This year’s annual seminar, organized by the Institute of Environmental Technology, was attended by 57 scientists from five Polish, one French, and three Czech universities, as well as researchers from two institutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
After the opening remarks by the Director of IET, Prof. Lucie Obalová, the scientific program began. The first scientific session, chaired by Prof. David Kubička from the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, was opened by Prof. Janusz Ryczkowski from Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin with a lecture titled Green, blue, grey or white hydrogen. During the morning sessions, the second of which was chaired by Prof. Agnieszka Ruppert from the Lodz University of Technology, twelve highly interesting presentations were delivered, addressing current topics in catalysis and photocatalysis. The afternoon sessions were chaired by Prof. Nicolas Keller from the University of Strasbourg and Prof. Janusz Ryczkowski.
“We are very pleased that the CzePoCat seminar has become a tradition, enabling us to regularly meet our colleagues and exchange not only scientific knowledge,” says Prof. Kamila Kočí, the main organizer of the seminar. She adds that these meetings are important for both professors and students. “Presenting at international conferences is an essential experience. At a seminar like CzePoCat, the atmosphere is friendly, and students have the opportunity to speak and present their topics to a smaller audience. At the same time, they can learn what other institutions are working on and subsequently, for example, come for an internship or use instrumentation that is not available at their home institution.”
The event is also positively (and humorously) evaluated by Prof. Janusz Ryczkowski, who concluded his session after acknowledging all speakers with the words: “I would like to thank Lucie and Kamila and, of course, all their colleagues who contributed to preparing this year’s seminar, which is already the twelfth in the series. It is an honor for us to be here again. The first seminar was held only between VSB-TUO and the Jagiellonian University, but fortunately they later remembered that there are other important institutions in Poland as well.”
This year’s seminar was financially supported by Metrohm, the Czech Chemical Society, and the project Large Research Infrastructure ENREGAT (No. LM2023056).
Text: Tereza Bílková
Photo: Tomáš Sláma