One of the architectural jewels of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague is its Villa Lanna. The Editorial Staff of Academic bulletin decided it deserved recognition with a supplement the Academy's official magazine, enclosed with the September issue. The Staff is indebted to Prof. Jan Bažant who kindly wrote the historical and artistic aspects of this magnificent edifice. On October 8, 2013, the Editorial Staff arranged a small celebration during which Professor Ba2ant guided a group on a tour through this outstanding Neo-Renaissance villa. A photography gallery of the celebration is available on the third cover of this issue as well at the http://abicko.avcrcz. and Mgr. Marina Hužvárová.
The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic has been observing the 20'" anniversary of its inception. This month we feature an interview with Professor Helena Illnerova of the Institute of Physiology of the ASCR, the first woman to be elected of the ASO? president of the ASCR. Professor Illnerova is one of the leading Czech scientists, having begun her work in the 1960s. Her main research interest is the time-keeping program of mammals, including man, and the synchronization of the circadian biological clock with the 24-hour-day and seasons of the year. In 1990, she received a DrSc. degree for a doctoral thesis entitled Regulation of Circadian Rhythms in the Rat Pineal Gland. and Marina Hužvárová.
This issue features two articles which deal with the first post-1989 president of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (CAS), Prof. Otto Wichterle. The Academy of Sciences has been observing this year the 20th anniversary of its inception. The Czech chemist and inventor Otto Wichterle is world renowned for inventing the first practicable soft contact lenses. He graduated from the Chemical and Technological Faculty of the Czech Technical University in 1936. In 1939, all Czechoslovak universities were closed down by the Nazi regime. However, he began working at the research institute of the Bath Works which enabled him to continue his research on plastics. Professor Wichterle developed the first Czechoslovak synthetic fiber, to which he gave the name of silon. After the Second World War he continued his university research. However, he was persecuted by the communist regime and in late fifties was fired from his office as dean of the Chemical Faculty. But on Christmas Eve 1961, he produced the first practical soft contact lens on a device he set up on his kitchen table consisting of a gramophone motor and bits from a toy construction set. The Czechoslovak Government sold all rights of the invention to an American entrepreneur for $330,000. Under Czech law Wichterle received one-tenth of one percent of that payment - about $330. Soft contact lenses were introduced by Bausch & Lomb in 1971 and are now worn by about 100 million people worldwide. After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, Professor Wichterle was fully rehabilitated. He was the president of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences from 1990 till the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992. In 2007, Professor Wichterle was posthumously named to the National Inventors Hall of Fame. and Jan Boháček, Mgr. Marina Hužvárová, Rudolf Zahradník.
We feature an interview in this issue with Professor Eva Semotanová, director of the Institute of History of the ASC R. As a research worker, she specializes in interdisciplinary fields of science on the intersection between geography and history, namely, historical geography, history of cartography and historical cartography. Professor Semotanová's study includes the history of Czech towns and cities in a historical-geographic context as she seeks to integrate this context into historical processes. She supervises the Institute's cartographic collection. Chair of the Committee for Historical Geography, she also lectures on historical geography. and Marina Hužvárová.
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) celebrates fifty years since the signing of its founding convention. Over the last half century, ESO has become the world's most productive ground-based astronomical observatory. The signing of the ESO Convention on October, 5, 1962 and the foundation of ESO was the culmination of the vision of leading astronomers from five European countries: Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. They had decided to join forces for the purpose of building a large telescope that would give them access to the magnificent and rich southern sky. Operating three unique and world-class observing sites in Chile (at La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor), ESO has become a leader in the astronomical research community. To celebrate the 50th anniversary, ESO and its partners (including the Czech Republic) are organising many events and public initiatives during 2012. and Marina Hužvárová.
This was a comment during an interview with Professor Vaclay Pates, a renowned Czech biochemist, for a feature article in this issue. The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (ASCR) has been observing the 20m anniversary of its inception, of which this is a part. Professor PaOes was President of the Academy (2005-2009) and also of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic (2010-2012). His scientific speciality is genomics. His research group was among the first to completely sequence a genome, namely, the DNA of a bacterial virus. In addition, he discovered a specific enzyme involved in the catabolism of the plant hormone cytokinine. He co-authored of the first Czech synthetic gene (the precursor of the neurotransmitter enkefaline). and Marina Hužvárová.