In this issue, we present an interview with the new president of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prof. Jiří Drahoš, who was elected by the Academy Assembly on December 16, 2008. He assumed the office on March 25, 2009. Professor Jiří Drahoš, who has worked in the Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals AS CR since 1977 and has been the Academy’s deputy chairman in charge of chemical sciences for three years, has published over 60 original scientific works that have been cited more than 700 times. He is also co-author of ten foreign and nine Czech patents. Professor Jiří Drahoš said that he plans to focus on cooperation with universities in research and innovation, extend the work of top foreign researchers in the Academy’s institutes and promote participation of the AS institutes in international projects.