HERITAGE HERITAGE In almost 100 years of its existence, Masaryk University succeeded in educating over 200,000 graduates, who have found application in many fields and in many countries around the world. Since its establishment, the university has been closely associated with a number of significant Czech scientists, thus quickly attaining a high degree of excellence in most fields of study. The economist Karel Engliš and physiologist Edward Babák are some of the most notable figures of the first generation of teachers and scientists, while the following were active in subsequent decades: linguists such as Arne Novák, Bohuslav Havránek and Roman Jakobson, legal scholar František Weyr and mathematicians Matyáš Lerch, Eduard Čech and Otakar Borůvka. The name and work of Leoš Janáček, a renowned composer, are also inextricably linked to the university: in 1925, Janáček became the first person to receive an honorary doctorate from Masaryk University. The university remains loyal to its tradition of academic excellence to this day: at present, teach- ing as well as research at the individual faculties is still being carried out only by the best of experts. They have taken up the challenge of developing the legacy of their predecessors who had previously laid the foundations for high-quality instruction and research. Presentation of the Rector’s Chain of Office in 1935 in Lány (from left: Karel Engliš, T. G. Masaryk, MU Rector Jan Krejčí, Chancellor Přemysl Šámal) Edward Babák (1873–1926) Karel Engliš (1880–1961) Matyáš Lerch (1860–1922) Roman Jakobson (1896–1982) Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850–1937)