11/2001

Academic bulletin 11/2001

Open Doors Days at the Academy of Sciences -a report in photos

Editorial

Attendance at Open Doors Days at the Academy of Sciences exceeded the number of visitors last year!

News from the Academic Council - the 8^th Session

Research and Development Council of the Government of the Czech Republic

Report from the 152^nd session of the Czech Government's Research and Development Council

Portraits from the Archives

Stanislav Špaček

Stanislav Špaček was a building engineer (his major effort being the construction of roads and bridges) but he became known as diplomat and founder of so called Masaryk's Academy of Work. During World War I he was a member of a team of experts called the 'Technical Mafia' that prepared plans for the reconstruction of the Czech economy after the war. From 1919 to 1924 he worked at the Czechoslovak Embassy in Washington as a technical attaché. His practical and scientific experience and expertise were very valuable for the newly established state, Czechoslovakia, following his return from Washington.

Scientific Societies

Czech Anthropological Society

Anthropology as a field of science was established in the Czech lands in the 19^th century. The Independent Czechoslovak Anthropological Society was founded in 1964 under the auspices of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. The society nowadays is a voluntary organization of scientists, students, pedagogues and experts in related fields; it has about 190 members.

Introducing the Projects

Pierre Auger Observatory

The Project Pierre Auger Observatory is a prestigious, long-term project in astrophysics comparable to basic research projects such as those currently functioning at the CERN or DESY laboratories. It is named after French physicist Pierre Auger, inventor of the high energy of primary cosmic radiation.

Science - Research - Society

EUSTORY - Competition in the Knowledge of History

The Institute for Contemporary History of the ASCR in co-operation with the Association of History Teachers and the Körber Foundation of Hamburg organised the first year of the Czech variant of this international competition (held in 14 European countries) for secondary school student called Eustory. Some 196 students from 75 schools all over the Czech Republic wrote essays on the topic 'Alone Against Authority: Opposition to the Totalitarian Regime, 1948 - 1989'.

The Possibility to Create a Real Multicultural Society

The conference, 'Contrasting Values and Multicultural Society', which had been planned long before the terrorist attacks in USA, suddenly appeared to be very up to date. Experts form Great Britain, USA, Netherlands, Germany, Japan and Russia met in Villa Lanna to discuss problems of the co-existence of people from different cultural environments having opposing life values.

Events

Conference Polyslav

On September 27 - 29, 2001 a group of young philologists and experts in Slavic studies called Polyslav met for their fifth annual conference in Prague.

Czech-German Workshop

on Linguistic Computing The Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics of the ASCR and the Institute of Phonetics and the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University in co-operation with the Institute for Applied Physics of J. W. Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main held a Czech-German workshop on speech processing from September 17 to 19, 2001.

Plant Molecular Biology for the New Millennium

The International Symposium, Plant Molecular Biology for the New Millennium, held in Třeboň was part of a cycle titled 'Recent Advances in Plant Biotechnology', sponsored annually by the Institute of Molecular Biology of the ASCR in co-operation with the Institute of Plant Genetics and Biotechnology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

Symposium of Historians in Romania

An International Symposium, 'Sovietisation of Romania and Czechoslovakia: History, Analogy, Consequences', was organised by the Commission of Romanian and Czech Historians under the patronage of the A. D. Xenopol Institute of Historyin Romania and the Institute for Contemporary History of the ASCR

Jaroslav Seifert - the 100^th Anniversary of His Birth

On the occasion of the 100^th Anniversary of the birth of Nobel Prize Holder Jaroslav Seifert, the music firm Supraphon announced a new CD featuring his poetry.

Nobel Prize Holders visited Brno and Prague

At almost the same time two well-known scientists visited the Czech Republic. Professor Walter Kohn visited the Institute of Physics of Material of the ASCR in Brno and this year's Nobel Prize award-winner, Professor Joseph Stiglitz, received the Honoris Causa doctorate from Charles University.

Is Our Food Healthy?

The Council for Popularisation of Science hosted a meeting with journalists on new trends in human nutrition. Experts focused their attention on problems of food contamination (chemicals, hormones etc.), GMO and BSE.

COST Meeting

The Technical Committee of the organisation Co-operation in Science and Technology

Congress of the Microbiological Society

Chronicle

Presentation of the book Liberal Order Rules

Megabooks - Exhibition of Publications

Jan Masaryk

Topical Supplement

'Cogito Ergo Sum' - Walking through the History of Science