On November 23, the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, Mr. Josef Dobeš, handed out the annual awards and honourable mentions for outstanding achievements in research, development and innovation. The event took place in the Great Mirror Hall in Karmelitská Street.

The Minister of Education, Youth and Sports Award for Outstanding Achievements was awarded to Professor Karel Smetana from the 1^st Faculty of Medicine. Honourable Mentions were given to the authors of the “New Phenomena in Law at the Dawn of the 21^st Century” and to Professor Jiří Kuthan for his book “Royal Works of Art in the Times of George of Poděbrady and the Jagiellons”.

More details about the recipients of the awards follow:

Prof. MUDr. Karel Smetana, DrSc. from the 1^st Faculty of Medicine received the award for his research in the field of medicine. He was awarded for his achievements in the research of application of fibroplasts in tumorous environments aimed at normalization of growth of epithelium cells. The resulting materials have been patented and have an enormous therapeutic potential for cancer treatment.

Doc. Mgr. Jaromír Fiurášek, Ph.D. from the Faculty of Science of Palacký University in Olomouc was awarded in the field of quantum information. Mr. Fiurásek’s research in quantum physics, optics and optoelectronics resulted in the design and implementation of methods of suppressing noise in quantum communication and determining of the optimal schemes for copying of quantum information.

Prof. Mgr. Erazim Kohák, PhD. (Yale ´58) from the Department of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic received the award for outstanding  achievements in his research into the defining characteristics of the Czech cultural identity and the general ideas of humanity in Czech thinking, presented in his monograph “Heart and Horizon: Cultural Identity and Global Humanity in Czech Philosophy”, later published in Czech in 2009 as an extended version under the title “The Home and the Far-Away: Cultural Identity and the Idea of Humanity in Czech Thinking”.

At the event, the following honorable mentions were awarded by the deputy of the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports for notable monographs:

Prof. JUDr. Monika Pauknerová, CSc., DSc., prof. JUDr, Karel Malý, DrSc., dr. h. c., prof. JUDr. PhDr. Michal Tomášek, DrSc, prof. JUDr. Aleš Gerloch, CSc. a prof. JUDr. Pavel Šturma, DrSc. for their achievements in the field of Czech law and their authorship of the five-volume monograph “New Phenomena in Law at the Dawn of the 21^st Century”.

Prof. PhDr. Jiří Kuthan, DrSc. in the field of art history for his monograph “Royal Works of Art in the Times of George of Poděbrady and the Jagiellons”, which is the first comprehensive reflection of the art of that particular era in Bohemia.