Tomáš Pipíška, PhD
(Mendel University in Brno, MENDELU)
How did you arrive in your current position?
I started to study Furniture Design and Technology at Mendel University in Brno in 2011. In 2014, I decided to study for two master’s degrees, Furniture Engineering and Wood-Working Engineering. I was thinking about a PhD in the field of wood-based composites because I wanted to continue on the topic of my master's thesis. During my PhD study, I was working on many different projects at Mendel University in Brno and I got the opportunity to travel abroad. I spent 3 months on an internship at Oregon State University under the supervision of professor Fred Kamke. When I came back, prof. Kamke offered me a one-year full-time job at Oregon State University. My task was working on the project with the utilization of the less known wood species to wood-based composites. I finished my PhD during my stay in Oregon. At present, I apply for projects and I try to strengthen the group focused on wood-based composites at Mendel University in Brno.
Which scientific question are you the most eager to answer?
I would like to answer the question: How the impact of climate change will influence other industries, especially wood-based panels? First of all, we need to know: What will be the future forests?
What is the future of your research?
I would like to work mainly on topics related to the recycling of wood and non-wood materials for composites. The utilization of less-known wood species in wood-based composites is also in my field of interest.
Open Science, especially Open Data, is highly debated on various levels. What is your opinion?
I think that only open science can help researchers to make better and faster results. Open Science and Open Data around the world will improve the results in the same research topics. All the time different research groups are working on the same topic in different parts of the world and this can help them not to do the same research and the same mistakes. In my opinion, this is the future of science.
How do you maintain your work-life balance?
This is the most difficult thing in my career. I am still trying to find out a balance between work life and family time. I think that I am still not able to maintain it well and I am working a lot.
How difficult is it to have a carrier in science? How do you keep your motivation?
The most difficult part of science is finding funding for the research. In the beginning, it is necessary to prepare and submit a lot of project proposals and skill yourself. Together with innovative and actual ideas, success in funding is reached. This motivates me a lot.
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N°952314.