Senior Research Scientist, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic

AGU embraces the global community and welcomes leaders representing various identities, voices, and perspectives. List any identities, voices, and perspectives you would bring, including but not limited to nationality, regional representations, racial and ethnic backgrounds, and anything else you feel comfortable sharing.

I come from the Czech Republic, a small country in Central Europe, where the first attempts to understand atmospheric electricity date back to the end of the 18th century. In 1794, the Catholic priest Prokop Diviš tried to build a machine to harness energy from thunderclouds, which was even better grounded than the Franklin rod developed around the same time. In 1926, František Běhounek became the first Czech citizen to cross the North Pole aboard the airship Italia, obtaining new and interesting results related to electric conductivity and ion mobility.

My background is in radio engineering, and I switched to lightning science quite late in my professional career. After twenty-five years of engineering work, I went back to school and started my PhD program in plasma physics. With my experience as an early-career scientist and a grandmother at the same time, I hope to communicate effectively with colleagues of any age. Regarding the gender policy, I feel that positive discrimination of females might have counterproductive effects, and I strongly support the idea of having truly equal conditions for everyone.

Volunteer experience that relates to this position:

I actively volunteer in science popularization, delivering approximately five public talks annually on atmospheric electricity, thunderstorms, and lightning. During the pandemic, I volunteered for the "Invite a Scientist to School" project, where I educated students about lightning and thunderstorms in over 20 online classes.

As one of the elected leaders of your section, how will you partner with your president, president-elect, other leaders, and staff to communicate with and engage your members to achieve AGU’s vision, values, mission, and goals?

As an elected leader, I will collaborate with the president, president-elect, other leaders, and staff to communicate with the members of the Atmospheric and Space Electricity (ASE) section, aligning with AGU’s vision, values, mission, and goals. I will participate in dedicated meetings and ensure communication within the ASE group through emails and newsletters on a regular or as-needed basis.

Section affiliations:

Atmospheric and Space Electricity; Planetary Sciences; Space Physics and Aeronomy