Professor Hájek is one of the most important Czech mathematicians. After graduating from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University (1991), he obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Alberta in Edmonton (1995) and his scientific title DrSc. at the Czech Academy of Sciences (2001). He has worked at a number of prestigious foreign institutions, including in Canada, the USA, France, and Spain. From 2000 to 2014, he worked at the Institute of Mathematics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and since 2014 he has been a professor at the Department of Mathematics of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague.
The award-winning researcher has achieved significant results in the field of Banach space theory and nonlinear functional analysis, including the study of smoothness of norms in Banach spaces, renormalization, bi-orthogonal systems, and smooth norm approximations. In his work, he also draws on his deep knowledge of topology, combinatorics, and set theory. He has published around a hundred articles in leading international journals, mostly addressing fundamental and long-standing problems (most recently, for example, K. John's 40-year-old problem on the existence of a Markushvili basis on weakly compactly generated spaces). He often publishes with leading international experts. He is the co-author of five important monographs, of which "Functional Analysis and Infinite Dimensional Topology, Springer Verlag, 2001" is a recognized world textbook (another co-author is Doc. Petr Habala, also from the Department of Mathematics at FEE CTU).
Through his professional activities, Petr Hájek has represented Czech mathematics at many prestigious conferences around the world, for example in Waterloo, London, Austin, Texas, the Fields Institute in Toronto, Oberwolfach, and Madrid. His doctoral students work at universities around the world and have also received a number of international awards.
"Professor Petr Hájek is a prominent figure in a strong scientific group in the field of mathematical analysis at the Department of Mathematics, FEL CTU. He has contributed significantly to its publishing activities, international recognition, the implementation of grants and projects, and the education of doctoral students. His extraordinary talent and erudition are key to the further development of the department," said Professor Jan Hamhalter, head of the Department of Mathematics at CTU's Faculty of Electrical Engineering.
"I congratulate Professor Hájek on his well-deserved award. His scientific contributions and many years of teaching have significantly strengthened the prestige of our faculty and the entire university," said Petr Páta, Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Prof. Petr Páta, who appreciates Prof. Hájek's extraordinary ability to inspire others and contribute to the education of a new generation of scientists.
photo: Jana Plavec, Czech Academy of Sciences
