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.
The Council for the popularization of science of ASCR in cooperation the Philosophical institute of ASCR, organized a press conference and a lecture with Prof. Paul Konrad Liessmann, a well-known Austrian philosopher, awarded by the Austrian State Prize for Cultural Journalism in 1996 and Scientist Prize 2006 (2007). Konrad Paul Liessmann was born 1953 in Villach. He is professor at the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Vienna and the editor of Zsolnay’s PHILOSOPHICUM LECH series. and Luděk Svoboda.
We highlight an interview with Věra Kůrková, the head of Department of Theoretical Computer Sciences at the Institute of Computer Sciences of the ASCR. Her research interests are nonlinear approximation theory, mathematical theory of neural networks and the mathematical theory of learning. and Gabriela Adámková.
We present an interview with Professor Pavel Spunar, who is a renowned Czech paleographer, codicologist and historiographer of the Latin Middle Ages. Professor Pavel Spunar is a member of Learned Society of the Czech Republic, Comité international de paléographie latine (Paris), Centre international de codicologie (Bruxelles) and Comité international des institutions et de la communication intellectuelle au Moyen Age (den Haag). and Sylva Daníčková.