“Our goal is not merely to impart knowledge. Our goal is to educate graduates who will be able to thrive in a changing world, take responsibility, and actively shape it. To achieve this, we must systematically improve the quality of teaching, strengthen its connection to practice, and also harness the potential of lifelong learning while responding to current educational trends and modern information technologies,” explained Klimánek, who became the university’s 35th rector. The Academic Senate elected him in early November of last year. He has led the university since March 31 of this year; the rector’s term of office is four years.
One of the new rector’s goals is to strengthen the cohesion among the university’s various units. “I want to create an environment that fosters collaboration, accountability, open communication, and meaningful discussion. I am convinced that only a strong and connected university community can endure in the long term and continue to thrive,” said Klimánek, who believes that Mendel University has all the prerequisites to be a modern, respected, and self-assured institution.
The ceremony also included the taking of the oath, the presentation of the rector’s insignia, and a speech by Rector Emeritus Jan Mareš. “The university is now being taken over by a new leadership team that brings its own energy, experience, and vision. I am convinced that continuity and, at the same time, natural transformation are essential for an academic institution,” said Mareš.
Associate Professor Martin Klimánek was born in 1977 in Brno. His research focuses on spatial data infrastructure and location-based services, spatial interpolation, and geostatistics. His other areas of interest include forestry thematic cartography, support for spatial decision-making in precision forestry, and the application of unmanned aerial systems in forest management and silvicultural planning. He has been a full-time faculty member since 2003, serving as head of the Department of Geoinformation Technologies since 2006, later Department of Forest Management and Applied Geoinformatics at the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences at MENDELU. Since 2014, he has been part of the university’s leadership as Vice Rector for Pedagogy; subsequently, he served two terms in the role of Vice Rector for Strategy, Sustainability, and Special Projects.