Fulbright Reality Czech

Lenka Slavíková is an Associate  Professor of Public Economics at the Faculty of Social and Economic Studies of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, North Bohemia. She has just finished her 9-month stay at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst as a senior research Fulbright-Masaryk grantee. Passionate about the environment, Lenka focuses her research on the role of landowners in adopting flood and drought risk mitigation measures on their land. As Lenka reflects at the end of her stay in the U.S., one of the greatest challenges of her international experience was the same thing that originally sparked the idea to submit her Fulbright application - the integration of her three sons, ages 7, 10, and 12, into a foreign language environment.  The idea to experience life in a foreign country came to us about three years ago. We wanted to expose our three kids to a foreign language and environment. To make it happen, there had to be, of course, eligibility for fu...

Muriel Unseth is an English Teaching Assistant, a literature and poetry enthusiast and a marathon runner. Since September 2021, she has been teaching English at Gymnázium Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, in a town of 16 000, located in the Beskydy Mountains. From the main square in Rožnov, one can take a well-marked 6-mile trail or run to the top of the mountain Radhošť, 1129 meters or 3704 feet above sea level. Even though Muriel was attracted to the Czech Republic mostly because of the country’s excellence in literature and poetry, throughout her grant period, she has discovered another less-known passion shared by many members of her community and that is running, especially trail-running in the countryside. Muriel did not have to wait for this revelation too long, as her mentor Kateřina invited her to see the movie “Zátopek” during Muriel’s first week in the Czech Republic. The story sparked an interest in discovering more about the life and heritage of this exceptional Czechoslovak athlete w...

Ondřej Novák působí jako výzkumný pracovník na Katedře jaderných reaktorů na Fakultě jaderné a fyzikálně inženýrské na ČVUT v Praze. V rozhovoru prozrazuje, že jádro ho přitahovalo už na gymnáziu: "...iracionálně se mi líbily jaderné elektrárny... zpětně viděno se mi na tom asi moc líbilo to spojení jaderné fyziky se špičkovou technikou, strojařinou a energetikou." V akademickém roce 2018/2019 Ondřej vyjel na šest měsíců jako stipendista Fulbrightova programu na Department of Nuclear Reactors na University of Tennessee ve městě Knoxville. Dnes kromě výzkumu také učí základy atomové fyziky, vede na reaktoru kurzy pro zahraniční studenty a pevně říká, že výběr mezi obnovitelnými zdroji a jádrem je špatně formulovanou otázkou. Do budoucna musíme spíš počítat s jejich spoluprací: "Ideální energetika, třeba pro Českou republiku, je založená na kombinaci jádra a obnovitelných zdrojů energie."  S Ondřejem Novákem hovořil Ladislav Loukota ze stránky  Vědátor . Rozhovor je o...