Science

I’m an evolutionary biologist by study (PhD awarded in March 2025 at the Faculty of Science, Charles University), active in interdisciplinary research on human behavior as well as in astrobiology. Beside that, I’m actively engaged in science communication and education.

I have published in reputable peer-reviewed journals (Evolution and Human Behavior, Astrobiology, Nature Astronomy etc.) and participated in international workshops and collaborators. I also created and took part in numerous outreach and educational initiatives, have a large international network of researches (coming from biology, chemistry, planetary science or astrophysics as well as philosophy, sociology or ethics) and my cross-disciplinary experience enables me to move smoothly between the natural sciences and humanities. I’m open to projects that utilize my unique combination of skillsets.

This page is still under construction, but the best way you can access my scientific record is via ORCID.

SELECTED CONFERENCE CONTRIBUTIONS

EANA 2025 (21-24/10/2025, Lisbon, Portugal): Contributed talk “Great Expectations and Greater Uncertainties: Communicating Earth’s Uniqueness in the DRAKE project”.

Biennial European Astrobiology Conference (BEACON) (01-05/07/2025, Reykjavik, Iceland): Contributed talk “Science fiction anthologies for science outreach: Overview and impact” and organization of a public outreach roundtable discussion themed “Planets and Astrobiology in Science Fiction”.

International Astronautical Congress 2024 (14-18/10/2024, Milan, Italy): Contributed talk “Popculture for Science Outreach: The Case Studies of ‘Strangest of All’ and ‘Life Beyond Us’” and organization of the Special Session “It’s Full of Stars: Storytelling for Space Outreach”.

Lorentz Center workshop on astrobiology science communication ‘Breaking News: We found extraterrestrial life’ (02-06/09/2024, Leiden, Netherlands): Active participation in the workshop, co-writing the resulting white paper.

‘Are We A Unique Species on A Unique Planet?’ (29/07-02/08/2024, Copenhagen, Denmark): Poster “Testing Uncertainty in Astrobiology Communication: An Experimental Approach”.

CAP (Communicating Astronomy with The Public) 2024 (24-28/06/2024, virtually): Contributed talks “Bringing Cutting-Edge Physics into The Classroom” and “Storyfying Learning: Astronomy Education through Fictional Scenarios”.

Kavli-IAU symposium ‘(Toward) Discovery of Life Beyond Earth and Its Impact’ (14-19/04/2024, Durham, UK): Contributed talk “Teaching by imagining Life Beyond Us: Science fiction for outreach and education”.

NASA-Know Innovation workshop Communicating Discoveries in the Search for Life in the Universe (CDSLU) (23/02/2024-06/03/2024, virtually): Active participation in the discussions and report writing (co-lead of Section 6).

ESA Brainstorming in Astrobiology (16-20/10/2023, Nordwijk – ESTEC, Netherlands): Active participation in the discussions and report writing.

PTNCE (Polish Society for Human and Evolution Studies) conference 2019 (25-27/09/2017, Prague, Czech Republic): Contributed poster “Looking like a million dollars – or not? Attractiveness priming doesn’t increase altruism in experimental games”.

Prague Conference on Behavioral Sciences 2019 (05-06/04/2019, Prague, Czech Republic): Contributed talk “Testing health factors as modulators of altruism in humans”.

Czech & Slovak Ethological Society conference 2017 (22-25/11/2017, Jihlava, Czech Republic): Contributed talk “‘Infectious Altruism’ and Its Role in Evolution of Altruistic Behavior”.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Includes publications in Evolution and Human Behavior (first-author research paper; 5-year Impact Factor: 3.7), Perspectives on Psychological Science (registered replication report; 5-year Impact Factor: 11.9), Nature Astronomy (first-author meeting report; 5-year Journal Impact Factor: 14.3), etc.

• Bimm, J., Voytek, M., Scharf, C., Billings, L., Suldovsky, B., Wolfe-Simon, F., Cable, M.L., Yeo, S.K., Xenos, M., Segura, A., Berea, A., Anbar, A.D., Kaufman, M., Meadows, V., Graham, H., Cartier, K., Sheikh, S.Z., Nováková, J.N., Ockert, I. & Determann, J. M. (2025). Communicating Discoveries in the Search for Life in the Universe Workshop Report. Astrobiology, doi.org/10.1177/15311074251387636.  
  • JNN, as the co-lead of the concluding section of the paper, wrote a substantial portion of the report after her active contributions to the workshop.
• Albergaria et al. (accepted) The Search for Life Elsewhere: Avoiding Hype and Fostering Public Understanding. Accepted in Astrobiology.
  • JNN actively contributed to writing the paper after having participated in the collaborative meeting at Leiden University and Lorentz Center that preceded it.
• Novakova, J., Machová, K., Zíka, V., & Flegr, J. (under revision). Testing Trivers: Discerning the role of direct reciprocity in the evolution of altruism. Available as a SSRN preprint: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5115668
  • JNN, as the lead author, designed the experiment, participated in running the experimental sessions and data collection, led the data analysis and wrote the paper, with contributions and comments from other authors.
• Vickers, P., Gardiner, E., Gillen, C., Hyde, B., Jeancolas, C., Mitchell Finnigan, S., Nováková, J.N., Strandin, H., Tasdan, U., Taylor, H. & McMahon, S. (2025). Surveys of the scientific community on the existence of extraterrestrial life. Nature Astronomy, 1-3.
  • JNN contributed to participant invitation and revising the draft paper.
• Nováková, J. N., Carré, F., Dunér, D., Lee, N. M., Lehoucq, R., Lehto, K., & Persson, E. (2025). Mars in Science Fiction and Our Perceptions of the Red Planet. In Mars and the Earthlings: A Realistic View on Mars Exploration and Settlement (pp. 367-389). Springer Nature Switzerland.
  • JNN, as the lead author of the chapter, wrote most of the text and was responsible for reviewing the contributions of others.
• Novakova, J., Tureček, P., Machová, K., Sýkorová, K., Zíka, V., & Flegr, J. (2024). Generosity as a status signal: Higher-testosterone men exhibit greater altruism in the dictator game. Evolution and Human Behavior, 45(5), 106615.
  • JNN, as the lead author, designed the experiment, participated in running the experimental sessions and data collection, and wrote the paper apart from sections of the methods and supplement concerned with the statistical analysis (done by PT), with contributions and comments from other authors.
• Novakova, J., Machová, K., Sýkorová, K., Zíka, V., & Flegr, J. (2021). Looking Like a Million Dollars: Does Attractiveness Priming Increase Altruistic Behavior in Experimental Games?. Frontiers in Psychology, 1974.
  • JNN, as the lead author, designed the experiment, participated in running the experimental sessions and data collection, led the data analysis and wrote the paper, with contributions and comments from other authors.
• Bouwmeester, S., Verkoeijen, P.P., Aczel, B., Barbosa, F., Bègue, L., Brañas-Garza, P., … & Wollbrant, C. E. (2017). Registered replication report: Rand, greene, and nowak (2012). Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(3), 527-542.
  • JNN participated in data collection and analysis of the Czech-based study.
• Houdek, P., Novakova, J., & Stastny, D. (2016). Ultrasociality: when institutions make a difference. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 39.
  • JNN co-wrote the paper together with PH.
• Novakova, J., & Flegr, J. (2013). How much is our fairness worth? The effect of raising stakes on offers by proposers and minimum acceptable offers in dictator and ultimatum games. PloS one, 8(4), e60966.
  • JNN participated in data collection, analyzed the data together with her supervisor JF and wrote the paper, with JF’s comments and supervision.

SELECTED FUNDING RECEIVED

Charles University Grant Agency (GA UK) grant no. 1502018 (“Correlates of Altruistic Behavior with Health and Physical Traits in Humans”, 2018-2022) – primary investigator

Program podpory prezentace vědy a výzkumu AV ČR (MAP) 2024 grant “Taje nanosvěta” (science outreach & education grant) – primary leader

NF IOCB Tech Program podpory popularizačních projektů 2024 grant “Fyzika budoucnosti” (science outreach & education grant) – primary leader

4EU+ grant “DRAKE” (astrobiology research & networking grant, 4/2025-3/2026) – co-investigator under the principal investigator Jan Toman

OUTREACH ACTIVITIES

Science outreach-driven drama

• Marsovská horečka (Mars-focused audio drama produced by Audiotéka.cz)
• Marťané (a theatre play about Leo Szilard, performed in November 2025)

Edited science outreach anthologies

• Fyzika budoucnosti (published 06/06/2025)
• Life Beyond Us (published 22/04/2023)
• Strangest of All (published 20/05/2020)

Popular science talks and panels (as panelist/moderator)

• at ESOF 2022, Academia Film Olomouc (AFO; multiple times), Science Café, Sofia Science Festival, Worldcon (multiple times incl. 2024), Eurocon (multiple times), Prague Planetarium (Planetum), Café Nobel (multiple times), FutureCon, Gothenburg International Science Festival, etc. 

Educational comics

• Storyboard for Taje nanosvěta (Secrets of the Nano- World), published 04/2025.
• A second volume of the educational comic book is being prepared.

Science board games design

• Designed three science board games for children, accompanying a popular science comics trilogy produced by the Institute of Geophysics, Czech Academy of Sciences (available at https://www.ig.cas.cz/en/comics/).

Popular science articles (selected works)

• Nováková, J. (2024) Embracing Uncertainty When Searching for Life Beyond Earth. Undark.org. 18/01/2024.
• Nováková, J. (2024) Exercise in Alternate Histories: Unveiling Venus. Clarkesworld. 01/01/2024.
• Verhagen, T. & Nováková, J. (2023) Science Has a Reproducibility Problem. Can Sample Sharing Help? Undark.org. 27/07/2023.
• Nováková, J. (2023) Hydrogen may push some exoplanets off a cliff, Eos, 104, https://doi.org/10.1029/2023EO230146. 10/04/2023.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

• Charles University’s J. Heyrovský Award for outstanding science students in 2016
• Czech Centres’ Award in the finale of FameLab CZ 2016

ORGANIZATION & SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS

• Europlanet Society member
• European Astrobiology Institute member
• NoRCEL member
• XPRIZE Sci-Fi Advisory Council member

OTHER SKILLS

• Languages spoken: English (C2-level, extensive experience with translations between Czech and English), Czech (native speaker), German (lower intermediate)
• Basic statistical analysis using R (the R Project for Statistical Computing)
• Experience with innovative forms of outreach (narrative approaches, board games), nonfiction and fiction writing, editing, translation (published ten novels and many stories in Czech, a few dozen stories in English, translated multiple works in both directions)