The Werner von Siemens Prizes were awarded to the best students, young scientists and teachers

- 496 applications, 29% of applications from women 
- Most applications in chemistry - 20%, physics - 16% and biology - 8%
- Highest number of 6 awards for CTU in Prague
- 16.4 million CZK distributed among the winners since the beginning of the competition

Czech Siemens awarded the Werner von Siemens Prizes 2023 to the best students, young scientists and teachers. The winning entries from the fields of engineering and science were selected by expert juries in the following categories: best basic research result, best thesis, best dissertation and best teacher. Along with the students, the supervisors and mentors of their theses also receive a prize. Awards were given for excellence in female research, for overcoming obstacles to study and for graduate theses on Industry 4.0 and Smart Infrastructure and Energy.   

The expert juries chose from 496 applications, 20 winners were awarded one million crowns. Women accounted for 29% of the total number of entries and 25% of the awardees. The first place in the number of awards went to the Czech Technical University in Prague (6 awardees), followed by the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (5 awardees) and the Brno University of Technology (3 awardees), Palacký University in Olomouc and Masaryk University (2 awardees each), Charles University and the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice (1 awardee each). Since the beginning of the competition, CZK 16.4 million has been distributed among the winners. 

"In the twenty-sixth year of the competition we have awarded quite extraordinary works and personalities," said Eduard Palíšek, CEO of Siemens Czech Republic. "It's not just about outstanding workmanship, but above all about the themes of the winning entries, which focus on pressing problems for humanity: how to deal with multi-drug resistant bacteria, how to better understand the circadian rhythms that affect everyone's life and mental health, or how to use drone groups to deal with crisis situations." Palíšek explained. "The next edition of the competition clearly showed that students, as well as the teachers of our universities, are achieving results comparable to the world's best," he added.  

The Werner von Siemens Prize for the most significant result of basic research was awarded to a team led by Tomáš Slanina, Ph.D. from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the CAS for their work entitled (Anti)Aromaticity of excited states explains why azulene violates the Kash rule. Azulene has been provoking the curiosity of chemists for many years, and the winning team's paper described why azulene violates the so-called Kash rule, according to which molecules emit light only from the lowest, first excited state. Azulene, on the other hand, emits light only from the higher, second excited state. This hypothesis was further confirmed experimentally by Lucie Ludvíková using ultrafast transient spectroscopy.   

In the category of the best dissertation, the winner was RNDr. Kateřina Snopková, Ph.D. from the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University in Brno for her thesis entitled Genomics of bacteriocinogenic gammaproteobacteria and analysis of newly described bacteriocins. Every year, five million patients die worldwide from diseases related to multidrug-resistant bacteria, and this number is likely to double by 2050. Bacteriocins are among the promising antimicrobials that Kateřina Snopková has focused on. She investigated the interactions of environmental strains of enterobacteria and pseudomonads native to Antarctica, characterised the detected bacteriocins at the molecular level and determined their inhibitory potential against clinical pathogens. 
 

The Werner von Siemens Prize for the best diploma thesis was awarded to Mgr. Dominik Vašinka from the Faculty of Science of Palacký University in Olomouc for his thesis entitled Application of Machine Learning in Quantum Measurement. Dominik Vašinka's original contribution to the topic is that he introduced a new optimization technique that uses advanced machine learning methods. In doing so, he focused on the specific problem of accurately manipulating the direction of light oscillation at the single photon level. 

Prof. Miloslav Druckmüller, PhD, CSc., from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Brno University of Technology, received the Werner von Siemens Prize for 2023 as the best teacher. His main area of scientific and pedagogical interest is numerical methods of image and signal analysis. His way of teaching is characterized by a dialogue with students and an attempt to involve them in the solution of a given problem during the lecture. He has long been rated by students as one of the best teachers in the faculty and in the whole school. Another socially significant activity of Prof. Druckmüller is his popular science lectures, of which he has given hundreds, both in the Czech Republic and abroad.  
 

The award for excellence in women's scientific work and the Werner von Siemens Prize for second place in the category Best Thesis went to Ing. Ekaterina Yaroslavtseva from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague for her thesis entitled New algorithm for coupling 3D energy deposits based on graph neural networks for the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Ekaterina Yaroslavtseva's thesis deals with the application of artificial intelligence in particle physics research. The award-winning student developed an artificial intelligence model that scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) use to analyse particle interactions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). 

The award for overcoming obstacles in studying, awarded as part of the Werner von Siemens Prize, went to Ing. Veronika Kamenská of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication Technologies of Brno University of Technology. Veronika Kamenská suffers from a congenital, gradually worsening visual impairment, which limits her in reading ordinary text and working with microscopic technology, in addition to specific learning disabilities. In addition, she developed a psychiatric disorder during adolescence, manifesting itself in depression and anxiety. Despite these obstacles, she successfully completed her engineering studies in the Biomedical Engineering and Bioinformatics program at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication Technology, where she defended her master's thesis entitled Using passwordless authentication to identify students in the classroom. She is currently continuing her studies in the first year of advanced engineering studies at the Faculty of Business, and at the same time she is a student of the PhD programme Simulation in Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University. Veronika Kamenská is also the co-author of the Nepanikař app, which helps people struggling with anxiety, depression and other psychological problems.

The Werner von Siemens Prize for the best graduate thesis on Industry 4.0 was awarded to Ing. Erik Derner, Ph.D., from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague for his dissertation entitled Efficient Methods for Model Learning and Control in Robotics. The prize for the best graduate thesis on Smart Infrastructure and Energy was awarded to Ing. Marek Kollmann, from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of Technology, for his master thesis entitled Planning heat and electricity production in a waste-to-energy plant using machine learning. 
 
In addition, the jury awarded two prizes: the honorable mention for the best diploma thesis on Industry 4.0 for an innovative approach to the connection between Industry 4.0 and biomedicine went to Ing. Věra Šramhauserová from the Faculty of Mechatronics, Informatics and Interdisciplinary Studies of the Technical University of Liberec for her thesis Prototype IoT communication device for digitalization in healthcare. The jury's recognition for the excellent quality of female scientific work was awarded to RNDr. Kateřina Snopková, Ph.D. from the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University in Brno. 

About the Werner von Siemens Prize 
The Werner von Siemens Prize has been organised for 26 years by Siemens in partnership with prominent representatives of universities and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, who are also the guarantors of the individual categories and participate in the evaluation of the best works. This year, 60 experts, representatives of academia and non-profit organisations sat on the independent juries. In terms of its scope, the amount of financial rewards and its history, the Werner von Siemens Prize is one of the most important independent initiatives of this kind in the Czech Republic. 

The 26th edition of the awards was held under the auspices of Prime Minister Petr Fiala, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Minister of Science Research and Innovation. The partners of the competition are Siemens Mobility s.r.o., Siemens Advanta and Zátiší Group. 

List of award winners by category:

Presidents of the juries: 

Photos, winners' medallions and other documents for download: www.siemenspress.cz 

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Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a technology company focused on industry, infrastructure, transport and healthcare. From resource-efficient factories, resilient supply chains and smarter buildings and energy networks to cleaner, more convenient transport and advanced healthcare, Siemens creates purposeful technologies that deliver real value to customers. By connecting the real and digital worlds, Siemens is enabling its customers to transform their industries and markets, helping them to transform the daily lives of billions of people. Siemens also holds a majority stake in Siemens Healthineers, a publicly traded company that is the world's leading provider of healthcare technology, shaping the future of healthcare. In fiscal year 2023, which ended September 30, 2023, the Siemens Group generated worldwide revenues of €77.8 billion and net income of €8.5 billion. As of September 30, 2023, the company had approximately 320,000 employees worldwide. Further information is available at www.siemens.com.

Siemens Czech Republic is one of the largest technology companies in the Czech Republic and has been an integral part of the Czech industry for more than 130 years, guaranteeing innovative and sustainable technologies. With more than 10.5 thousand employees, it is one of the largest employers in the Czech Republic. The Siemens portfolio covers solutions for industry, distributed energy systems, public infrastructure and building technology. The separately managed companies Siemens Healthineers and Siemens Mobility and Innomotics are active in the energy, healthcare technology, rail transport and drive markets. Siemens Czech Republic is a pioneer in industrial digitalization and automation and smart infrastructure, bringing comprehensive digital products and services to customers. Read more: http://www.siemens.cz