An International Advisory Board (IAB) was established as the Rector's advisory body, namely for defining and assessing the main directions of the scientific and educational activities of UCT Prague, research and educational programmes, social role of the school, its international position, system of funding and evaluation methods.
Members of the Board
Prof. Marcello Cabibbo
Prof. Marcello Cabibbo is full Professor of Metallurgy with the department of mechanical engineering and mathematics (DIISM) at the Marche Polytechnic University in Ancona. Prof. Marcello Cabibbo has taken a physics degree at the Alma Mater University of Bologna in 1996 and obtained his doctoral degree in Materials Engineering at the the Università di Roma Tor Vergata in 2000. He has been research scientist with the DIISM of the UPM in 2001-2007.
Marcello Cabibbo’s primary research activity focuses on the physical metallurgy and mechanical characterization studies of metallic materials.
He was assigned to be Erasmus local responsible for undergraduate student exchange mobility, member of the local Ph.D. school in Mechanical Engineering in 2018 and since 2019 Counsellor of the Italian Ministry for University and Research.
Prof. Cabbibo is member of the European Microscopy Society, Italian Society of the Microscopy Sciences and Physics Metallurgy of the Italian Metallurgy Association in Milano.
He is teaching Metallurgy, Non-ferrous metallic materials, Laboratory of Metallurgy, Materials selection criteria for mechanical engineering, Additive manufacturing and coating techniques in modern metallurgy at Marche Polytechnic University and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) applied to metallic materials at The National Research Council, the largest public research institution in Italy. He has supervised more than 100 thesis among Bachelor, Master, and Ph.D.
Dr. Jean-Olivier Durand
Dr Jean-Olivier Durand graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris in 1990 and obtained his PhD in asymmetric organic chemistry with Prof. J. P. Genêt in 1993. He spent a 20 month post-doctoral position with Prof. W. Oppolzer at the University of Geneva (Switzerland). After two other post-doctoral studies in Rennes (Prof. M. Le Corre) and Paris (Dr M. Larchevêque), he was appointed as a CNRS researcher in 1996 at the Laboratoire de Chimie Moléculaire et Organisation du Solide. He is research director at CNRS since 2012 at Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier. His research interests currently based on nanotechnology for health include the development of mesoporous nanoparticles (silica, organosilica and silicon-based) for theranostic, (anticancer and antibacterial applications), photodynamic therapy, drug and nucleic acid delivery. He particularly studied two-photon light-triggered systems. Recently he investigated CO2 sequestration and rare earth element recycling with nanoparticles. All the works were mainly carried out through international collaboration programmes such as bilateral projects, European fundings, and Partner University Fund. He trained and exchanged 13 PhD students, 13 Master students and 11 Post-docs in the last ten years. He is co-founder of Start-Up NanoMedSyn, a biotechnology company.
Dr. Hermann J. Feise
Dr. Hermann J. Feise is an expert in particle technology, with technical interests in the fields of drying, agglomeration and handling of particles as well as the simulation of particle flow with modern numerical methods. A graduate of Technical University Braunschweig, Germany, and University of Waterloo, Canada, he joined DuPont (Wilmington, USA) as a principal investigator and later moved to BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany). In BASF he was responsible e.g. for the Particle Formulation and Handling group at BASF's Chemical and Process Engineering department, globally providing expert services to the plants and laboratories of the BASF Group Companies. Today, Dr. Feise manages large innovation projects at BASF in the field of carbon management and climate change including subjects as battery materials and hydrogen production.
For almost three decades Dr. Feise has been active in professional associations at a national and international level. He participated in the development of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) in the 1990s and is a leader of the of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE). From 2008 to 2012 he served as the Scientific Vice-President and from 2018 to 2021 as the President of the EFCE. He was also the chairman of the 8th European Congress on Chemical Engineering in Berlin in 2011 and the virtual 13th European Congress on Chemical Engineering in 2021. Today he is active in the field of innovation and education at Dechema and the chair of the EFCE Working Party on Education, as well as an industrial advisor at University College, London, UK.
Prof. Jarka Glassey
Jarka Glassey is professor of chemical engineering education at the University of Newcastle, UK. She is currently the Vice President EFCE and immediate past Vice President Learned Society at IChemE. She is a UK delegate to the EFCE Working Parties on Education and on Quality by Design and a Board member of the European Society of Biochemical Engineering Sciences - ESBES. Her research career as a biochemical engineer focuses on delivering high-quality research at the interface of academia and industrial impact. Her research outputs in the areas of bioprocess development, modelling, monitoring and control, Quality by design (QbD) and Process Analytical Technologies (PAT) have made significant contributions to R&D in the biopharmaceuticals, specialty chemicals and food & drink sectors both within and outside the UK. The research approach is based on the fundamental understanding and monitoring of the biological processes using post genomic methodologies and combining it with engineering principles of scale-up and process intensification. Most recently her group is investigating the use of these methodologies in monoclonal antibody manufacture, cell gene therapy, viral production and ADC production. Specifically, her main interests stem from the area of advanced monitoring and control of processes and, over the years, she has developed and disseminated novel control strategies for the optimisation of recombinant protein production by integrating the physiological and engineering approaches. She is also actively involved in the accreditation of chemical engineering degree programmes across the world and explores active methodologies, such as the use of immersive technologies, in chemical engineering education.
Priv.-Doz. Dipl-Ing. Dr.nat.techn. Guenter Langergraber
Dr. Langergraber holds a PhD in Civil Engineering and Water Management from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), Austria where he has been active since 1997. He is currently Head of the Department of Water, Atmosphere, and Environment at BOKU, Co-Chair of the IWA (International Water Association) Strategic Council Sub-Committee for Specialist Groups (SC2SG). During his career he has coordinated multiple EU-funded projects, and has served as chair/secretary of multiple IWA Specialist Groups, Task Groups, and Working Groups. In 2014, Dr. Langergraber was awarded the IWA Fellowship. His research focusses on nature-based solutions (with long-term specific focus on treatment wetlands), resources-oriented sanitation, and circularity in urban water management. As chair of the COST Action Circular City, he leads a multidisciplinary network of over 600 researchers from more than 40 countries. Nationally, he is responsible for the training of operators of small wastewater treatment plants (less than 50 persons connected) organized by the Austrian Wastewater and Waste Association and is coordinating activities related to SDG 6 (Sustainable Development Goal 6 "Clean Water and Sanitation") in the project UniNEtZ (Austrian Universities and the SDGs). Additionally, he is member of various standardization committees in Austria, Germany and the EU in the fields of treatment wetlands and resources-oriented sanitation.
Prof. Francois Lapicque
After graduation in Chemical Engineering in Nancy, France, followed by a PhD in chemical reaction engineering in 1983, Francois Lapicque had worked in electrochemical processes as a CNRS scientist, still in Nancy. Since then, he could explore various aspects of electrochemical processes for environment protection, synthesis, metal production or energy conversion: the domain covered has focused on electrochemical engineering, with elements of neighbouring disciplines e.g. physical, inorganic or organic chemistry, electrical engineering or material sciences. Nearly 50 PhD projects have been achieved under his supervision, in relation to French or European colleagues from academia or industry. He co-authored nearly 200 papers and gave 28 plenary or keynotes lectures in symposia or congresses. Besides, he belonged to various councils for research or University in France and coordinated for years State-Region Lorraine funded projects for the improvement on research facilities in sustainable chemistry and processes.
With a special interest for international relationships, he has been a representative from France in the Working Party on Electrochemical Engineering of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering. He was also Chairperson of Division 5 « Electrochemical Technology » of the International Society of Electrochemistry from 2010 to 2016. He has expertised several PhD Projects in German or English-speaking countries or in Spain. He was invited to expertise various European universities e.g. KTH in Stockholm or UCT in Prague. Finally, he has been in the advisory board of various journals in chemical engineering and electrochemistry.
Univ. Prof. DI Dr. Erich Leitner
Univ. Prof. Dipl. Ing. Dr. techn. Erich Leitner studied technical chemistry at the Graz University of Technology, Austria where he obtained a PhD in organic trace analysis in environmental matrices. He also earned a habilitation in “Food Chemistry” dealing with flavor and off flavor compounds in food and other matrices. Currently he holds a professorship for “Analytics of food and food contact material”, which deals mainly with the interaction of food contact material and the packed good.
His research activities are focused on the identification and quantification of volatile, odor active substances and more recently of toxicological concern in food and food contact materials. He has over 30 years of experience in organic trace and ultra trace analysis mainly based on gas chromatographic methods using several sample preparation techniques and analytical solutions including multidimensional separation. Besides he is a trained sensory expert and member of the expert panel of the TU Graz sensory lab.
He is head of the Institute of Analytical Chemistry and Food Chemistry at the Graz University of Technology. In his research, he combines the use of a trained expert panel and highly specific equipment based on gas chromatographic techniques for the identification and quantification of volatile, odor active and toxicological relevant molecules.
Dr. Pirjo Nikander
Pirjo Nikander received her master’s degree in the University of Tampere, FINLAND, and her PhD in social sciences from Loughborough University, UNITED KINGDOM. Currently, she is Research Director of the Doctoral School at Tampere University (2011-), the second biggest university in Finland, and adjunct professor in the University of Helsinki. Tampere University Doctoral School is a key training and quality expert of research education, and it directs, oversees, and develops doctoral education on the university level. The courses and events organised by the school offer all doctoral researchers (2500) opportunities to develop essential research and transferable skills in research methods, research ethics, and the everyday conducting of research.
Nikander’s key areas of research expertise include social science methodology, decision making, ageing, and inclusion and exclusion in working life. Her publications include numerous handbook chapters and research articles on research ethics, methodology, ageing and ageism, and transcription and translation. She has also co-edited books on women and ageing and the analysis of interviews and held editorial positions in international journals. During the past 15 years, she has been strongly engaged with doctoral education on local, national, and international levels, and is currently a steering group member of the European University Association, Council for Doctoral Education.
Prof. Dr. Livia Simon-Sarkadi, DSc
Livia Simon Sarkadi graduated as a Chemical Engineer at the Technical University of Budapest (BME) Hungary in 1980. In 1986, she received a University Doctorate in Biochemistry from BME, and in 1991, a Candidate of Science degree in Food Chemistry from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS). She was awarded a Dr habil. title from BME in 1999, and a DSc degree in Chemical Science from HAS in 2010.
She began her career in the Department of Applied Biochemistry and Food Science at the BME. Her research focuses on food quality and food safety. She accepted a position as the head of the Department of Food Chemistry and Nutrition at Corvinus University of Budapest, Faculty of Food Science in 2012. In 2016, the Faculty relocated to Szent István University, where she served as vice rector for international relations (2019-2021). Since 2019, she has served as the Head of the Doctoral School of Food Science. Following a further reorganization in 2021, the Faculty became a part of the Hungarian University of Agricultural and Life Sciences.
Besides her teaching and research, she has been involved in national and international organisational activities. She is the President of the Hungarian Chemical Society since 2011; Chair of Scientific Committee of Food Science of HAS since 2019. She has served as Chair of the Food Chemistry Division of the European Chemical Societies (EuChemS) between 2009-2014, and was an elected member of the EuChemS Executive Board (2014-2021). Since 2019, she is an elected member of Administrative Council of the European Chemistry Thematic Network Association.
