Dr. Štěpán Timr Receives Prestigious Otto Wichterle Award

Congratulations to Dr. Štěpán Timr from the Department of Computational Chemistry, who received the prestigious Otto Wichterle Award on Thursday, June 13, 2024. This award, established in 2002, includes a financial prize of 330,000 CZK distributed over three years. So far, it has been awarded to 520 laureates.

Štěpán Timr focuses on computer simulations of proteins and other biomolecules. He is interested in how cellular metabolic processes work and how they are regulated. His research lies at the intersection of biology, chemistry, physics, and informatics. He leads a group that focuses on glycolytic pathway enzymes, which play a crucial role in metabolic processes as they form the starting point for many other cellular pathways. He aims to connect a detailed description of individual molecules with an overall model of the given metabolic pathway.

He has developed a set of tools for analyzing molecular simulations. Among other achievements, he described how molecular clustering affects protein stability. He also contributed to the study of the relationship between protein movements and cell death caused by heat. He collaborates closely with three experimental groups in the USA and Germany, and two years ago, he received the Lumina Quaeruntur Award from the Czech Academy of Sciences to develop his team.

The awards were given in three main scientific areas: the field of physical sciences, the field of life sciences and chemical sciences, and finally, the field of humanities and social sciences. The diplomas were presented to the laureates by the vice-presidents of the mentioned scientific areas, Ilona Müllerová, Zdeněk Havlas, and Ondřej Beránek.

"Talented young scientists need stronger support at the start of their scientific careers. Many of those who received the Wichterle Award from the Academy of Sciences ten to twelve years ago are now leaders in their field. Today's laureates are the future of Czech science," said Eva Zažímalová, President of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

We congratulate our colleague on receiving this award and wish him many more successes!