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.
We feature an interview with Prof. Zdeněk Herman, a renowned Czech chemist. In his research he focuses on the dynamics of chemical reactions or the collisions of ions that he calls "billiards with particles." Professor Herman studied chemistry at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University specializing in physical chemistry and radiochemistry. After completing his studies in 1957, he joined the Institute of Physical Chemistry (now J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry of the ASCR). He was Head of the Department of Chemical Physics, and Deputy Director and Head of the Scientific Council of the Institute. Only after the fall of the communist regime was he allowed to complete his habilitation and become a Professor of Chemistry in 1996 at the Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague. Since 1989, he has served on many ASCR committees and in the Czech Government. In 2003, he was awarded the Czech Head National Prize. Professor Herman is also a sculptor and painter. For the 50th anniversary of the Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals of the ASCR, he crafted a bronze bust of the Institute's founder, Professor Vladimír Bažant. and Marina Hužvárová.