On Tuesday, March 1, Josef Zicha and Jan Kopecký received from the hands of P. Mareš and B. Ošt'ádal the Jan Evangelista Purkyně Honorary Medals for Merit in Biomedical Sciences. This award has been awarded by the Czech Acadeny of Sciences since 1965 in recognition of outstanding results of scientific work in biology, especially in the fields of biomedicine. During the award ceremony, J. Zicha summarized past years of Physiological Research, a bimonthly journal published by the Institute of Physiology in English, which celebrates 70^th anniversary this year.