On 22nd and 24th February 2023, the Department of Physics of the Faculty of Science of the University of Ostrava held the defence of the dissertation theses of students Mgr. Ondřej Dlouhý and Mgr. Adriana Volná.
Thesis of Mgr. Dlouhý was titled „Structural and functional plasticity of thylakoid membranes. Role of lipid polymorphism“, and it was supervised by professor emeritus Dr. Győző Garab, DSc. (Institute of Plant Biology, Biological Research Centre, Szeged, Hungary; Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, Czech Republic) and was reviewed by Eric Maréchal, Ph.D. (Laboratoire de Physiologie Cellulaire Vegetale, Grenoble, France) and Dr hab. Dariusz Latowski (Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland). The board consisted of Prof. dr hab. Kazimierz Strzałka (Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland), Mgr. Michal Štroch, Ph.D. (University of Ostrava), prof. RNDr. Ondřej Prášil, Ph.D. (Lab Photosynth Czech Academy of Sciences University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic) and prof. RNDr. Petr Ilík, Ph.D. (Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic). This thesis was evaluated very positively by the supervisor and both reviewers. The questions posed by reviewers, committee and guests led into an interesting and fruitful discussion, which may give a foundation to a cooperation on a joint project. The course of the defence was described by the candidate himself as follows: “It was longer than I expected it to be (laughs)…. However, it was a satisfactory climax of my four-and-a-half-year study, so I thank everyone involved and I look forward to any future research collaboration.”
Thesis of Mgr. Volná was titled “Influence of climatic factors on the expression of genes involved in the production of phenolic compounds and antioxidant protection of plants” and the commission consisted of Ing. Karel Klem, Ph.D. (Institute of Global Change Research of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v. v. i.), doc. M.Sc. Otmar Urban, Ph.D. (Institute of Global Change Research of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v. v. i.), prof. RNDr. Jana Albrechtová, Ph.D. (Department of Experimental Plant Biology, Faculty of Science, Charles University), Mgr. Michal Štroch, Ph.D. (University of Ostrava). During evaluation, supervisor doc. RNDr. Vladimír Špunda, CSc. (Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava) critically underlined strengths and weaknesses of the candidate and in his assessment he also emphasized the student’s work outside the scope of the thesis assignment. The opinion of distinguished professor Ivan Couée (University of Rennes, France), was focused not only on the presented data but also on the relevance of the hypotheses formulated by the candidate in her thesis and evaluated them as worthy of further research. The candidate herself remembers the defence as follows: “I have to say that I was incredibly nervous a few days before (laughter). But the defence itself pleasantly surprised me – the supervisor, the opponent, and the members of the committee were very nice and gave me a lot of ideas for the next research and cooperation, for which I sincerely thank them all”.
Overall, both doctoral candidates successfully defended their theses and were awarded with the title PhD. In addition to the defences themselves, there was also space for debates on solved projects with colleagues from other scientific institutions and for strengthening existing collaborations. Subsequent celebrations were just an “icing on the cake” of their almost five-year study. We congratulate both newly minted doctors and wish them much success in their further scientific endeavors 🙂
