The Award of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic for outstanding results of major scientific importance in 2011 was received by a team of authors from the Institute of Information Theory and Automation. The team led by prof. Ing. Michal Haindl, DrSc. consisting of: Ing. J. Filip, Ph.D, Ing. J. Grim, CSc., RNDr. Vojtech Havlicek, Ph.D, and Ing. M. Hatka was awarded for the scientific outcome: Mathematical modeling of visual properties of surface materials.