Beyond the horizon and for mutual understanding: the 2nd Conference of Doctoral Students of the University of South Bohemia

Beyond the horizon and for mutual understanding: the 2nd Conference of Doctoral Students of the University of South Bohemia

On 7–8 December 2022, the second year of the University-wide conference of PhD students of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice took place. Once again, its essence was based on three fundamental pillars:

• The need to strengthen the social integration of doctoral students beyond disciplines and faculties
• The unity of science and mutual respect of scientists of all disciplines as a basis for its successful development
• The need for an interdisciplinary approach to address a range of current societal challenges

The aim of the conference was, among other things, to emphasise the values corresponding to these pillars from the very beginning of a scientific career. The conference, which was held in English, was actively attended by 38 PhD students from all faculties, 33 of whom presented their work in the form of a lecture and 5 through posters. Compared to last year, there were two programme innovations: students managed their own sessions (introducing papers and speakers and managing the subsequent discussions) and the conference also included an invited paper by the USB Academic Library (H. Vorlová, F. Vorel) on Open Access publishing, including issues related to predatory journals.

The two-day conference was held in a very pleasant and informal atmosphere. The programme was deliberately not arranged thematically, but with the aim of the conference in mind, so that there was a varied mix of presentations by students from different faculties in the different sessions. Thus, the papers ranged from the issues of diversity of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil or the importance of soil shading, to the cultural competencies of Czech and Slovak nurses or philosophical issues of nature and naturalness, to integrated pest and infection management in aquaponics or the impact of drugs and their degradation products in wastewater on aquatic organisms. Students thus had an extraordinary opportunity to glimpse their thematic diversity and to learn about the different directions of current science at USB.

The two-day conference concluded with a social evening where, among other things, the four best presentations and one best poster were awarded. These awards were largely decided by the students themselves through their votes. It was then great to see the enthusiasm and respect of the attendees when their award-winning colleagues were announced. This year, the awarded students, who received small gifts and a cash prize, were:

• Cristian Villena (Faculty of Science)
• Folorunso Ewumi Azeez (Faculty of Fisheries and Water Protection)
• Koid Qian Qun (Faculty of Science)
• Ghorbani Mohammad (Faculty of Agriculture and Technology)
• Martina Poncarová (Faculty of Science, best poster)

In addition, five Czech participants were recognised by the Vice-Rector for Research. As a prize, they received a one-year subscription to the journal Vesmír, provided free of charge by the editors of this journal, for which we are very grateful. The editors of Vesmír also provided the conference participants with free copies of this excellent Czech science magazine. The awardees were:

• Michal Pech (Faculty of Fisheries and Water Protection)
• Veronika Jodlová (Faculty of Arts)
• Jaroslav Neumann (Faculty of Agriculture and Technology)
• Inka Kratochvílová (Faculty of Health and Social Sciences)
• Petra Hořejšová (Faculty of Education)

I would like to thank all the PhD students for their participation and the positive atmosphere they created with their presence and attitude, and the Science and Research Office of the USB Rectorate for their invaluable help in the preparation and implementation of the conference. We are planning the next edition of this conference for 2023 and we are already looking forward to a large participation of students and a variety of beautiful topics.

Luděk Berec
Vice-Rector for Research