Two exceptional personalities from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of Brno University of Technology were awarded by the Minister of Education Mikuláš Bek on 19 November during a gala evening. Mathematician and teacher Miloslav Druckmüller received the award for outstanding educational activities at the university. Physical engineering graduate Michaela Hošková received the award for outstanding students and graduates.
The fact that Professor Druckmüller is an excellent teacher is confirmed, among other things, by student surveys, where he has won many times as the most popular teacher at master's level. And he is often remembered by our graduates years later. Druckmüller himself loves teaching. "Everyone has to find their own way to teach well. I think the most important thing is to have good students, and I am lucky to have such students. Secondly, one must enjoy teaching, not see it as a necessary evil that distracts one from scientific work. On the contrary, if I didn't enjoy teaching, I'd be retired by now. But I still enjoy it, and I would even say that when I am tired, teaching gets me back on my feet. You also have to stay yourself and do it the way you like it. I couldn't lecture if I had papers in my hand or the text of a lecture in front of me. To this day, I still lecture only with chalk in my hand," says the popular mathematician. We talked about why he feels he is an educator in the first place and why mathematics is an amazing adventure here.
Michaela Hošková came all the way from Sweden to collect the prize from the Minister of Education, where she had gone for her doctorate after graduating in physics at the FSI. The local Chalmers University of Technology selected her as one of two successful candidates for the prestigious "Excellence PhD Position" in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology. However, her path to success was by no means straightforward; as she says, science is all about overcoming obstacles. Her work involves research into the Casimir force, which is a direct measurable manifestation of quantum physics. The full interview with Michaela Hošková can be found here.
Congratulations to both winners!