The Czech Academy of Sciences has honoured nine scientists at a ceremony in Prague: three received the Praemium Academiae, worth up to CZK 30 million over six years, and six received Lumina Quaeruntur fellowships, worth up to CZK 4 million a year for up to five years. With this edition, the two programmes have passed 50 laureates.
Praemium Academiae projects include new cold spray methods for creating metal layers, including pure tungsten for nuclear energy, a study of housing inequality in Europe and research into why some fish live so briefly, using the killifish as a model.
The Lumina Quaeruntur fellowships will support work on dating organic residues in archaeological finds, how microplastics enter and affect plants, stable carbon compounds to replace iridium in OLED displays, how cells choose where to start copying DNA, the origins of complex technologies and how rewilding changes attitudes towards death in nature.
