President Petr Pavel appointed new professors on the proposals of the scientific and artistic councils of universities. He handed over the appointment decrees to them on Tuesday, 10 December 2024 in the Karolinum in Prague. The Faculty of Civil Engineering of Brno University of Technology has two new professors - Pavel Rovnanik and Pavel Schmid. The other professors appointed were Jan Hajný and Karel Katovský from the FEEC of BUT, Zdeněk Jegla from the FME of BUT and Miroslav Kolíbal from the FME of BUT and CEITEC of BUT.

The ceremony was also attended by the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports Mikuláš Bek and Vice-Rector Miroslav Doupovec on behalf of the BUT .

In his speech, President Pavel, in addition to congratulating and appreciating the work of those present, drew attention to the high failure rate of students, almost half of whom drop out before completing their studies. He stressed that providing more money to the higher education system is not enough, but it is necessary to create a system of management and evaluation of the quality of education, these funds were used as efficiently as possible. He also spoke about the ethical aspects of scientific research and strengthening the link between university research and practice. He also appealed for quality and enlightened teaching: "However, I consider it most important to guide students to acquire new knowledge and skills effectively and with gusto later in life. Tomorrow's world will require this even more than today's. In other words, teach your students to learn throughout their lives. You can all set a great example."

Pavel Rovnanik's research focuses on alkali-activated materials, geopolymers, degradation of building materials and their use in smart structures. Since 2004, he has been working at FAST BUT, where he is the supervisor of five courses and the author of several innovative teaching materials. His publishing activities include dozens of technical articles, book chapters and software tools. He has been the principal investigator of four GACR projects and has collaborated on a number of other research activities.

Pavel Schmid is an expert in diagnostics and evaluation of building structures, experimental analysis of their resistance and modelling of degradation processes. Since 1996, he has been working at FAST BUT, where he has been teaching, supervising theses and developing study programmes. He is the supervisor of three courses and the author of new teaching methods. He is actively involved in basic and contract research, including cooperation with institutions such as the State Institute of Radiation Protection.