On Monday, November 22, 2021, the MUNI Scientist award was given to 35 scientists for outstanding research results and significant scientific achievements. The ceremony was held virtually at the GAMU Annual Conference (Grant Agency of Masaryk University).
Doc. Branislav Vrana has researched water quality and new technologies for assessing long-term water quality. He received the MU Scientist Award for his exceptional research in this field; his research findings have been published in seven publications in prestigious journals such as Environmental Science & Technology, Environment International, and Environmental Pollution.
Branislav Vrana graduated in Chemical Engineering at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava and became an associate professor in Environmental Chemistry at MU. He broadened his expertise in aquatic chemistry at the UFZ Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (Germany) and the University of Portsmouth (UK). Since 2010, he has been leading the research group on Water contamination and its risks.
David Bednar, Ph.D., focuses on molecular modeling and bioinformatics at Loschmidt laboratories at the Faculty of Science, MU. He received the award for his outstanding results and high-quality publications last year and the FireProt database project, a bioinformatics tool for protein engineering.
David Bednar completed a doctoral degree in molecular and cell biology at the MU Faculty of Science. Since completing several internships abroad at Rutgers University (USA), the University of North Carolina (USA), and Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland), he has been working at RECETOX. In 2021, David Bednar became a junior research group. Currently, he is also involved in medical projects dealing with Alzheimer's disease, stroke, and cancer.
Prof. Vladimir Sindelar is an expert in the development of new supramolecules and their applications in diagnostics. He was awarded the MUNI Scientist Award for outstanding scientific results by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic in September 2021. His research project focuses on macrocyclic compounds – bambusurils.
Vladimir Sindelar completed his master's and doctoral studies at the Institute of Chemical Technology, Prague. He extended his scientific career at Heriot-Watt University (UAE) and the University of Miami (USA). Since 2005, he has worked at Masaryk University, where he was appointed full-time professor in organic chemistry. He currently heads the supramolecular chemistry group, which deals with the synthesis of supramolecular host molecules and their interactions with small molecules and ions.