"It is important to connect seemingly incompatible and thus look for new ways of research, "says Kamil Musílek involved in the elite international program.

"Being chosen to participate in the programme is a success for me and I consider the participation as an appreciation of my work so far," says Kamil Musílek at the beginning.

Participants are invited on the basis of their scientific results, innovative thinking and experience in leading research projects. There is a respectable number of such projects in Kamil Musilek´s career: he has become a solver or co-solver of more than 10 national and 4 international projects. He is also the first Czech to hold the Young Medicinal Chemist in Academia Award from the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry.

In the selection process of the programme a great emphasis is placed on individual researchers´ diversity of their research focus. Therefore, the process is attended by doctors, economists, engineers, historians or archaeologists. "The greatest benefit can be found in making contacts with other scientist; there is never enough of them in the scientific environment," explains Kamil Musílek.

Scientific directions of individual participants may seem to be incompatible, but the opposite is true: "Interdisciplinarity is an important element of contemporary science and helps combine individual disciplines and develop them. Therefore, it is appropriate to connect seemingly incompatible and look for ways of connecting within both natural sciences and the humanities. So, for example, knowledge in laser physics can be applied to living tissues, or you can motivate socially excluded groups of people to design a space station. ”

During the programme the participants attended lectures on the topic of scientific leadership, together they also prepared draft projects and informed one another on the research they are currently working on. "Thanks to this programme, we are preparing a new research project with several colleagues from various branches and countries. It will be focused on anti-tumor theranostics (i.e. therapy and diagnostics) and nanoparticles, " describes Kamil Musílek practical benefits of the entire program.

The inception of the European Crucible programme is partially a response to Brexit and an effort to maintain and develop contacts among scientists after the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU.

 

prof. PharmDr. Kamil Musílek, Ph.D.

Kamil Musílek graduated from the Faculty of Pharmacy of Charles University in Hradec Králové where he also completed his doctoral studies in the field of Pharmaceutical Chemistry (Ph.D. 2007, PharmDr. 2008) and then habilitated in 2012. He works at the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Hradec Králové as its head. In addition, he works at Biomedical Research Centre at the University Hospital Hradec Králové. Since March 2019 he has also held the position of Vice-Dean for International Affairs for the Faculty of Science.

So far, he has published 14 chapters in a monograph, authored 5 patents and more than 190 original articles in the Web of Knowledge (H-index = 32). Among other things, in June 2019 he became the first Czech to receive the EFMC Prize for a Young Medicinal Chemist in Academia 2019 (2nd-3rd place).

In his free time Kamil Musílek enjoys travelling and recreational sports.