Since January 2023, I have been co-supervising a Czech MSc student Mr Matyáš Fuksa at Charles University (supervisor: Prof Vladimír Karas, 2nd co-supervisor: Prof Steven N. Shore). His thesis is extending my work on planetary captures by stellar remnants (Pavlík & Shore 2021).
In 2021–22, I co-supervised an Italian MSc student Mr Paolo Suin at University in Pisa (supervisor: Prof Steven N. Shore). He defended with honours in February 2022 (the thesis can be found in the University repository). We also summarised the work in a poster at the 53 DDA Meeting and a peer-reviewed article in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics
In Fall 2022 and Spring 2023, I was appointed a Visiting Lecturer for the Department of Physics, Indiana University Bloomington. I led PHYS P-301: Physics 3 – Modern Physics (required course in special relativity and quantum physics) and PHYS P-105: Basic Physics of Sound (physics for non-science majors).
Astronomy olympiad
Czech Astronomy Olympiad (AO)
Interview about AO on the Czech national TV
Since 2012, I have been involved with the Czech Astronomy Olympiad, competition for students up to high school. In 2016, I progressed to Board membership and gained responsibilities over the EF category (grade 8 to 9).
In November 2023, I presented a contribute talk at the IAU conference "III Workshop on Astronomy Beyond the Common Senses for Accessibility and Inclusion" on behalf of the Czech Astronomy Olympiad. The proceedings will be published in "Revista Mexicana de Astronomía y Astrofísica Serie Conferencias (edición RevMexAA Conference Series)".
I have been also leading the annual student workshops of the Czech Astronomy Olympiad that are part of STEM education and aimed at developing problem solving skills, communication between peers, creativity, and critical thinking, as well as teaching specific skills in observational astronomy. I have successfully secured the following competitive funding as a PI from the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports for these programs:
I was selected several times to lead our Czech team at the International Astronomy Olympiad. Namely:
2019
XXIV IAO
Piatra Neamt, Romania
Czech student’s awards: 3 Diploma-III
2018
XXIII IAO
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Czech student’s awards: 1 Diploma-II and 3 Diploma-III
2017
XXII IAO
Wei-Hai, China
Czech student’s awards: 1 Diploma-II and 1 Diploma-III
2016
XXI IAO
Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Czech student’s awards: 1 Diploma-II, 2 Diploma-III and Diploma for the best observational round
I have been awarded four Commemorative Diplomas from the Minister of Education for representing the Czech Republic at an international competition.
Planetarium Prague (Planetum)
Creating a comet in Planetarium Prague
From January 2018, while still finishing my PhD, I accepted a full-time Educator & Specialist staff position at Planetarium Prague. I worked in that capacity, concurrently with my studies and later postdoctoral appointment at the Czech Academy of Sciences, until August 2020 when I moved to the US.
I gave hundreds of live introductory talks as part of our full-dome shows. My other assignment included:
holding regular lectures with experiments or demonstrations, and workshops for school groups as part of their STEM education
teacher education
organisation of public seminars
collaboration on the translations and remakes of planetarium shows and films
preparation of educational and outreach materials (including Q&A sheets for our shows)
curating and redesigning part of the permanent exposition (e.g., one about Johannes Kepler for the 450th anniversary of his birth)
