Dear colleagues, dear students,
The new academic year is about to begin. I hope that you have enjoyed the free days during the summer and have gained the much-needed energy and motivation for further studies or further work at our faculty.
I would especially like to welcome new students to our faculty and wish them every success in their studies. Those entering the follow-up master's or doctoral studies already know what will be expected of them. For new undergraduate students in Laboratory diagnostics and Master's students in Pharmacy, my advice is not to underestimate the first months of study. It is necessary to focus intensively on study right from the start, especially on those subjects where there might be some difficulties for you. The amount of study topics will increase as the semester progresses, and just before or during the exam period it may be too late to deal with the uncertainties. Nothing would make the faculty happier than if all students mastered all their study obligations and graduated successfully!
I had the opportunity to meet some of the new undergraduate students at an introductory course organized by the Czech Pharmacy Students Association, and I look forward to meeting them and the others at the matriculation ceremony in the Karolinum in Prague on Tuesday, October 4.
In mid-July, the whole academic community of our faculty was struck by the news the founder and first dean of our faculty and one of the most important personalities of Czechoslovak pharmacy, Prof. Jaroslav Květina, passed away. His contribution to our Faculty and Charles University and to the development of Czechoslovak and later Czech pharmacy will never be forgotten.
Even in July and August, the team preparing the project for the construction of our new campus was not allowed to rest. There were intensive negotiations and working meetings with the designers and many discrepancies and shortcomings in the project documentation were addressed in detail. As a result, we are really only days away from the announcement of the tender for the construction contractor. In addition to the selection of the contractor, i.e., the construction company, we are currently in crucial negotiations with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports to modify the terms of the grant from the National Recovery Plan for the construction of a larger part of our campus (the so-called faculty building) so that we can start construction immediately after the contractor is awarded the contract.
During the typically quiet summer months, the faculty was alive with scientific activity and with it came one great success. I would like to congratulate our PhD student Mgr. Filip Kostelanský from Prof. Zimčík's group, whose thesis on stabilization of short DNA duplexes using acridine derivatives was accepted for publication in the prestigious journal Nucleic Acid Research. According to the bibliometric indicators of the mentioned journal (IF 19.2; AIS 5.5), this is one of the best experimental papers in the history of our faculty. Congratulations to the whole team of authors, and I wish many more excellent results in the future!
In October, the Olšanka Congress Centre in Prague will host the 50th European Society of Clinical Pharmacy symposium, whose main organizer is Assoc. Prof. Daniela Fialová from our faculty. I would like to thank her and all other faculty organizers and committee members for the excellent promotion and representation of our faculty and wish them a successful symposium.
Furthermore, I would like to congratulate Prof. František Švec on receiving the Gold Medal of Charles University and thank him, among other things, for his contribution to the development of analytical chemistry at our faculty and for his help during the university evaluation of the scientific activities of our faculty. Finally, I would like to thank all participants of the September EFSA-CDN Faculty Symposium for the stimulating discussion on the problems and challenges that our faculty will face in the near future.
I wish you a successful start to the new academic year!
doc. PharmDr. Jaroslav Roh, Ph.D.
Dean of the Faculty