21. 9. 2011, by P. K., category: news

On September 21, the winners of the student thesis and dissertation competition received their diplomas from the Vice-Dean for International Relations, Dr. Tomáš Karásek. The event took place during the graduation ceremony of the Faculty of Social Sciences Master’s students in the Great Hall of Karolinum. Students not only celebrated their accomplishments, but also remembered the late Josef Vavroušek, university professor, mountaineer and the one-time Minister of Environment, who died in a tragic accident in 1995.

Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Dr. Jakub Končelík, congratulated the recipients of the award, and summed up the proceedings of the committee in a short speech: “The Josef Vavroušek Award Competition aims to follow the life mission of this extraordinary man and scholar. Some excellent theses were submitted, that were perfectly in line with Vavroušek’s legacy. Unfortunately, others could not be awarded due to insufficient quality of their language, although their content might have deserved it, but the rules are very strict in this respect.

During the review of this year’s 16^th annual Josef Vavroušek Awards, the committee evaluated 16 theses by students from Charles University, Czech University of Life Sciences and Masaryk University in Brno. Charles University students received seven out of the ten prizes, including the first place in the dissertation category and the Master’s category. In the Bachelor’s category, to committee did not award a first place, but two second places instead, both to students of the Faculty of Social Sciences.

The committee agreed that most theses submitted were excellent or very good and contributed to the legacy of Josef Vavroušek, which includes the promotion and research of sustainable development. The competition was co-funded by the Josef and Petra Vavroušek Foundation and is held annually by the Research Board of the Faculty of Social Sciences.

The awards can be granted to the students, doctoral students and young scholars at Czech higher education and research institutions. The Research Board holds the competition to honour the memory of Josef Vavroušek, the former Minister of the Environment and a teacher at the Faculty of Social Sciences, one of the most prominent supporters of sustainable development as a response to current global (especially environmental) issues.

Students of Charles University received the following awards:

In the dissertation category, the Josef Vavroušek award was given to Mgr. Jan Krajhanzl for his dissertation “Characteristics of Personal Relationship to Nature: An Introduction to Theory and Terminology”.

In the Master’s category, the award for the first place was given to Jaromír Kyzour for his thesis “Environment Laws in the Czech Republic and Germany”.

The award for the second place went to Lucián Staněk for his study “Legal Aspects of Protection of Large-scale Environmental Protection Areas”.

In the Bachelor’s category, two second prizes were awarded, one to Tomáš Křehlík for his thesis “Unorthodox measures of economic performance” and the other one to Zuzana Řehořová for her thesis called “Approach of the Czech Republic to Developing Countries (Analysis using CDI index)”.

Third place was taken by Lucie Vrbíková for her thesis “Can Experts Listen to Nature Better Than Others?”.

Pavla Břízová received a honourable mention for her Bachelor’s thesis “Gender Differences in Education: Structure and Comparison of Countries“.