can use. I’m a believer in problems and a believer in easy.</p>
<h5><strong>You gave a <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/george_whitesides_toward_a_science_of_simplicity?subtitle=en"><strong>TED talk</strong></a> on the importance of simplicity. With so much science focused on complex problems, how did you come to that view?</strong></h5>
<p>Something that’s simple is easier to work with than something that is complicated, and you’re going to make more rapid progress with a simple technique than a complicated one. I don’t like competition just for the sake of competition, but in a sense it’s obvious that if you work on something somebody else is working on, then it’s a competition and you want to be making more rapid progress. But I don’t choose to compete. I choose to work on problems because I think they’re interesting and important.</p>
<h5><strong>Is there a philosophy there?</strong></h5>
<p>Yes. Do things that are easy to do rather than things that are complicated. You’ll find our laboratory is just like ordinary chemistry laboratories, while a physical chemistry laboratory that works on nanostructures has elaborate equipment that sometimes takes years to build. I don’t want to build elaborate equipment — that’s not my skill.</p>
<h5><strong>Is this approach part of the reason you’ve been successful?</strong></h5>
<p>Success is in the eye of the beholder. I prefer to think that, to the extent that we’ve been successful, it’s because we do stuff that’s simple and useful and solves problems.</p>
<h5><strong>You also do it frugally. You’ve talked in the past about the importance of frugal science in an era when the price tag for science is rising.</strong></h5>
<p>You don’t need much more than an evaporator and a beaker. You buy the chemicals you need or you make them yourself because they’re easy to make. And then, the underlying principles are the principles of physical organic chemistry, which makes it relatively easy to predict outcomes and which contributes to the simplicity. What we do is apply physical organic chemistry through techniques that we develop to solve complicated problems, problems that in other hands require complicated equipment or complicated ideas.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/The_Harvard_Gazette_Courtesy_of_George_Whitesides_The_scientist_is_not_in_the_business_of_following_instructions_Receiving_the_National_Medal_of_Science_from_President_Bill_Clinton_in_1998_d5f90ccbd3.jpg" alt="The Harvard Gazette / Courtesy of George Whitesides: Receiving the National Medal of Science from President Bill Clinton in 1998."/></p>
<h5><strong>How does idea-generation work in your lab?</strong></h5>
<p>We make a list of the 10 most important things we can think of. I’ll suggest specific problems and the students will come up with ways of attacking them. The initial ideas may be mostly mine, but the important ideas are often mostly the students’. The scientist is not in the business of following instructions. Students should experience coming up with an idea and pursuing it themselves.</p>
<p>What do we work on now? We work on the origin of life. We work on “what is magnetism” and what can you do with it? We work on a series of problems related to small structures. And we work on soft robots. Those are all areas that are important, for one or another reason, to some community in the technical world.</p>
<h5><strong>You’ve said that the real product of your lab is the students. Your team has generated 1,200 papers, more than 100 patents, and several commercial enterprises. Why is teaching more important than the generation of knowledge?</strong></h5>
<p>They’re both important, but the students go out themselves and teach, so there’s an amplification there. Students come to the group and learn a particular style — or develop their own variant of that style. Then they go off and many get academic jobs. They have students, who they teach in their own way, and it goes on from there.</p>
<blockquote>
<h4><strong>“One of the wonderful things about science is it gives you an enormous scope in not only what you do, but also how you want to do it.”</strong></h4>
</blockquote>
<h5><strong>You’ve had a hand in starting a number of companies and have clearly put an emphasis on making sure things get commercialized. Do you help launch a company and then step back or do you stay involved?</strong></h5>
<p>It’s not straightforward. You have to have an idea, you have to have a market, and you have to have people who can deal with the exigencies of a small company.</p>
<p>One thing that’s never been quite clear is how you take bright young people and teach them to be entrepreneurs. You may have a technology but you won’t know whether it has an application until people take your technology and pay you — or the company — to use that product. That’s not what universities do particularly well, but it is what CTOs, CFOs, and CEOs — the people who run the company — do well. So there’s an entirely different part of the story that’s important, which concerns the identification and recruitment of people who can make a small company prosper. And it can take a long time for that to happen.</p>
<h5><strong>There are many variables in that process. Is one more important than the others?</strong></h5>
<p>People ultimately run the company, but it’s as complicated a problem as doing the research. Often at a small company that is succeeding you find a good application, a good product identification, and a good CEO. And the CEO may often be the one who comes up with a product identification and all the rest. Money is also critical.</p>
<h5><strong>And in the end it’s important — with respect to guiding principles — that since funding for your work comes from your neighbors, a benefit goes out to them in some way?</strong></h5>
<p>In jobs, which provide income, or in some other way. People generally don’t like just giving away money if they’re going to get nothing in return. We have a system of taxation — and we could argue about its fairness or lack of fairness — but the fact of the matter is people prefer to see something come from their money.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/The_Harvard_Gazette_Stephanie_Mitchell_Harvard_Staff_Photographer_The_scientist_is_not_in_the_business_of_following_instructions_Lecturing_at_Harvard_in_2005_1ad4fed6f1.jpg" alt="The Harvard Gazette / File photo by Stephanie Mitchell / Harvard Staff Photographer: Lecturing at Harvard in 2005."/></p>
<h5><strong>Students are sometimes told that failure is good for learning. Do you agree?</strong></h5>
<p>Certainly, a failure is good for instruction. If you look at the companies we’ve started that have done well, you would find an equal number that have not prospered. Those failures often come from a bad understanding of how the market works.</p>
<p>We recently developed a method for storing information that doesn’t involve electronics but instead uses dyes. That was based on my sense that information storage is an extremely important area but consumes a lot of energy and is subject to hacking. I thought that if you could provide an alternative which didn’t use energy and was not subject to hacking, people would be very interested in finding applications for it. I have so far been wrong. Nobody has shown an appropriate level of interest.</p>
<h5><strong>Might that take time to find its application, or is it just a miss?</strong></h5>
<p>A lot of small companies don’t go anywhere for quite a while after they get started. When they finally do, what changed is never entirely clear.</p>
<h5><strong>A big question you’re working on that has resisted explanation is the origin of life. Why is this problem so difficult?</strong></h5>
<p>For starters, you’re not going to make bugs in a test tube, so how do you tell whether you’ve succeeded or not?</p>
<p>The “RNA world” is a leading hypothesis for a plausible way of going from random chemicals — basically generated in outer space and then raining on the Earth — to the components of a living organism. A prime proponent, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/science/14rna.html"><strong>John Sutherland</strong></a>, thinks that RNA came first, then the RNA somehow propagated the DNA, and you go from there. It makes perfectly respectable sense on paper but you don’t know that it actually happened that way.</p>
<p>We do know, though, that you can make an RNA that way. If you have pools that are acidic and have sulfur in them — because they’re near volcanic fumaroles — and then it rains on them, the rain forms other chemicals. If these pools sit on hot rocks so that there’s heat to do chemistry with, then chemistry will occur and some of it may well produce RNA. But does that mean that that’s the origin of life? Does that mean that that’s the right hypothesis? No, it doesn’t.</p>
<p>These are very legitimate questions and they’re good scientific questions, but there’s a difference between something that could plausibly happen and something that probably did happen.</p>
<h5><strong>Do you have a favorite theory?</strong></h5>
<p>We’re working on an approach where our preferred source of energy is lightning and we’re learning all sorts of things about chemistry going on in lightning. Instead of making lightning, we make sparks that are energetic, very hot, and have curious things associated with them. A lot of lightning strikes occur over oceans and all around the ocean there are cavities in rocks, which if they get hot, are good places to think about chemistry happening. Now, whether that is the solution to the origin of life is another question.</p>
<blockquote>
<h4><strong>“My central point of instruction to students is this: If somebody else is working on something, don’t work on it.”</strong></h4>
</blockquote>
<h5><strong>Have your teaching methods changed over the course of your career?</strong></h5>
<p>No. We do our own approach and the students, whether they’re graduate students or undergraduate students, are free to say, “I think that is an interesting way of doing things” or “That’s not for me, that’s not the kind of problem I want to solve.” One of the wonderful things about science is it gives you an enormous scope in not only what you do, but also how you want to do it.</p>
<h5><strong>Let’s close with the areas of science you find most interesting right now.</strong></h5>
<p>You can make a list of maybe 10 or 15 problems and you’ll find that each requires separate ideas to solve. I won’t make any broad generalization about what’s more interesting and what’s less interesting, but I don’t think I want to leave to my grandchildren a world which is significantly hotter than it is now. I do think that it’s a good thing to think about whether the countless stars with planets around them also have countless intelligences on them. There are a wide variety of problems that can make the list. They’re all interesting but they’re all different and it’s not obvious how to solve or even contribute to many of them.</p>


‘The scientist is not in the business of following instructions.’

<div class="bold"><p style="font-weight:400;"><span><strong>PFAS, thousands of artificial fluorinated chemicals. And nature doesn't know how to deal with them. These substances never decompose; they remain permanently in the environment. They accumulate in the bodies of humans and animals. That's&nbsp;how they get into our food, meat, milk, and eggs. We drink PFAS with our water, and they rain down on us in rainwater. They are produced massively because of their extraordinary properties. It is no exaggeration to say that all of us, including new-born, have these substances in our bodies. PFAS, known as forever chemicals, have many uses and are a&nbsp;part of every household. They are used in waterproof clothing, footwear, furniture coverings, disposable packaging, waterproofing sprays, cosmetics, and many other products. However, they are very dangerous; they are linked to lowering the immunity of toddlers and can cause cancer, infertility, hormonal problems, diabetes, etc. Thanks to Prof. Martin Scheringer (ETH Zurich/RECETOX), who was involved as a&nbsp;scientific expert, we are delighted to be part of the "The Forever Pollution Project”</strong></span> <span><strong>which aims to map the extent of PFAS contamination in Europe and make the information available to the public. Alarmingly, only three substances from this large group are banned. For the others, no legislation regulates their production and use. The European Union is working on one, but the proposal still needs to be finalized.</strong></span></p><p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/RECETOX_Forever_chemicals_as_a_ticking_time_bomb_for_future_generations_prof_Martin_Scheringer_Dr_sc_nat_d473fdcaa8.jpg" alt="RECETOX: prof. Martin Scheringer, Dr. sc. nat." srcset="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/thumbnail_RECETOX_Forever_chemicals_as_a_ticking_time_bomb_for_future_generations_prof_Martin_Scheringer_Dr_sc_nat_d473fdcaa8.jpg 231w," sizes="100vw" width="575" height="388"></p><h5><strong>Professor Scheringer, when did people realize that PFAS are much more dangerous than they were thought to be?</strong></h5><p style="font-weight:400;"><span>The people at the companies that produced these chemicals must have known. I&nbsp;first learned about it in a&nbsp;paper published in 2001 by J. P. Giesy and K. Kannan. It was a&nbsp;revolutionary publication. J. P. Giesy, by the way, has been working with RECETOX for a&nbsp;long time and he is a&nbsp;member of the International Scientific Advisory Board</span> <span>at RECETOX.</span></p><h5><strong>Why are PFAS produced in such huge quantities? Is it because of their unique properties?</strong></h5><p style="font-weight:400;">Yes, definitely, plus they started to be used in the 1950s, a&nbsp;period full of optimism and development after the Second World War. There was exponential growth in all sectors at that time. However, from the beginning, some people must have known that this was a&nbsp;chemical substance that would be difficult to break down and could cause problems. Take DDT, for example; this was also seen as a&nbsp;'miracle' in agriculture, but even in the 1950s, people could see the side effects on birds, fish, and bees, and it was clear that this substance would cause a&nbsp;great deal of trouble. The problem is that the mindset at that time was that the solution to pollution was dilution.</p><h5><span><strong>Many companies, especially outdoor clothing manufacturers, have stopped using PFAS (e.g., in Gore-Tex membranes) on their initiative and replaced it with other chemicals to protect consumers and the environment. Can the chemicals that replace PFAS be relied upon to be safe?</strong></span></h5><div class="box-content"><p><span style="font-weight:400;">PFAS is so problematic that most alternatives will be safer or, at least, preferable. At least in terms of persistence, because these alternatives will be degradable more easily than PFAS. PFAS will never degrade in the environment, so anything that has similar properties but can also degrade is a&nbsp;better alternative. Of course, with the need to test their toxicity. Impregnation, for example, can be solved with waxes. Waxes have been used since ancient China when the Chinese used waxed paper as protection against rain. With simple applications or ways, things can be done similarly, with a&nbsp;similar effect or benefit to people. You can buy jackets from which you can smell the wax. Let’s look at the baking paper as another example. I&nbsp;learned from paper manufacturers in Sweden that wood processing could differ significantly. It results in a&nbsp;naturally grease-resistant paper suitable for baking. Then we do not need additives, such as PFAS, in this case, added to baking papers.</span></p><h5><span><strong>That sounds very interesting, but I&nbsp;suppose it would entail significantly increased costs and, consequently, the selling price of the products.</strong></span></h5></div><div class="box-content"><p style="font-weight:400;"><span>Perhaps a&nbsp;bit, but it wouldn't make much difference. You know, PFAS are costly. They're expensive to produce, so it wouldn't make a&nbsp;noticeable difference to the consumer. But even if the price difference were more substantial, we should be willing to pay for products that do not contain PFAS.</span></p></div><div class="box-content"><h5><span><strong>Recently I&nbsp;read an article about the US military trying to degrade PFAS with super-heated water. Could this approach be applied generally? Are there some possibilities for how to degrade PFAS?</strong></span></h5></div><div class="box-content"><p style="font-weight:400;"><span>PFAS that cannot be "collected" from the environment cannot be removed either. This is so in most cases. We cannot remove it from rainwater, groundwater, watercourses, and soil. The instances where we can handle PFAS are always under controlled conditions. In the laboratory, we have removed it using high temperatures, aggressive chemicals, or even microbes that can disrupt the stability of the carbon-fluorine bond by the biochemical reaction. Therefore, our concern is with PFAS which, let’s say, have 'escaped,' and we have no way to collect, treat and remove them.</span></p></div><div class="box-content"><h5><strong>So, what is the solution for PFAS in underground water supplies?</strong></h5></div><div class="box-content"><p><span style="font-weight:400;">We can monitor this PFAS, create maps, as has been done in "The Forever Pollution Project," and try to contain and capture the PFAS in these hotspots. But we can never remove everything, and it is a&nbsp;costly process.</span></p></div><div class="box-content"><h5><strong>Professor, under what conditions can PFAS get "out" of, for example, a&nbsp;Teflon pan or a&nbsp;waterproof coat? Everyone probably has these items at home; what is the risk?</strong></h5></div><div class="box-content"><p><span>These are entirely different cases. The Teflon in the pan is relatively safe; it is a&nbsp;polymer, so the concern only arises if people overheat it. However, it is always necessary to look at the life cycle of the manufactured item, that is, its production, use, and disposal. The use phase is the least worrisome for Teflon; the production and disposal phase is problematic. The scandalous case of DuPont in the USA is well known, where large amounts of one particular PFAS were released into the environment from a&nbsp;Teflon production plant. The situation is quite different in the case of PFAS used in coatings, clothing, and footwear. Our skin is constantly in contact with these products, and during friction, PFAS is released and evaporates, thus entering circulation. Landfills and waste are also significant sources of PFAS entering the environment. Waterproof clothing, carpets, furniture, building materials, etc., containing PFAS go to landfills and become an important pollution source.</span></p><h5><strong>EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has stated that PFAS suppresses the immune response in toddlers. How serious is it from your point of view? A&nbsp;growing number of women in the Czech Republic choose to breastfeed their babies for a&nbsp;long time because of the health benefits. At the same time, parents want their children to spend much time outdoors, so they place them in forest nurseries. The children are exposed to various weather and often wear waterproof clothing and shoes because of bad weather. Parents make these decisions in the best interests of the child. So how is it?</strong></h5></div><div class="box-content"><p><span>This is a&nbsp;tricky question that is very difficult to answer. I&nbsp;am not an expert on human health and human toxicology. PFAS enters developing fetuses from the mother's&nbsp;body. Infants continue to ingest it in the form of breast milk because PFAS is eliminated from the mother's&nbsp;body through breastfeeding. The amount of PFAS in the body of children is higher due to their significantly lower weight compared to an adult. Pollutants such as pesticides, or PFAS, may be present in breast milk at different levels. Even so, breastfeeding is suitable for children for several reasons. It depends on the actual levels of these substances in the mother's&nbsp;body. Of course, the distribution of pollution varies in different areas. As for clothing and footwear, it's&nbsp;also a&nbsp;question of brand reputation. The big brands have followed the discussion about the PFAS, and often aim to eliminate them from their products. So, it depends on which clothes and shoes we buy.</span></p><h5><strong>Is there a&nbsp;certificate indicating products that do not contain PFAS?</strong></h5></div><div class="box-content"><p><span>Yes, there are, but these labels are not controlled and certified, such as in the case of organic food. If anyone has much power in this fight against PFAS, it is the big brands. Big brands can pressure suppliers to only buy their goods with a&nbsp;guarantee that they are PFAS-free. It's&nbsp;a supply chain issue. It depends on the customer's&nbsp;needs, so the manufacturer responds to that and pressures the supplier.</span></p><h5><span><strong>The so-called Stockholm Convention bans three PFAS chemicals. The others still need to be regulated, although a&nbsp;revolutionary proposal is under discussion to ban fluorinated substances in consumer products by 2025. A&nbsp;complete ban could come into force by 2030. For what reason is there no legislation to regulate these substances so far?</strong></span></h5></div><div class="box-content"><p><span style="font-weight:400;">That is a&nbsp;tricky but fair question. That is precisely the question we should ask and answer to the public. The PFAS case poses a&nbsp;massive challenge to a&nbsp;regulatory system that needs to prepare for such situations. Let us be aware that acute toxicity to fish or other aquatic organisms, for example, is being investigated, but the reduced immune response in children is not tested for. That will never be tested because such a&nbsp;test would be highly demanding and costly. So, as far as PFAS is concerned, we are always learning more and more information. The testing system works up to a&nbsp;certain point but is imperfect because it does not ask the right questions. Moreover, when it is a&nbsp;substance already on the market, it is difficult to ban it.</span></p><h5><strong>3M and DuPont have been the subject of massive scandals and subsequent lawsuits. These companies have been producing forever chemicals, even though they have had secret studies available to them. They performed tests to monitor contamination and other parameters. They probably could suspect how dangerous the substances were. But they chose to remain silent. How do you see it? Do you see a&nbsp;parallel there?</strong></h5><p><span style="font-weight:400;">Yes, the story of the oil and gas company Exxon is also very similar. In the 1980s, they could predict very accurately that their products would cause global warming. They anticipated what would happen regarding climate change and temperature rise with impressive accuracy. And the companies making PFAS were in a&nbsp;similar situation: they knew a&nbsp;lot about the hazards of PFAS, but did not share it</span></p></div><div class="box-content"><h5><span><strong>Do you think it can be said that PFAS represent a&nbsp;ticking time bomb for future generations?</strong></span></h5><p><span style="font-weight:400;">Yes, but it depends on the level of PFAS exposure. Moreover, it will be complicated to prove if a&nbsp;health problem is caused by chronic exposure to PFAS, for example, in childhood. But there will be lasting PFAS legacy in many parts of the world.</span></p><h5><strong>Each of us is surrounded by a&nbsp;"cocktail" of chemicals at subthreshold levels. These chemicals can come from the air, cosmetics, or food. Is it reasonable to assume that some mixtures containing, for example, PFAS at "safe levels" could affect disease development?</strong></h5><p>Mixtures are much debated. Regulation always addresses individual chemicals but does not address mixtures. We can say without exaggeration that current chemical regulation is under-protective.</p><h5><span><strong>Professor, what should we learn from an exciting conversation with you?</strong></span></h5><p><span style="font-weight:400;">We must inform people that the goal of our work is not to cause consternation or to scare people. We live in a&nbsp;world we have partly created; we must learn to accept that we cannot escape the consequences and burdens of our actions. We all have PFAS in our bodies; how serious it is, we don't know. We are still determining how serious it will be for generations to come. We must accept it instead of fearing the chemistry around and within us. Chemistry can be beneficial, sometimes harmful, but we need it. Let’s motivate our children to study environmental chemistry. Let’s realize you can move things if you are active. If the public pressures politicians, there won't be so much trouble regulating the industry. The solution is not to be afraid but to focus on what you can do to prevent such situations from happening again. Let's&nbsp;not be paralyzed! Yes, our children have PFAS in their bodies, so let's&nbsp;not raise their levels by giving them fast food that is not only unhealthy but is served in packaging that often contains PFAS.</span></p><p><strong>Thank you for the excellent talk, and I wish you success in your research.</strong></p></div></div>

Forever chemicals as a ticking time bomb for future generations?

Article

Product

Events

Webinars

Application

Academy

Video

Poster

Scientists

Plastics

Environment

Food

Water

Health

Presentation

Scientific article

Interview

Toxicology

Popularization

Science and research

Software

Covid-19

Career

Laboratories

Various

Zaměření

Type of News

Focus

Měsíčník a zpravodajský portál brněnské Masarykovy univerzity. Informuje o aktuálním dění na univerzitě, vědě a výzkumu, studentském životě i akademickém sportu. Přináší rozhovory s významnými osobnostmi univerzity a se zajímavými absolventy.

Magazín M

RECETOX (Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment) is an independent department of the Faculty of Science of Masaryk University in Brno, which has been established in 1983. RECETOX is focused on the research and education in cross-cutting area of Environment and Health. It addresses interactions among chemicals, environment, and biological systems, including consequences at local, regional, and global levels.

RECETOX - Centrum pro výzkum toxických látek v prostředí

Since its establishment in 2011, CEITEC has quickly developed into a cutting-edge infrastructure for research which performs highly alongside the best institutes in Europe. Among the main priorities of CEITEC are the promotion of a motivating and dynamic international scientific environment, the provision of state-of-the-art research infrastructure, and the policy of open communication and equal opportunities.

CEITEC

The University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague is a natural centre of first-rate study and research in the area of chemistry in Czechia and is one of the country's largest educational and research institutions focused on technical chemistry, chemical and biochemical technologies, material and chemical engineering, food chemistry, and environmental studies.

Vysoká škola chemicko-technologická v Praze

Harvard University is devoted to excellence in teaching, learning, and research, and to developing leaders in many disciplines who make a difference globally. Founded in 1636, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States.

Forever chemicals as a ticking time bomb for future generations?

‘The scientist is not in the business of following instructions.’

In the next years, climate change will affect everything, says environmental epidemiologist Tomáš Janoš.

Life is an excellent model for chess

Karel Šmejkal: I still find research an exciting game

Nobel Prize Winner Randy Schekman: Teaching undergraduates helps researchers learn to explain science

The world around us is changing and we have to react

Upcoming events

SETAC North America 45th Annual Meeting

23rd Human Proteome Organization World Congress 2024

Agilent Microplastics Meeting 2024

Webinars

Industrial applications of micro-XRF – Quality control at different stages

Automated NMR for Protein Assignment and Structure Determination in a Timely and Affordable Way

Driving XRD in regulated environments: Solid form analysis with XRDynamic 500