Jakub Martinka

Hi, I’m a Ph.D. student at the Faculty of Science at Charles University in Prague. I work in the Department of Theoretical chemistry, part of the J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS), as a member of Jiří Pittner’s group. I’m passionate about sharing my love for science and have been teaching natural sciences since high school. Teaching and communicating science is incredibly fulfilling to me, and I hope to continue in the future. I am participating in a Czech science popularization project called Zeptej se vědce (“Ask a Scientist”), where scientists answer (sometimes ridiculous) questions, as well as the CAS project Otevřená Věda (“Open Science”) for motivated high school students. If you would like to learn more about our group’s research (focusing on machine learning and quantum chemistry) or about me, feel free to reach out!

I come from the eastern part of the Czech Republic, Moravia, the land of wine and slivovice. I grew up in Zlín, where I studied at the Gymnasium Zlín - Lesní čtvrť). Zlín is notable for its Baťa heritage, and the city’s functionalist character. One of my favourite nerdy landmarks is a sculpture based on the Fibonacci sequence. I am an amateur chess player and I’ve had the opportunity to assist at few chess events, sometimes as a referee. I also love traveling and striking up interesting conversations with people I meet along the way.

I wrote these pages as an experiment because I enjoy reading about other people. If you want to talk with me about something else than science, you can try philosophy of science, travelling, chess, rock climbing or football.