Mgr. Matouš Glanc, Ph.D.

director of Czexpats in Science

Originally a molecular biologist: before becoming the director of Czexpats in Science, he studied the mechanisms of plant cell polarization and their influence on plant growth and development. He has spent almost his entire research career abroad: he did his PhD in Prof. Jiri Friml’s lab at ISTA in Austria, followed by four years as an EMBO and MSCA research fellow at VIB Ghent in Belgium.

Ing. Anna Mittnerová

International Staff Mobility Coordinator, UCT Prague

Despite having a degree in chemistry, Anna Mittnerová has excelled as an experienced research administrator. During her tenure at UCT Prague, she managed numerous projects within the Department of Research and Development. Currently, she serves at the Department of Foreign Affairs, where she coordinates academic mobility. Additionally, she fulfills the role of HR Award administrator.

Ing. Barbora Špačková, Ph.D.

group leader, Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague 

Barbora Špačková studied physical engineering at the Institute of Photonics and Electronics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, where she received her Ph.D degree. In her research, she focuses on photonics and its applications in biotechnology.

During a postdoctoral stay at the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, she developed a unique optical microscopy technique - Nanofluidic Scattering Microscopy (NSM) - that enables direct and label-free imaging of individual biomolecules. She is also a co-founder of the Swedish spin-off company Envue that focuses on the commercialization of NSM in the fields of biology, medicine or pharmacology.

In 2022, she returned to the Czech Republic, where she is establishing a research group at the Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

Mgr. Jakub Záhora, Ph.D.

researcher, Peace Research Center Prague and Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University

Jakub Záhora is a researcher at Peace Research Center Prague and at the UNCE VITRI Center at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University. He was previously a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Germany, and held visiting positions at the University of Copenhagen, New York University, Ben Gurion University and Hebrew University. Záhora's  academic interests revolve around critical approaches to politics and security with empirical focus on Israel/Palestine. 

RNDr. Jiří Zahradník, Ph.D.

group leader, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, BIOCEV

The academic career of Jiří Zahradník started in 2009 when he opened the door of the Institute of Microbiology for the first time as an undergraduate student. He learned classical microbiology and molecular biology. Five years later, he joined a lab of Biomolecular recognition at the Institute of Biotechnology, where he did his Ph.D. From microbiology, he diverged to structural biology and biophysics. Four years later, in 2018, he started as a postdoc in the Protein-protein interaction lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. He studied the evolution of specificity in the cellular environment until the pandemic started. Then he stopped his work and initiated a short-term project about SARS-CoV-2. The project was not as short as he anticipated and still continues. At the beginning of 2023, he opened a new lab at the First Faculty of Medicine in BIOCEV that combines advanced protein engineering with host-pathogen interaction research.