Symbolically, in the library of the Augustinian Abbey in Brno, whose abbot was the father of genetics Gregor Johan Mendel, Hyde Park Civilization filmed an interview with Nobel Prize-winning chemist Richard Henderson. Brno, primarily because, as he mentions in the interview, there is no other city in the world where so many people are dedicated to electron microscopy.
Richard Henderson is a Scottish biophysicist and molecular biologist who was the first to successfully create a three-dimensional image of a biological molecule with atomic resolution using a technique known as cryo-electron microscopy. Thanks to his work, we can look at individual atoms in living nature and study the processes in living organisms without killing them by looking at them, as is the case with electron microscopy.
The talk was not the only visit to Brno that Richard Henderson made. You could also meet him during the 16th International Microscopy Congress, which took place last September and of which TESCAN was a platinum partner.
And the capital of electron microscopy was clearly very impressed. In an interview, Daniel Stach asked him, “If you were thinking about where to do your PhD now, would you rather go to Cambridge or Brno?”
If you’re guessing that he would choose Brno, you’re right. Richard Henderson directly advises young students to go to Brno. Do their BA or MA here, get the basics of research, and before they go into the details, look around the world to see what’s going on and have first-hand experience of how research is done where. This will give them a great basis for deciding where to go next – they don’t have to go down the academic route, they can be involved in research directly with an electron microscope manufacturer. For example, at TESCAN.
Incidentally, watch the interview for yourself and be inspired by Richard Henderson’s infectious enthusiasm for science.