A new plant-genomics laboratory was opened on 23rd April in Olomouc as part of the Institute of the Experimental Botany ASCR. The festive visitation of the lab was completed by Triticeae Genomics - Current Status and Utility of the Chromosome Based Strategies seminary. In the coming years, the new research establishment will be a part of an international wheat-genome-reading team, a prestigious task that can aid the understanding of one of the main crop-plants. and Jaroslav Doležel, Jan Kolář.
Minister of Education, Youth and Sports Professor Petr Fiala presented the Milada Paulová Award in the historical sciences to Professor Zdeňka Hledíková, professor emeritus at Charles University in Prague. The festive ceremony took place October 16 in Liechtenstein Palace in Prague. Professor Hledíková is a prominent and internationally recognised Czech historian and university teacher. Her research con- centrates on church history and the history of the Medieval Age in general. She was allowed to get her habilitation only after 1989, and in 1996 she became a professor. At this time she was Director of the Czech Historical Institute in Rome. The Award is named after the first Czech woman to lecture at a university (1925) and to receive a professorship (1939), the late historian and byzan- tologist Milada Paulová. and Alena Ortenová.
The two-day General Assembly of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic took place in Hall of Patriots of Carolinum on May 19-20. The goals of the Society are to encourage the free development of science in all its aspects, to disseminate scienctific ideas and concepts to the general public, to awaken a thirst for and delight in scientific knowledge within society, to support the enhancement of the level of education and a creative, rational and humanly responsible climate in the CR. On the occasion of the General Assembly, Prof. František Šmahel from Center for Medieval Studies and Prof. Antonín Holý of the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry AS CR were bestowed the Medal of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic for their development of science. A Scientist Award was awarded chemist Prof. Miloslav Frumar of University of Pardubice in Pardubice and Prof. Eduard Maur from Charles University. The Junior Scientist Award was given to Dr. Jana Humpoličková from Josef Heyrovský Institute in Opava. Grammar School Student Awards were presented to 13 students from Czech high schools. and Na místě autora uvedena -red-