Vladimír Hanuš and Petr Sedmera awards for molecular structure

The Award is announced in two categories: mass spectrometry (Vladimir Hanus Award) and nuclear magnetic resonance (Petr Sedmera Award). Any publication written in English, which was published or accepted in a peer-reviewed journal with an impact factor, and that fulfills Rules and Conditions (see the Ioannes Marcus Marci Spectroscopic Society webpages) can be submitted for consideration (www.spektroskopie.cz) for the Awards. The best publication selected by the Selection Committee in each category will be recommended for the Award. The Award consists of the 30 000 CZK financial premium and a diploma. The winners are awarded by a leading officer of the Ioannes Marcus Marci Spectroscopic Society during a suitable event (e.g. School of Mass Spectrometry, Central European NMR Meeting, Czechoslovak Spectroscopic Conference).

Vladimír Hanuš (1923-2009) obtained his PhD in polarography. Early in his studies, his mentors Professors Brdička and Heyrovský, gave him and three other students (V. Čermák, Č. Jech, and J. Cabicar) the task of developing a new modern method in physical chemistry, the mass spectrometric technique. In 1955, their construction of the first Czechoslovak mass spectrometer was awarded with the State Award. In 1960 V. Hanus was among the first mass spectrometrists who applied mass spectrometry to organic chemistry, namely to studies of structures and rearrangements of organic ions (e.g., Nature in 1959). He became the founder of the Czech organic mass spectrometry and developed a number of experimental improvements that enabled him to pioneer, e.g. the applications of mass spectrometry to structure elucidation of alkaloids and other natural products, which then became a classical topic. V. Hanus was an author or co-author of more than 150 papers, review articles and chapters in monographs. He also served on the editorial board of Organic Mass Spectrometry (Wiley) for its entire existence. He was awarded the Gold Heyrovský Medal of the Academy of Sciences and Ioannes Marcus Marci Medal of the Czech Spectroscopic Society.

Petr Sedmera (1942-2010) finished his studies at the Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague in 1964 and joined the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry in Řež u Prahy. He discontinued his synthetic work in hydride chemistry in 1967, when he moved to the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry. From that time on, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy became his life destiny. He focused on structure elucidation of natural products and prof. Santavy (Olomouc) and Dr. Hanus (Prague) were his major collaborators. From political reasons he could not defend his completed PhD thesis entitled “Shielding effects of polar groups in NMR spectroscopy”. In 1971 he moved to the Institute of Microbiology in Prague and started a group focused on structure analysis of natural products and microbial secondary metabolites. He also contributed to the discovery and structure elucidation of the Czechoslovak antibiotics Mucidin, which then was clinically used as an antifungal drug. P. Sedmera defended his PhD thesis after the Velvet Revolution and from 1991 was the head of the Laboratory of molecular structure characterization. He authored or co-authored more than 250 papers and was awarded with the Hanus Medal (Czech Chemical Society).

Year	Corresponding authors
	Vladimír Hanuš award	Petr Sedmera award
2010	Marek Šebela	Jaroslav Kříž
2011	Miroslav Šulc, Michael Volný	Martin Dračínský
2012	Detlef Schroder	Lukáš Žídek
2013	Jan Preisler	---
2014	Jana Roithová	Radek Marek
2015	Petr Novák	Jiří Dědeček
2016	Miroslav Lísa	Martin Dračínský
2017	Michael Volný, Petr Novák	Václav Veverka
2018	Vladimír Havlíček	Radek Marek
2019	Michal Holčapek	Konstantinos Tripsianes
2020	Patrik Španěl	Lukáš Žídek



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