The renowned economist Matějka will help look for new talents of Czech science

The Neuron Endowment Fund announces the new composition of its scientific board for the social sciences. It will be headed by the renowned economist Filip Matějka of CERGE-EI. The team also comprises the internationally recognised linguist Mirjam Fried of the Faculty of Arts of Charles University and the legal scholar David Kosař of the Faculty of Law of Masaryk University. The Scientific Board of the Neuron Endowment Fund is an important body of the fund — it has operated since the fund was founded in 2010 and takes part in selecting the laureates of the prestigious Neuron Awards for science. The fund assembles it separately for each of the seven scientific fields it honours and renews it regularly. Distinguished figures of Czech science sit on it. Since 2018 the fund has also had an International Scientific Board, which ensures the world-class standing of the Neuron Award laureates.

"I look forward to working with Mirjam and David. All three of us care very much about the development of Czech science, so we are glad that in this way we can help the founders and patrons of the Neuron Endowment Fund look for new scientific stars,"

— — Filip Matějka —

Originally a mathematician and physicist, he took his doctorate at Princeton University, where he was a student of the Nobel laureate Christopher Sims. He works on macroeconomics and political and behavioural economics. He was the first Czech economist to win a prestigious ERC grant and in 2016 he was given the Neuron Award for young scientists.

Mirjam Fried is a world-class linguist. She now works at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University and, before returning to the Czech Republic, lectured for almost twenty years at Princeton and at UC Berkeley. She became the first woman to head the Faculty of Arts of Charles University since its founding in 1348. "I take working at Neuron as a great personal honour, but above all as an opportunity to support Czech science, including the humanities. Neuron's mission resonates very naturally with my conviction that the humanities should be a visible part of public life."

David Kosař is one of the best legal scholars in this country. He is head of the Judicial Studies Institute at the Faculty of Law of Masaryk University, is one of the two holders of an ERC grant in the social sciences in the Czech Republic and publishes regularly in prestigious scientific journals. He works on the boundary of law and political science. "My main motivation is to contribute to cultivating the Czech scientific environment and to giving the social sciences greater visibility," says David Kosař. He is a holder of the 2018 Neuron Award for young talented scientists.

"I am delighted that we have again welcomed to Neuron such wonderful names not only of Czech but of world science. It is an honour for us and at the same time an encouragement for further work. We are already looking forward to the new talents of Czech science, in whose selection not only our new colleagues but the other members of our scientific board will take part — the nomination process for the laureates of the 2019 Neuron Awards ends as soon as March," says Monika Vondráková, one of the founders of the Neuron Endowment Fund.