Alums

Mr Josef Brůna

Josef Brůna’s association with the GLOBE Program began back in 1996 while a high school student at the II.ZŠ Barrandov, Chaplinovo nám school in the Czech Republic.  There, Josef’s biology teacher suggested that he participate in a volunteer after-school activity.  It happened that this after-school activity was with the GLOBE Program.

“We were given the opportunity to submit our measurements to a global database managed by NASA, which was quite unique at that time. The knowledge that someone at NASA would use our simple data was a reward in itself.” 

He continued: “From all the measurements we took for the GLOBE Program, I most enjoyed biometry. Not only because I like forests, but also because I enjoy relating information at the pixel level to that of pixels seen in remote sensing data.  This was and is so fascinating to me.”

When Josef was finishing high school, he was uncertain which field to pursue.  However, he did know that he enjoyed applying local studies to broader views.  He also knew that scientists did something similar. 

“It was not until the end of high school (2004) that I really decided to follow a scientific career in environmental science. I had found the ideal topic for me at the university: I used old aerial imagery to understand the current state of an abandoned landscape -- perfect combination of field biology and remote sensing.”

Since 2010, Josef has been working for the Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences.  Josef has also worked for the national coordinator of the GLOBE Program in the Czech Republic, TEREZA Educational Centre, as a coordinator of a IBSE project (related to GLOBE). 

“This was very rewarding experience, which also helped me in my scientific career.  For the last two years, I have been a member of the GLOBE Scientific Board of TEREZA,” he added.

“My work for the Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences still combines remote sensing and field measurements of plants, some quite similar to the ones we had done in the past when I was participating with the GLOBE program. This certainly is a dream job. I never thought I would be able to just go outside and measure whatever I like in order to solve some of nature’s mysteries,” finished Josef.