On 5 November 2026, Jan Pleva of the Biophysics Group at the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, successfully defended his dissertation, passed his state examination and earned his Ph.D.
His dissertation, Carbon Dioxide Assimilation and the Distribution of Assimilates in Primary and Secondary Plant Metabolism under Different Environmental Conditions, was supervised by Mgr. Daniel Vrábl, Ph.D. In his research, Jan examined how light and temperature together influence how plants allocate the carbon they fix through photosynthesis to growth, storage and defence. For this purpose, he used original gradient experimental designs, which enabled the characterization of plant responses across a broad and continuous range of irradiance and temperature. This made it possible to distinguish the individual effects of these factors from their interactions and to identify nonlinear response patterns and threshold regions.
Alongside his research, Jan is an active member of the faculty community. He serves on the Study Programme Board and the Academic Senate and has represented the Department of Physics at public outreach events on numerous occasions.
Dissertation reviewers
- prof. Ing. Jiří Šantrůček, CSc. — Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice
- doc. Mgr. Otmar Urban, Ph.D. — Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CzechGlobe)
Dissertation defence committee
- doc. Mgr. Michal Štroch, Ph.D. — Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava
- prof. RNDr. Jana Albrechtová, Ph.D. — Faculty of Science, Charles University
- doc. Mgr. Andrej Pavlovič, Ph.D. — Faculty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc
- prof. RNDr. Martin Fellner, Ph.D. — Faculty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc
Congratulations, Jan! We wish you every success in your future research.
