Michal Bauer, Filip Matejka, Michal Pakos and Jakub Steiner have all recently accepted offers to join the CERGE-EI faculty. Each is outstanding in unique ways. Each brings a different set of attributes to his new positions and has pursued a different path toward an academic career. To introduce our new professors, we are interviewing them over the next several weeks to explore the most interesting aspects of their research, teaching and work experience.
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The Path To Success
Would you like to achieve greater success in your career? There is no universal recipe how to do so, but here I take the opportunity to present the story of one of our professors, who has recently become a Member of the Bank Board of the Czech National Bank. He has been Citigroup Endowment Associate Professor at CERGE-EI receiving tenure in 2004, and also served as a Director of CERGE-EI. He is the author of 20 articles, 25 books and chapters in books, 30 working and discussion papers and many publications in popular press. He is also the holder of a significant number of grants and tenders. Do you know who is he? Professor Lubomir (Mirek) Lizal. Being impressed by his spectacular career progress, I decided to investigate how Lubomir achieved his success.
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Life Outside CERGE-EI: Summer Team Sports
Sport is an excellent way to increase your effectiveness at CERGE-EI. Do not trust me? Run your own experiment 😉 With the guidelines prepared for you, experimenting will be easy. This series of blog posts informs you about the possibilities to relax your mind that Czech Republic offers. The whole story is divided into three big pieces: Summer sports in Prague, Summer sports outside Prague, and Winter sports. Remember that CERGE-EI wants to keep you fit not only intellectually but also physically, and reimburses up to 300 CZK per semester for your sport activities.
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CERGE-EI Mobility: To Go, or Not To Go?
I wonder how you would answer this question. As for me, there is only one correct answer. Benjamin Franklin once said, “When in doubt, don’t.” I would rephrase his wise words in the following way, “If you have any doubts about whether to go on mobility, don’t. Just go!” By sharing my mobility experience with you, I want to explain why I think so.
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In the Long Run Every Crisis Ends
I have always loved jogging and I have used to run regularly since I was at university. You know what I am talking about, the positive feeling and relaxation jogging gives you. However, I had never run a long distance before I decided to participate in Palestra Kbelská 10km run. This event sounded very interesting, but I knew it would be difficult to run 10K and I didn’t have much time to train. Nevertheless, it seemed worth a try. And it was!
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Why Present at Brown Bag Seminars?
The main idea of Brown Bag seminars is to have a forum where one can “informally” present new papers or articles, papers in progress, or ideas for papers and get a valuable feedback on them. Brown Bag seminars is a tradition that comes from american universities. They are organized at lunch time, and often meals are provided by organizers. Many attendees still bring their own take-away food, which is typically packed in brown paper bags. This gives the name to the event.
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A Good Research Idea: What It Is and Where to Look for It
Two years ago I was sitting in a cafeteria when a “you’ve got mail” alert arrived to my cell phone. It was a notification of acceptance for the Ph.D. program at CERGE-EI. With a beating heart I opened it… and hurray – I am going to Prague! I knew my life was going to change and become full of new challenges. It was, indeed, so and here comes another challenge: to find not only an idea, but “the idea” for further research, which I will devote the next few years of my life to. How to do this? I have decided to ask in the source. I have talked to one of our professors – Levent Celik, who has recently presented his work at a research seminar at CERGE-EI to find out what his approach is. I also used this opportunity to learn how he had benefited from studying at an American university.
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When Invisible Forces Are on Your Side
February 14th was my day!.. No-no, nothing to do with St. Valentine. I got a job offer. Even more, I got a great job offer. It came from the University of Vienna, and this alone made it great. Before the offer came, I had visited Vienna to present my job market paper and to meet with professors there. When I went there, my body was still confused about the time zone I brought it in, my presentation needed more rehearsals, and a long list of papers was in the to-be-read category. Nevertheless, I was excited to talk to all those people with whom I had scheduled appointments.
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My First Running Experience
To be perfectly honest, I decided to participate in Palestra Kbelská 10km run only to keep my friends a company. I remember that when I saw so many people of different weight, height and age, with shining eyes, looking forward to run, I thought they were crazy. I mean, seriously, how can one find running or any other kind of physical activity enjoyable? Anyhow, there was no way to avoid the race by that time. I didn’t have any other choice, I had to run.
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Call for Candidates: CERGE-EI Student Representatives
CERGE-EI announces a call for candidates for three Student Representative positions. Applications should be made no later than Sunday, March 13 by email, which should include your name and year of study, to the following email address:
Student.Representatives@cerge-ei.cz
Student Representative facilitate dialogue between the CERGE-EI administration and students, help students with dormitory, stipend, and other issues, take part in the organization of DPW, DW and other official events. Representatives are eligible for office space and the positions are equivalent to 12 hours’ worth of stipend assistantship.