Daniel Nývlt, the head of the Czech Antarctic Research Programme organised by the Department of Geography, MU Faculty of Science, received a Chilean state award on 15 October in Prague for the cooperation between the Czech Republic and Chile in Antarctic research.
The Order of Bernardo O’Higgins is a national decoration of the Republic of Chile awarded exclusively to foreign nationals. The Order was established in 1956 and is named after the founder of the Chilean state, Bernardo O’Higgins. It is roughly equivalent to the Czech Order of Merit, which is awarded by the President of the Czech Republic. The Chilean state decoration has six ranks, and Daniel Nývlt was awarded the rank of Commander.
“The award is dedicated to me personally, but I consider it to be a recognition of the work I have been doing at MU for a long time as the head of the Czech Antarctic Research Programme, and so it belongs to everyone who works in Antarctica,” said Nývlt. “And since you don’t get decorated like this every day, it was a very interesting and pleasant experience for me.”
The Czech researcher was nominated for the Order by the former Ambassador of Chile to the Czech Republic, Hernán Pablo Arturo Bascuñán Jiménez. The award was presented in Chile in December last year, but because Daniel Nývlt could not be present at the ceremony, he received it now from the hands of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Chile, Gloria de la Fuente.
The Order was presented during a meeting of representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of both countries on the occasion of the centenary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. Diplomacy is also very important for the work of Czech researchers in Antarctica. “We are a country that is very far from Antarctica, so we rent Chilean ships and planes for our trips to Antarctica and back. Antarctica is also an important issue for Chile because it considers the area where the Johann Gregor Mendel Czech Antarctic Station is located to be its own and Chileans have a deep emotional links to it. They helped us immensely, for example, during the return of the 2020 expedition, which had left for Antarctica before the Covid-19 outbreak and was left stranded when flights between the Czech Republic and South America were cancelled,” explained Nývlt.
At the award ceremony, representatives of both foreign ministries told Daniel Nývlt that they greatly appreciated the excellent relations between the Czech Republic and Chile in the field of research and the long-term international cooperation in Antarctica. “The Antarctic Treaty, signed on 1 December 1959, requires signatories to protect Antarctica’s natural environment. We strive to do this while conducting research, which inevitably has some environmental impact. Therefore, there is a strong emphasis on good coordination of all international cooperation activities to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort and to use consistent and comparable methodologies,” added the Czech researcher, explaining why good relations between the two countries are important when exploring the southernmost continent.
Read more in the interview on the Faculty of Science website.