The best Czech scientists, not yet 40 years old and already changing our future, received the Neuron Awards on 24 May. At the gala evening celebrating exceptional people we also sent three bold research teams out into the world, made a young student's dream come true and honoured the authors of four videos popularising science.
Social sciences
Neuron Award for Contribution to World Science 2017 – social sciences He is considered one of the world's greatest experts on the Luxembourg dynasty, the Hussite movement and the Czech Reformation.
Medicine
Neuron Award for Contribution to World Science 2017 – medicine The founder of modern Czech paediatric haematology, who has also significantly influenced world science.
Mathematics
Neuron Award for Contribution to World Science 2017 – mathematics He studies the equation that describes the flow of water, seeking to understand completely the movement of one of the substances essential to life on Earth.
Chemistry
Neuron Award for Contribution to World Science 2017 – chemistry He works on glycoproteins, which can reveal cancer.
Physics
Neuron Award for Contribution to World Science 2017 – physics He is among the world's most significant researchers into supersymmetry, a hypothetical symmetry of physical laws. He seeks to understand how the world works at infinitely small distances.
Computer science
Neuron Award for Contribution to World Science 2017 – computer science He seeks to understand why some computational tasks are easy and can be computed readily, while others are hard.
Biology
Neuron Award for Contribution to World Science 2017 – biology Nothing in life is ever lost. That is the motto of an admirable man, the Arctic ecologist Josef Svoboda, who began his professional career only after the age of forty.
Social sciences
Neuron Impuls holder 2017 – social sciences The fate of the last unexplored pyramid is at stake. It is threatened by illegal new buildings going up nearby. The Egyptologist Mohamed Megahed wants to document the pharaoh's tomb.
Medicine
Neuron Impuls holder 2017 – medicine About a million people in Czechia have diabetes. Tomáš Koblas's research offers hope of curing them.
Mathematics
Neuron Impuls holder 2017 – mathematics Fluffy clouds, snowflakes and the vascular system have shapes that mathematicians call fractals. Associate Professor Václav Kučera is thinking about the way to a plastic three-dimensional depiction of them.
Chemistry
Neuron Impuls holder 2017 – chemistry He studies dry eye syndrome.
Chemistry
Neuron Impuls holder 2017 – chemistry He wants to image and examine in greater detail how miRNA arises and acts in a living cell.
Physics
Neuron Impuls holder 2017 – physics He works on optimising the parameters of materials for the computers of the future
Computer science
Neuron Impuls holder 2017 – computer science His research, inspired by the game of poker, will contribute to a safer internet, better protection of airports and a more effective fight against poachers in the forest.
Social sciences
Neuron Impuls holder 2017 – social sciences He is finding out whether ritual behaviour, one of the basic cultural elements, helps to reduce anxiety about uncontrollable threats through the predictability of movement and verbal patterns.
Medicine
Neuron Impuls holder 2017 – medicine She studies the role of microRNA and protein-coding genes in directing the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into neural stem cells
Mathematics
Neuron Impuls holder 2017 – mathematics He works on semifields in number theory and geometry.
Chemistry
Neuron Impuls holder 2017 – chemistry He studies the possibilities of synthesising new zeolites using the ADOR method, takes part in the detailed characterisation of these materials and studies the possibilities of using them in catalysis.
Physics
Neuron Impuls holder 2017 – physics She is developing a new principle of short-pulse electron diffraction based on accelerating electrons with a powerful laser.
Computer science
Neuron Impuls holder 2017 – computer science The aim of the project is to show, using cryptographic assumptions, that no efficient algorithms exist for these problems.
Biology
Neuron Impuls holder 2017 – biology He investigates the origin of hair defects and is thus attempting to describe the role of proteases in detail for the first time.
Social sciences
Neuron Award for Young Scientists 2017 – social sciences He studies the development of the population of Papua New Guinea, the largest tropical island.
Mathematics
Neuron Award for Young Scientists 2017 – mathematics He likes long journeys. Only that way can he find the shortest ones.
Physics
Neuron Award for Young Scientists 2017 – physics He discovered hydrogen and the longest salt cave in the world.
Computer science
Neuron Award for Young Scientists 2017 – computer science He does not paint, but the world of art fascinates him. So he devised algorithms that paint remarkable works for him. Today the whole world uses them, and their author was treated as a star in Hollywood with them.
Biology
Neuron Award for Young Scientists 2017 – biology He studies the development of the oldest organisms on Earth.
Discoveries lie waiting all around, do not let them slip by! Every month we will send you a fresh batch of information about the world of science and Neuron.