“Project of the Faculty of Economics and the University of Applied Sciences Faculty of Management in Steyr Austria”

I am particularly honored to be invited by Prof. Václav Bůžek, Chancellor of the University of South Bohemia (USB), Prof. Jan Zahradnik, Vice-Chancellor for Foreign Affairs of USB, and Professor Pavel Král, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy of USB, to participate in this unique event celebrating the contribution of USB towards the opening of the South Bohemian Region towards the World of Science. On 4 June this year (2009) I received a honorary doctorate’s degree from USB, together with my colleague and friend Prof. Antonin Holý from Prague (Charles University and Czech Academy of Sciences), and this particular honor was bestowed on both of us through the recommendation of Prof. Libor Grubhoffer, Dean of the Faculty of Science of USB. Both Dr. Holý and I were granted an honorary doctorate from USB because of our pioneering work on the acyclic nucleoside phosphonates, a group of compounds that have changed the world by the impact they have in the treatment of a number of virus infections, i.e. AIDS and hepatitis B, that, if untreated, claim a death toll rate of millions of victims annually. Through the recommendation of Dr. Holý, I became acquainted, and later also befriended with Dr. Grubhoffer, and he invited me at several occasions to České Budejovice, so that I became a visiting professor at USB, to teach the course of “Biochemistry at the Service of Medicine” (30 h in total) to students from both USB and Kepler University in Linz (Austria). I have now given this course in three consecutive academic years (2007-2008, 2008-2009 and 2009-2010). I feel most delighted by the appreciation I received from both the students and academic staff of USB, and I hope that in teaching this course, I have further contributed to the opening or should I say conquest of South Bohemia to the World of Science as well as the World of Education. Coming myself from Leuven, one of the oldest Universities of the World with a centuries long tradition in many disciplines, I also hope that our personal association will stimulate tighter links between our two Universities, and the different disciplines they represent.