MOPGA award for Vojtěch Kouba

Vojtěch Kouba, who successfully defended his Ph.D. studies, won the  MOPGA award "Make Our Planet Great Again" – environment and climate research. The competition was awarded by the French Embassy in Prague.

A total of 66 candidates under the age of 33. The results were decided by seven commissions consisting of 45 Czech and French professors and researchers. The ceremony via application Zoom was chaired by Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Jean-Marie Lehn and French Ambassador Roland Galharague.

Vojta's work provides a deeper understanding of the struggle between Anammox and NOB bacteria for nitrite in cold and diluted sewage. We have developed strategies that will help the beneficial Anammox bacteria win over the NOB. These strategies will be of practical interest in wastewater treatment plant operations, which will remove nitrogen from wastewater cheaper and more environmentally friendly. In the basic research part of the work, we focused on the unique ladder lipids in the membranes of Anammox microorganisms and described how these fascinating bacteria change their structure in response to ambient temperature, which will help to extract rocket fuel from wastewater in the future. Part of Vojta´s work was also conducted at TU Delft in the Netherlands, where he was on an internship. 

Picture made by Eva Kořínková