Anesthesiologist Hana Harazim from the MUNI Faculty of Medicine won the 13th Science Slam dedicated to female researchers, which symbolically took place on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. Simona Fialová from the FME Energy Institute was one of the scientists who let the audience see under the cover of her research.

The Science Slam is a competition in which scientists deliver engaging and entertaining presentations about the topics they work on and are excited about. It gives them a unique opportunity to let the audience have a sneak peek at their current research.

The scientists are put into the role of entertainers and the audience becomes their jury. On the stage of the packed Scala University Cinema, six women scientists from Masaryk University (MU), the Brno University of Technology (BUT) and Mendel University (MENDELU) took turns with their performances. The event was hosted by Petr Holík. All were applauded, as was Markéta Brabcová from the Centre for Gender & Science, who delivered a non-competitive presentation on how gender issues are reflected in the context of research, development and innovation.

Simona Fialová from the BUT Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, who named her presentation “Hydrophobia in Practice (to stick or not to stick)”, bet on a strong acting component. Using specific examples of the water-measurer bugs moving on water and water-repelling surfaces, she introduced the audience to the principles of hydrophobia and hydrophilia.