Congratulations to Jiří Friml on the prestigious Austrian FWF Wittgenstein Award
On Thursday evening the biologist and Neuron Award 2019 laureate became the first Czech in history to receive the prestigious Austrian FWF Wittgenstein Award. It is Austria's most highly endowed prize. He will receive a total of 1.7 million euros for his further research into plants and their growth mechanisms.
"It is an enormous honour for me and for my team. It motivates us to continue our work and at the same time opens up radically different possibilities for us, which is key to successful research," Professor Friml responded to the award.
The expert jury decided to honour him as a pioneer of basic research focused on the as yet unexplored mechanisms by which plants control their growth. "His work is exceptionally groundbreaking and offers us deep insight into the evolution of the plant world. This award is therefore another significant milestone in his scientific career, one that holds the promise of further exciting findings in future," said the president of the FWF Wittgenstein Award, Christof Gattringer, of this year's winner.
Professor Friml and his team use methods from cell and developmental biology, biochemistry and bioinformatics to explain the mechanisms plants use to adapt to their surroundings. It was his team that discovered the plant hormone auxin, the most important and universal signal for transmitting information between plant cells.
"At Neuron we spotted Jiří Friml's immense talent as early as 2019, when we presented him with the prestigious Neuron Award for his contribution to world science," says the director of the Neuron Foundation Monika Vondráková. Of all his honours, he says, this is the one that pleases him most, because it comes from his native country. He also became Neuron's guarantor for the field of biology.
Jiří Friml heads the research group in Plant Developmental and Cell Biology at the Austrian Institute of Science and Technology. A biochemist, cell biologist and geneticist, he studied in Brno, Cologne and Tübingen. He has held professorships at several major European universities.
What is his view of science in the Czech Republic? In what way is Austria better? And how did he come close to studying oranges? Watch the short interview that figures such as the priest and theologian Tomáš Halík, the actor Ondřej Vetchý and the president — then still General — Petr Pavel conducted with Jiří Friml.
