Kateřina Lahnerová, a student of Molecular and Cell Biology, became the overall winner of this year’s Student Science Competition for the Dean’s Award of the Faculty of Science with her thesis entitled “Molecular detection of selected point mutations associated with pyrethroid resistance in the sodium channel gene in the Varroa destructor mite”. The competition involved 80 students, who presented their theses before the jury in the fields of Mathematics and Informatics, Chemistry, Physics, Biology and Ecology, Earth Sciences and Science Education in the Bachelor’s, Master’s and doctoral categories.
“I am completely surprised, really. I did not expect that,” said Kateřina Lahnerová, immediately after the announcement of the results. She competed in the Master’s category in the Biology and Ecology section. “I enrolled in the competition with my thesis, in which I have dealt with the detection of point mutations that cause drug resistance in Varroa destructor, the honey bee parasite. I started working on this topic while during my Bachelor’s thesis and continued for the next two years during my Master’s studies,” she added.
The level of the competition was very high and the jury did not have an easy time in the decision making process, as confirmed by one of the judges, Jan Sobusta: “There was one Bachelor’s thesis, four Master’s theses and six doctoral dissertations which were all excellent. Often, the first prize is awarded to the author of the doctoral dissertation, since they are usually the best. However, this victorious Master’s thesis greatly surpassed the others. As the winner in the category of Physics we have decided to award Aleš Stejskal, who presented a prototype of a part of an apparatus that will be used in Mössbauer spectroscopy.”
The current form of the Student Science Competition for the Dean’s Award has existed since 2007 and follows a long tradition of Student Research and Professional Activities. The aim of this competition is to motivate students to actively participate in science and research and further their work in the areas of research and discovery. All properly enrolled Bachelor’s, Master’s and doctoral students at the Faculty of Science are eligible to enter the competition. There are six sections, each of them with three categories.
“I am glad that there are so many high-quality creative theses. Some of these students I already know from their high school studies. Those who presented their theses will definitely make their way in the world,” said Martin Kubala, Dean of the Faculty of Science, about the competition. The names of the winners will be engraved on challenge cups. The results are available here. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our partners for their support of the competition: Teva, Contipro, A-Z Elektro and Elekt Labs.
