Prof. MUDr. Vladimír Komárek, CSc., is the Emeritus Head of the Department of Paediatric Neurology at the Second Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and Motol University Hospital and Dean Emeritus of the Second Faculty of Medicine. He is one of the most important contemporary personalities of Czech paediatric neurology, epileptology and paediatrics.
Prof. Komárek has contributed to the fundamental improvement of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and standards, the development of scientific knowledge, the spread of awareness among patients and the public, and has educated generations of his successors. He is an active member of many professional societies in the Czech Republic and abroad, and is behind the establishment of the EpiReC research centre. Since 1986 he has been a member of the Czech Medical Society of Jan Evangelista Purkyně and has been a long-term member of the Committee of the Society of Paediatric Neurology. His professional and scientific work has been repeatedly awarded (Honorary Medal of the Czech Society of Epilepsy, Ambassador for Epilepsy in ILAE, Award of the Minister of Health for Medical Research and Development, Teacher of the Year at the Second Faculty of Medicine) and he has significantly contributed to the recognition of paediatric neurology as a basic field of specialisation training. As Dean, he initiated or implemented the construction and reconstruction of campuses and lecture halls of the Second Medical Faculty.
The prize was awarded on the joint proposal of the Czech Neurological Society, the Czech Paediatric Society, the Society of Paediatric Neurology, the Society of Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine, the Czech Society for Clinical Neurophysiology and the Czech League Against Epilepsy.
The Jan Evangelista Purkyně Award is decided by the Board of the Czech Medical Society JEP. It has been awarded since 1962. It is awarded annually on the so-called Purkyně Day in the Saturn Hall of the Libochovice Castle, the birthplace of Jan E. Purkyně. This year, due to the reconstruction of the castle, it was presented in the hall of the cultural centre U Tří lip.
