MSc. Vedrana Šlipogor Milli, Ph.D. (USB Faculty of Science)
MSc. Vedrana Šlipogor, Ph.D., is a USB postdoctoral fellow of Dr. Martina Konečná, with research interests centred around evolutionary questions in behavioural ecology, ethology and comparative cognition, and particularly animal personality and its links with learning in primates (common marmosets) and subterranean rodents (naked mole-rats). Dr. Šlipogor conducted her undergraduate studies in Molecular Biology at the University of Zagreb, Croatia, interned in France and Austria, spent two field seasons in Brazil, and completed her doctoral dissertation in Biology and first postdoctoral post at the University of Vienna, before moving to the Czech Republic for her postdoctoral fellowship at USB, where she is involved in research, student supervision and teaching. For her research, Dr. Šlipogor was awarded several very competitive fellowships and grants, including L'ORÉAL-UNESCO Austria Fellowship ‘For Women in Science’.
M.Sc. Tatyana Gebauer, Ph.D. (USB Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters)
M.Sc. Tatyana Gebauer, Ph.D., is a member of the Laboratory of Controlled Reproduction and Intensive Fish Culture of the USB Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters. She pursued intensive farming of European perch in recirculating aquaculture systems during her doctoral studies. She spent a year-long internship in Germany where she devoted her time to examining the functions and processes in the immune system of the Percidae fish. During her internships in Germany, France, Poland and Finland, she got in touch with many world-renowned scientists in intensive aquaculture.
Ing. Michaela Horčičková, Ph.D. (USB Faculty of Agriculture and Technology)
Ing. Horčičková, Ph.D., works as an assistant professor at the Department of Animal Husbandry Sciences of the USB Faculty of Agriculture and Technology. As an educator, she devotes her time to courses in the physiology of farm animals, veterinary midwifery and gynaecology and parasitology. She supervises graduation theses of students in higher education studies. She focused her publication activity during her doctoral studies on parasitic infections oriented towards the biology, diversity and phylogenesis of cryptosporidia. Nowadays, she is working on monitoring diseases at cattle farms using a thermographic camera with colleagues from the faculty. She is the expert advisor under the programme of the South Bohemian entrepreneurial voucher on which she cooperates with the company HERBAVITA CZ, s.r.o.
What would you like to tell women scientists and all girls and women thinking about a career in science?
I would like to tell them that if they like the work and they find it fulfilling, they should not let themselves be discouraged by anything or anyone. They should not despair if the results of their efforts don’t show up immediately. I would also like to wish them luck in finding a workplace and colleagues. I would maybe also like to mention that a white coat may not be the most attractive piece of clothing, but the joy from meaningful work and achieving your own results should be sufficient compensation.
Mgr. Věra Suchomelová, Th.D. (USB Faculty of Theology)
works as an assistant professor at the Department of Education at the Faculty of Theology of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice. She teaches theoretical and practical courses on the psycho-spiritual needs and leisure of the elderly and gives lectures in courses of the University of the Third Age and the University for Grandparents and Grandchildren. She has long been involved in the topic of spirituality in old age and the spiritual accompaniment of the elderly. She has been the principal executor of the interdisciplinary project supported by TACR called ‘Virtual Reality in Keeping the Elderly Active‘ (VIREAS) since 2019.
Doc. PhDr. Ing. Hana Konečná, Ph.D. (USB Faculty of Health and Social Sciences)
graduated in Electrical Engineering (Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Technical University) and Psychology (Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University) in Brno. She teaches psychology at the USB Faculty of Health and Social Sciences and her main professional topic is psychosocial and ethical aspects of dealing with involuntary childlessness. She is one of two representatives of the Czech Republic in the Committee on Bioethics of the Council of Europe, a member of the Ethics Commission of the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic and the Commission for Reproductive Medicine of the Ministry of Health, an expert member of the Union of Family Lawyers, etc. She is the author of a number of books and was also the principal executor of two projects of the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic at the USB Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, namely Gamete donation in assisted reproduction: psychosocial and ethical aspects, and Surrogacy in the Czech Republic: psychosocial, legal and ethical aspects.
Doc. Ing. Eva Cudlínová,CSc. (USB Faculty of Economics)
Doc. Ing. Cudlínová, CSc., works at the USB Faculty of Economics, Department of Regional Management and Law. She is pursuing environmental and ecological economics, sustainable development, and currently primarily bioeconomy and circular economy. She was a member of the first European Bioeconomic panel. She is the vice-chair of the Czech Platform for Bioeconomy and the chair of the South Bohemian Bioeconomy Association. She has been awarded a number of international projects and authored scientific publications focused on the issues of regional development in economic and environmental contexts. As an educator, she tries to apply a pluralistic approach to economics. She has been organising bioeconomic courses at the USB Faculty of Economics for international as well as Czech students since 2016. She sees the future of the field in the PhD students that she is supervising.
Why have you chosen the path of science?
It seems to me that it was a coincidence. After graduating from the Prague University of Economics and Business, I spent 2 years in the private sphere, in a construction business, in a department of labour and wages. I was hoping that I will have a chance to get an apartment. I realised that this job doesn’t fulfil me and I decided to continue in doctoral studies at the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. At the time, I gave birth to two children and I paused my studies for 4 years for a maternity leave period. The Research Institute of Landscape Ecology, where my husband was working, moved to České Budějovice, and I found my place in science at this very institute. I worked there for around 15 years and gained valuable experience in interdisciplinary scientific cooperation with colleagues who were biologists, botanists and chemists.
Ing. Anna Maroušková (USB Faculty of Economics)
Ing. Anna Maroušková is a student in the Doctoral degree programme Economics and Management at the Department of Regional Management and Law of the Faculty of Economics of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice. She has been pursuing technological and economic aspects of environmental management and circular economy for more than 10 years. She is the executor of scientific and research projects and has authored dozens of publications that have been widely cited.
Have you encountered any difficulties in your career caused by the fact that you are a woman?
Only the natural ones like caring for young children and the delay in one’s scientific career that comes with that, but, personally, I don’t consider it a difficulty but a period during which a woman can take a break and decide what to do next.
Do you think that the position of women and their role in the world of science still needs to be highlighted nowadays?
Not at all costs. Sometimes it could be counter-productive towards the position of women as well as the quality of science.
What would you like to tell women scientists and all girls and women thinking about a career in science?
You can do more! Don’t be afraid to try it and pick a field or topic that you care about if you can.
Prof. Mgr. Ivana Kutá Smatanová, Ph.D. (USB Faculty of Science)
is the head of the Laboratory of Structural Chemistry at the USB Faculty of Science. She has dedicated over 20 years to the study of protein crystallogenesis and crystallography as well as collaboration with world-renowned scientists on development and testing of new crystallisation techniques. She became the principal investigator of numerous international projects, organised several global crystallographic conferences, and remains being actively involved in teaching and supervising students of all levels of higher education.
What would you like to tell women scientists and all girls and women thinking about a career in science?
If you want it and go after your goals or dreams, you will surely make it even if it often won’t be easy for you. I am rooting for you and wish you much courage and strength!
RNDr. Renata Ryplová, Ph.D. (USB Faculty of Education)
RNDr. Ryplová, Ph.D., works as an assistant professor specialising in the didactics of botany and the ecophysiology of plants at the Department of Botany of the USB Faculty of Education in České Budějovice. She started her career in science by doctoral studies in the field of physiology of plants at the Faculty of Science of Charles University and the Technical University of Munich. She now devotes her time primarily to applied research in teaching botany using modern methods such as research-oriented teaching or teaching using modern technologies. She is the main executor of a number of projects of which we can mention, for example, the recently completed project in cooperation with ENKI, o.p.s., Třeboň, supported by TA CR under which an education methodology on the topic of the role of vegetation in the water cycle and the distribution of solar energy in the landscape was prepared. Under a current project that has again received support from TA CR, she is working on making a digital educational platform for teaching photosynthesis. Under the international project Education for Plant Literacy (Erasmus+ Cooperative partnership), she is leading a consortium of six partners from five countries in a joint effort to make the teaching of botany more attractive and to innovate it in Europe.
MSc. Nermeen Ashraf
Nermeen Ashraf is affiliated with the Department of Experimental Plant Biology, USB Faculty of Science. She is a PhD Researcher and focuses on lanthanides toxicity in algae and plants under environmentally relevant conditions using analytical techniques. She spent 3 years in the Biology Centre CAS as a research student. Biology Centre CAS, is a public research institution founded in 2006 by the Czech Academy of Sciences. She spent an internship in Brazil, where she focused on lanthanides in plants. During her internship she established relationships with other scientists working in the same field of her interest. Before that she spent most of her time in teaching science and was affiliated with the Department of Plant Biochemistry (Pakistan), where she focused on gene manipulation techniques in plants.
