Thanks to financial support from the Center, we established a brand new lab focused on analogue tectonic experiments. The lab is equipped with highly sophisticated apparatus purpose-made by the Development Center of the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, which will be able to simulate a wide range of geologic processes, mostly related to active continental margins and subduction of oceanic plates.

A new book by Dr. David Mašín, a senior researcher of the Center, devoted to hypoplastic modelling framework and entitled „Modelling of Soil Behaviour with Hypoplasticity: Another Approach to Soil Constitutive Modelling“ has just been published by Springer (link). Congratulations!

Vesmír journal interviewed a member of our Center, prof. Tomáš Cajthaml, about contamination of the environment by organopollutants and micropollutants. The whole text (in Czech) entitled “Compost is a microbiological museum” can be found here. Photo by Stanislav Vaněk.

On November 15, 2018 we organized an annual meeting of the Center for Geosphere Dynamics. Major results have been emphasized and five junior researchers gave keynote presentations (leaflet).

On Friday September 21, 2018, Filip Košek defended his PhD entitled “Application of Raman spectroscopy for detection of sulfates of self-ignited coal heaps“. On the photos you find him together with two reviewers Prof. Ivan Němec from Charles University (left) and Prof. Peter Vandenabeele from Ghent University (Belgium) and his supervisor, Prof. Jan Jehlička. Congratulations!

On Tuesday June 12, 2018, Petr Kozlovcev, who is a part-time technician of the Center, defended his PhD entitled “Influence of the mineralogical composition of raw material on phases formed during the burning of hydraulic lime and natural cement”. Congratulations!

The EGU General Assembly brings together geoscientists from all over the world. This year it took place in Vienna, Austria, from April 8 to 13, 2018. Kateřina Jandová, a junior researcher of Center for Geosphere Dynamics was not only participating in this important meeting with her poster but also co-organizing scientific session GM3.3/BG2.8/CL4.27/SSS3.4 Chemical weathering, soil formation, and organic carbon mobilization across spatial and temporal scales. She presented her results on microbial utilization of geogenic organic matter based on 14C measurement of respired CO2 and microbial biomarkers. These very fresh results obtained during her research stay at the MPI for Biogeochemistry in Jena will hopefully make a nice paper soon.

As a part of a special issue of the university journal Forum dedicated to 670^th anniversary of Charles University foundation, Jakub Trubač, a junior researcher of Center for Geosphere Dynamics was interviewed as a representative of Faculty of Science. He starts with the citation of one of his teachers, Dr. Fratišek V. Holub, who said: “Rocks are the only solid basis of our world”:-) Enjoy the interview on pages 52-53 of the electronic document (link).

On Friday February 3, 2018, Alice Jarošíková defended her PhD entitled “Experimental in situ transformation of smelting wastes in soils”. On the photo, where she is second from the left, you find her together with two reviewers Prof. Edgar Hiller and Prof. Barbora Doušová and her supervisor, Prof. Vojtěch Ettler. Alice thus became a brand new junior team member of the Center. Congratulations!

 All the team of the Center for Geosphere Dynamics met on January 25, 2018 to launch the activities of the project!