International Council at the University of Ostrava

In February 2019 the Rector of the University of Ostrava established International Council. The Council is the Rector’s advisory body whose establishment and essential agenda is grounded in the Long-term Strategic Plan of the UO 2016–2020, (sub-objective 4/4.4.9.).

International Council provides the Management of the University, faculties and University institutes with reviews of and recommendations for strategic plans and strategic management in the areas of research, creative activities and innovation, teaching and learning, University development, and particularly in the area of internationalisation, including the internationalisation of the curriculum and enhancement of students’ competencies for global engagement.

The members of the Council are internationally respected academics and researchers with broad international experience, and integrity; they represent a variety of research areas and fields of education as well as a variety of global regions.

The Statute of the International Council

International Council members 2019 – 2022

	Prof. Katalin Szende, PhD Prof. Katalin Szende, PhD. is Professor of Medieval Studies and the Head of the Department of Medieval Studies at the Central European University, Budapest. Her research concentrates on medieval towns in the Carpathian Basin and Central Europe, with particular regard to society, demography, literacy, everyday life, and topography. She is the author of Trust, Authority and the Written Word in the Royal Towns of Medieval Hungary (2018), board member of the International Commission for the History of Towns and founding member and acting president of the Medieval Central Europe Research Network (MECERN).
	Prof. Kerstin Tham, PhD Prof. Kerstin Tham, Ph.D. has been the Vice-chancellor of Malmö University since 2015 and also has responsibility for research questions. Prof. Tham’s specialization is occupational therapy with a research focus on aspects of rehabilitation after stroke. Formerly she held the post of a deputy-vice-chancellor of Karolinska Institutet, a medical university in Stockholm. In this role, professor Tham was responsible for collaboration with the Karolinska university hospital and health care system in Stockholm, but also to strengthening the quality and research base in higher education. Parallel to her leadership positions she has been active as a researcher and teacher and has supervised 17 PhD students in the field of neurological rehabilitation. As the Head of Malmö University she focuses on global engagement/internationalization, University strategic and quality development, interdisciplinary research and education for social/cultural sustainability and change, and on collaboration with different stakeholders and social innovation.
	Prof. Dr. hab. Andrzej Białko Prof. dr. hab. Andrzej Białko was born in Kraków in 1959. He studied piano at the Musical Secondary School. In 1973, he began learning to play the organ, first privately and then at the Academy of Music in Kraków under the supervision of Prof. Joachim Grubich. In 1981 he received the first prize in the International Organ Competition in Rome. In 1985, he was awarded first prize in the National Organ Competition in Bydgoszcz-Gdańsk. He has taken part in most Polish organ festivals and performed in Austria, Bulgaria, The Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Slovakia, Switzerland, Sweden, United Kingdom, as well as in Lebanon and both Americas. He has been active as a teacher - the professor of the Organ Department at the Academy of Music in Kraków and the Władysław Żeleński State School of Music in Kraków. He collaborates with numerous music ensembles including Polish Radio Choir in Kraków and the Kraków Philharmonic. Prof. Białko is currently a Vice-Rector of the Academy of Music in Kraków.
	Prof. Gyözö Garab, PhD, DSc Győző Garab, PhD, DSc is a professor emeritus, a former head of laboratory at the Biological Research Center, Szeged. As an expert in biophysics he also worked in foreign laboratories, including the CEA Saclay and the Brookhaven National Laboratory. In the field of photosynthesis he (co-)authored two monographs and more than 250 research papers, led national and EU projects, organized international congresses, workshops and advanced schools. Prof. Garab has served in a variety of boards, including the ISPR, ESF, and in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Szeged
	Prof. Joseph Hamill, PhD Prof. Joseph Hamill, PhD. is a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and the Neuroscience and Behavior Programme at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has authored over 130 research papers, over 180 research proceedings and abstracts, several book chapters, and three books. He has mentored 21 PhD students. His current projects include studies on the interaction of biomechanical and biochemical factors in ligamentous injuries. Prof. Hamill is a member of numerous expert boards and professional societies as e.g. the Footware Biomechanics Group, the National Academy of Kinesiology, and the International Society of Biomechanics in Sports. Prof. Hamill is a visiting professor of the Dpt. of Human Movement Studies, Faculty of Education, University of Ostrava.
	Prof. J. S. Perry Hobson, PhD Prof. J. S. Perry Hobson, PhD is the Director of the Academy of Tourism at Breda University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands. Over the years he has also lived and worked in the UK, USA, Hong Kong, Australia and Malaysia. He has held visiting positions with various institutions, including MCi-Innsbruck where he delivers a short course on innovation every year. Prof. Hobson has an extensive academic background in hospitality and tourism, and holds a BSc (Hons) in Hotel & Catering Management from Oxford Brookes University (UK), a MS in Hotel, Restaurant and Travel from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (USA), and a PhD from Southern Cross University (Australia). He has been the Editor-in Chief of the Journal of Vacation Marketing since 1999, and he is also on the of the International Centre of Excellence in Tourism and Hospitality Education (THE-ICE) accreditation body.
	Prof. Dr. Rudolf Kruse Prof. Dr. Rudolf Kruse is Professor at the Faculty of Computer Science at the University of Magdeburg in Germany. He obtained his Ph.D. and his Habilitation in Mathematics at the Technical University of Braunschweig in 1980 and 1984 respectively. Following a stay at the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, he joined the Technical University of Braunschweig as a professor of computer science in 1986. Since 1996 he has been a professor in the Computational Intelligence Group in Magdeburg. He has coauthored 15 monographs and 25 books as well as more than 350 peer-refereed scientific publications in various areas with 16000 citations. He is an associate editor of several scientific journals. Rudolf Kruse is a Fellow of the International Fuzzy Systems Association (IFSA), Fellow of the European Association for Artificial Intelligence (EURAI/ECCAI), and Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). His team is successful in various industrial applications in cooperation with companies such as Volkswagen, SAP, Daimler, and British Telecom. His current main research interests include data science and intelligent systems.
	Prof. Walter A. Lorenz, PhD, MA Prof. Walter A. Lorenz, PhD, MA, CQSW is a Full Professor of Sociology of cultural and communicative processes at the Faculty of Education, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy. Prof. Lorenz studied philosophy and theology at the University of Tübingen in Germany, social administration and social work at London School of Economics, and defended his PhD dissertation at the Technical University of Dresden, Germany. His academic career has been affiliated with University College Cork in Ireland and Free University of Bozen-Bolzano where prof. Lorenz also held the post of the Rector (2008 – 2016). Prof. Lorenz’s principal research interests include comparative history of social work and the development of social policy in Europe, anti-racist and intercultural methods in European social work, ‘citizenship’ as intercultural practice, or quality criteria in social services. He is the co-editor and co-founder of European Journal of Social Work and co-editor of the scientific series Contemporary Social Work Studies (Ashgate, UK).
	Prof. Dr. Péter Bagoly-Simó Prof. dr. Péter Bagoly-Simó studied geography, German language and literature, and biology at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca in Romania, received his doctoral degree at Eberhard-Karls University in Tübingen, and defended his habilitation in Geography Education at Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. Péter Bagoly-Simó is now Full Professor and Chair of Geography Education at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and has been since 2015 cooperating with researchers from the Faculty of Education of the University of Ostrava as a member of the Centre for Educational Research of this Faculty. Prof. Bagoly-Simó’s research projects focus on geography education in European as well as non-European countries, including reflections of aspects of sustainable development in geography curricula and textbooks. He is a Board Member of IARTEM, International Association for Research on Textbooks and Educational Media, and the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Geography Education.