09/2007

Academic bulletin 09/2007

RESUMÉ

The modern conference centre, Centrum Liblice, of the Academy of Sciences of the CR, after reconstruction jointly financed by European Union, opened with ceremony 6^th September 2007. The unique blending of the Baroque architecture of Château Liblice with state-of-the-art conference facilities offers an exceptional environment for domestic and international conferences, workshops, training courses and the like.
It is hoped Château Liblice will become the centre where the scientific community can advance various areas of research.

EVENT OF THE MONTH
Philosophy in the streets
The Festival of Philosophy was born seven years ago in the north Italian town of Modena. Its goal is to celebrate philosophy and literature, to go out from the academic ivory towers to the squares and parks and to address perceptive listeners and young people especially. This year the festival crossed the borders of Italy and was organized in the picturesque French town of Saint-Emilion. The Academy of Sciences' Institute of Philosophy also participated in the town of Velké Meziříčí in Bohemian-Moravian Highlands 22–24^th June 2007. The Festival in Velké Meziříčí was devoted to Stability and Change: The Contemporary World and Philosophy.

TOPIC OF THE MONTH
Indicator productivity of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic as indicated WoS in the years 1997–2006

SCIENCE AND RESEARCH
Well-disciplined molecules
By studying how a layer of molecules grows into an ordered layer from the edge of a rectangular silicon wafer, the team of Prof. Jan Genzer from the USA has established the time evolution of self-propagating, self-assembly fronts. The team is the first to confirm the phenomenon in a real physical system.

Astronomical Day at the Academy
The Czech National Committee for Astronomy under the auspices of head manager ESO Catherine Cesarsky and AS CR President Vaclav Paces organized on 8^th of June 2007 the Astronomical Day of the European Southern Observatory (in Chile) for Czech industry.

The Russian view of global policy
The world well known theorist Andranik M. Migraňjan, member of the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, visited the AS CR in the middle of June. He spoke about international relations and also home politics.
The hot topic was the projected establishment of an American radar base in the Czech Republic. The Russian side considers the radar base in Czech Republic an important problem, Andranik M. Migraňjan said.