Lecture at ISGC

Professor David Kubička was invited to the International Symposium on Green Chemistry (ISGC) 2025 conference, held in La Rochelle from May 12th to 16th, where he delivered a keynote lecture on the valorization of lignin-derived phenolic compounds. In this lecture, he highlighted the contribution of the GreenCats research group's scientific results to the fields of sustainable catalysis and green chemical processes.

The Department of Water Technology and Environmental Engineering, UCT Prague, is looking for junior researchers that will take part in exciting new grant projects.

• Researcher/PhD student for a project about identification and mitigation of methane from sewer networks and WWTP
• Researcher /PhD student for a project about sustainable tools for evaluating an reducing the impact of combined sewer overflows on recipients 

We expect the candidates to also enroll into open Ph.D. student program Chemie a technologie ochrany životního prostředí (Czech or English). Beginning of employment ideally since June 2025, enrollment into the PhD study program on 1st of September 2025. Please apply to jan.bartacek@vscht.cz or vojtech.kouba@vscht.cz

Please provide:

• motivation letter,
• detailed CV and
• contact information of at least two references.

Applicants will be accepted on a rolling basis.

Visit to the Jan Kepler Gymnasium

Students from the Jan Kepler Gymnasium in Prague organized a conference named Symposiom, which this year bore the subtitle 'Replika.' Professor David Kubička was invited to the event, where he delivered a lecture to the students on the topic "Green Chemistry – A Defense of Industrial Chemistry." Following the lecture, a lively discussion ensued among the inquisitive students.

Professor Kubička commented on the event, stating: "This event was unique because it allowed me to communicate with a young audience about the importance and consequences of industrial chemistry during my presentation titled 'Green Chemistry – A Defense of Industrial Chemistry'."

We greatly appreciate the invitation extended to our colleague and are pleased that green chemistry is becoming an important element in public discourse.

The Rector's Awards for 2024 were presented by Rector Milan Pospíšil at the traditional Advent concert of the University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague (VŠCHT Praha), held in the Bethlehem Chapel.

Associate Professor Jan Macák, Ph.D., (born 1958) is an expert in the field of chemical technologies in the energy sector. His professional life is closely associated with the University of Chemistry and Technology, specifically the Faculty of Environmental Technology. He completed his master's degree in engineering in 1982 and defended his dissertation in 1987. Following several professional stays abroad, he joined the Department of Power Engineering in 1994 as an Assistant Professor. In 2008, he completed his habilitation and from 2014 to 2022, he served as the Head of the Department of Power Engineering. For several terms, he served on the Academic Senate of UCT Prague, most recently as the Chairman of its Science and Research Committee. He is a member of the Scientific Board of the Faculty of Environmental Technology and the Doctoral Board for the "Energy and Fuels" study programme.

The core themes of Associate Professor Macák's scientific and pedagogical work are the physico-chemical processes in energy systems related to the corrosion and degradation of structural materials. Associate Professor Macák has significantly contributed to the development of applying electrochemical techniques for the in-situ study and monitoring of corrosion processes within power plant circuits. Recently, his work has focused on the application of electrochemical techniques for corrosion testing in supercritical water environments.

Dr. McGachy Visited Taiwan's Tunghai University

Dr. Lenka McGachy from the Department of Environmental Chemistry visited the affiliated Department of Environmental Science and Engineering at Tunghai University as part of the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) project titled "Degradation of benzophenone-type UV filters in aqueous solutions using peroxydisulfate."

During her visit, she delivered two invited lectures on topics concerning benzophenone-type UV filters and advanced oxidation processes for their removal from wastewater, which were enthusiastically received. In addition to numerous discussions with her Taiwanese colleagues, she also worked directly in the laboratory of Associate Professor Wei-Po Lai (https://webberlai.weebly.com/). Potential opportunities for scientific research collaboration between the Faculty of Environmental Technology (FTOP) and Tunghai University were also discussed with his team.

On Monday, April 15, 2024, 24 students from the University of Utrecht (Netherlands) visited our institute. They were students of the third year of bachelor's and master's studies in the field of Chemistry and Molecular Biology at the Institute of Chemistry, who go abroad every year. The aim of the study tour is to inform the participants about chemical research and industry abroad and to open up new possibilities for them. We are glad that we were able to offer these students quality lectures in which we introduced them to the history of our school and our scientific topics (sustainable catalysis, CO2 evaluation and alternative fuel sources), as well as a tour of the institute, where we showed them our technical possibilities and work environment. In conclusion, we would like to highlight the interest with which the students willingly participated in the discussion.

From January 1, 2024, a new institute, the Institute of Sustainable Fuels and Green Chemistry, will be established at the Faculty of Environmental Protection Technology. It is created by the merger of the original Institute of Petroleum Technology and Alternative Fuels and the Institute of Gaseous and Solid Fuels and Environmental Protection. The head of the institute was doc. Ing. Tomáš Hlinčík, PhD. The Institute of Sustainable Fuels and Green Chemistry deals with topics that currently resonate in public and professional discussion, such as: alternative fuels and biofuels, whether gaseous or liquid; implementation of green chemistry principles in the chemical industry or air protection and climate change. We focus in detail on the transformation of biomass and waste plastics into bioliquids and their subsequent hydrogenation processing, the development of heterogeneous catalysts, the application of hydrogen, biogas and biomethane in the gas industry, the capture of carbon dioxide in order to mitigate climate change and the monitoring of air pollution. Furthermore, at the institute, we deal with innovations and optimizations in traditional areas, especially in technology and analysis.

The French Embassy in the Czech Republic annually awards prizes to young scientists for the results obtained during their doctoral studies. This year, Jaroslav Aubrecht from the Institute of Petroleum Technology and Alternative Fuels won the main prize for environmental and climate research MAKE OUR PLANET GREAT AGAIN 2022. The quality of his contribution entitled "Development of Cr-free environmentally-friendly hydrogenolysis catalysts to make ester hydrogenolysis sustainable" was evaluated as the most successful by an international commission composed of members of the academic and industrial spheres. At the award ceremony, which took place in the Buquoy Palace, where the French Embassy in Prague is located, the winner was presented with a financial check as well as a scholarship for a one-month internship at a selected French workplace. The ceremony was attended by the French Ambassador to the Czech Republic Alexis Dutertre, Minister for Science, Research and Innovation Helena Langšádlová, winners of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry and Economics Jean-Marie Lehn and Jean Tirole, and other representatives of companies and universities. In particular, Jean-Marie Lehn tried to share his experience with young scientists during the ceremony and give them additional motivation in their work. Two of our colleagues from VŠCHT, Filip Antončík and Bronislav Jurásek, also placed in other categories.

A team of our great tireless colleagues from FTOP VŠCHT Prague educated and entertained visitors to the Rock for People festival. They devoted themselves to all the wonderful arrivals and answered sometimes less and sometimes more tricky questions. As part of FTOP's participation in the festival, Professor Vladimír Kočí also spoke in the panel "Circular Economy and LCA". The participants learned about the basic principles of the circular economy and the life cycle assessment method, as well as what to watch out for in so-called greenwashing and what are the prospects for our company in terms of sustainability in the future.