Knowing what it means to rely on each other, what responsibility means, is something you don’t learn at any other camp

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Helena Illnerová was born in 1937 in Prague. Her father was of Jewish origin and spent most of the war in concentration camps. Luckily he survived the Holocaust and eventually returned home. Helena Illnerová graduated from the Faculty of Science and began working in the Institute of Physiology of the Academy of Sciences. In 1965, she established the “Sluníčka” (Little Suns) scout troop and became the troop leader for ten years. She married Michal Illner and had two children with him. In 1969, the family spent one year in New York City where Helena gained valuable experience at Columbia University. Back in Prague at the Institute of Physiology, she made a monumental discovery on the biological clock of organisms in mammals. After the Velvet Revolution, she became the vice-president of the Academy of Sciences for eight years and then the president for another four years. She has also chaired the Learned Society of the Czech Republic and the Czech Commission for the UNESCO. Helena Illnerová is still a member of several scientific councils and commissions for ethics.