Jiří Janoš Receives the Jean-Marie Lehn Award

At the end of June, the French Embassy Scientific Awards were presented during a ceremonial event held at the Buquoy Palace in Prague. The annual awards recognize outstanding PhD students and recent graduates from Czech universities. This year, Jiří Janoš, a doctoral student at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering, University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, received second prize in the Chemistry category (Jean-Marie Lehn Award) for his work Quantum Chemistry at Ab Initio Level.

Jiří Janoš is completing his PhD in the Laboratory of Theoretical Photodynamics led by Professor Petr Slavíček at the Department of Physical Chemistry. A substantial part of the awarded research was carried out during a one-year research stay at the University of Bristol in collaboration with Professor Basile Curchod.

His research focuses on the development of quantum chemical methods for describing photochemical reactions of molecules in excited states on femtosecond and attosecond timescales. By combining methodological advances in theoretical chemistry with practical applications, his work improves simulations of ultrafast molecular dynamics, incorporates laser-pulse effects into computational models, and supports the interpretation of state-of-the-art spectroscopic experiments. These methods have been applied to studies of bilirubin phototherapy, light-triggered release of biologically active compounds from porphyrin systems, and photochemical processes relevant to atmospheric chemistry and ozone depletion.

This year's French Embassy Scientific Awards attracted a record number of applicants, with more than one hundred PhD students and young researchers competing across seven scientific disciplines.

We warmly congratulate Jiří Janoš on this prestigious achievement and wish him every success in his future scientific career.