Petra Sedova Received a Grant Supporting Women-Scientists

In December, Dr. Petra Šedová of our Cerebrovascular Research Team received the Martina Roesel Memorial Grant for 2018.

It is a grant to women-scientists seeking to combine quality care for their preschool children with their research career. The annual grant of 120,000 CZK is designed to help finance babysitting and other neds of working mothers. The grant is awarded by the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. “I was personally moved this idea because, as well as the grant providers, I believe that the women who care for children have tremendous potential, but they need support from the family, the environment and society as a whole,” commented Petra Šedová on the grant.

Petra Sedova is a member of the Cerebrovascular Research Team led by Professor Robert Mikulík and focuses on research into new therapeutic methods for stroke.

Martina Roeselova Endowment Fund aims to support male and female scientists working in the field of natural sciences who are trying to combine competitive science with quality care for preschool children. To this end, the Fund provides selected researchers with a finnacial grant called the Martina Roeselova Memorial Prize, commemorating the prematurely deceased scientist who, during a short but excellent scientific career, managed to raise three children and actively promote the improvement of conditions for young scientist-parents. Martina Roeselova, who was not only an internationally acclaimed scientist but also a popular lecturer, trainer and colleague, died in February 2015 of cancer aged just under 50.

The award of the grant may be requested exclusively by individuals, namely Ph.D. students and postdoctoral students who take care of a preschool child while actively undertaking scientific work in the field of natural sciences at a university or non-university research centre in the Czech Republic.

Martina Roeselova was a Czech scientist working in the field of physical chemistry. In 1990 she received the title „Doctor of Natural Sciences“ at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the Charles University in Prague in the field of biophysics and chemical physics. This was followed by PhD degree in the field of biophysical chemistry, chemical and macromolecular physics from the Jaroslav Hekrovsky´s Institute of Physical Chemistry at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University under the leadership of Professor Pavel Jungwirth. She successfully defended her doctoral thesis in 2003. She then spent one year as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of California Irvine and a year later joined the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Academy of Sciences (ÚOCHB), where she worked until her death. During her prolific scientific career she raised three children with the support of her husband Marek. In addition, she supported young researchers and tried to create the environment in the academic setting where one could successfully combine family life and scientific work – http://www.nfmr.cz/

CONGRATULATIONS!