The Biophysics team belongs to one of the scientific research groups of the Department of Physics at the Faculty of Science of the University of Ostrava and has been focused on plant biophysics and photosynthesis since the formation of the Biophysics study programme in Ostrava.
Our primary scientific focus is the study of the impact of abiotic environmental factors (especially the intensity and spectral composition of radiation, air temperature and CO2 concentration) on the assimilation apparatus of higher plants. We use modern (bio)physical and biochemical methods (mainly optical spectroscopy, high-pressure liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, etc.) to understand the processes occurring in plants at the molecular level.
Many members of the Biophysics group are graduates of the Biophysics and Chemical Physics study programme, which was first opened at the bachelor’s level at the University of Ostrava in 1991 (the year of the OU foundation) under the patronage of the head of the Department of Physics, RNDr. Ladislav Sklenák, CSc. In the academic year 2002/2003, the study was extended to include a master’s degree and in 2010/2011 also a doctoral degree programme. At the beginning of Biophysics at the OU was also the current head of the Department of Physics, a graduate of Biophysics at the Faculty of Science of the Palacký University in Olomouc, doc. RNDr. Vladimír Špunda CSc., who significantly contributed to the formation and long-term functioning of the Biophysics research group (currently including 8 academic staff, two researchers and two Ph.D. students (see section Our team).
We have been able to finance our research for a long time thanks to a number of grants (Ministry of Education and Science, GAČR, etc.), we cooperate with Czech and foreign research institutes and publish the results of our scientific work in renowned journals (see section Research).
