Six Czech students were recognized as Junior Ambassadors for their achievements in science and technology at the Academy of Sciences on December 12, 2011. Five boys and one girl were chosen under the Junior Ambassadors of Science and Technology pilot program launched in July 2011 by the Academy, the U.S. Embassy in Prague and American companies operating in the Czech Republic. The program encourages Czech youths to study science, mathematics and engineering, its purpose being to expand the pool of talented budding scientists and engineers from which future innovations will come. The students, with their parents and teachers, toured the Institute of Experimental Botany and the Academy of Sciences in Prague where they met with the U.S. Charge d’Affaires, Joseph Pennington, and member of the Academic Council Jiří Beneš. Astronaut Andrew Feustel then talked with the Junior Ambassadors via a digital video conference, answering their questions and explaining the important role science and technology plays in today’s society. and Luděk Svoboda.
Brain Awareness Week is a series of global events held in many parts of the world to increase public awareness of the brain. Every March BAW brings together the efforts of universities, hospitals, patient groups, government associations worldwide in a week-long commemoration of the brain. Founded and coordinated by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives and the European Dana Alliance for the Brain, BAW is observing its fifteenth anniversary campaign in 2010. More than 1,000 students heard lectures by top Czech scientists as part of the annual Brain Awareness Week that took place in the administration building of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic 15-21 March 2010. and Gabriela Adámková.
This issue includes an interview with Dr. Radomír Pánek, head of Tokamak Department of the Institute of Plasma Physics of the ASCR. Dr. Pánek's team observed the distinctive H-mode operation for the first time (on November 29, 2012) since the Tokamak was reinstalled in the IPP in 2008. The H-mode (high confinement mode) refers to a sudden improvement of plasma confinement in the magnetic field of tokamaks (by about a factor of two) which is foreseen as the standard mode of operation for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The H-mode pedestal forms near the plasma transport barrier, located behind the improved plasma confinement. Greater insight into the physics of this narrow plasma region is required to enhance control of the power flux, plasma heating and the Edge Localized Mode (ELM) instabilities in fusion reactors. and Luděk Svoboda.
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.