Together with his three colleagues, he received the prize from the hands of His Royal Highness Crown Prince Frederik at the Royal Danish Library known as the Black Diamond. The prize is awarded by the Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research Foundation, already for the fifth time and includes a financial reward of one million euros.

A team of scientists from Germany and USA developed a tool that significantly changes the method of brain research. Two-photon microscopy allows real time examining of how nerve cells communicate with each other. Karel Svoboda and his students focused in their research on mapping the brain processes during the learning of new skills.

Karel Svoboda comes from Prague, from where his family emigrated in 1970 to Germany and later to USA. He is a graduate of elite schools – Cornell and Harvard Universities – and he is one of the best in his field. For fifteen years now, he has been working at Janelia Research Campus at Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Maryland, where he does cortex research.

The Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Denmark, Jiří Brodský, was among official guests of the award ceremony, together with his wife.