The European Physical Society’s 2026 Europhysics Prize for outstanding contributions to condensed matter physics was awarded to Libor Šmejkal, Jairo Sinova and Tomáš Jungwirth for their discovery of altermagnetism, the third fundamental class of magnetic orders. Altermagnets combine the advantages of ferromagnets and antiferromagnets while exhibiting unique properties not found in either of those classes.
“Altermagnets are a hot topic in contemporary physics, and I warmly congratulate all three colleagues on this extraordinary recognition of their outstanding work. It is remarkable that in just 50 years since the Europhysics Prize was established, fourteen of its laureates have gone on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. So, perhaps, this award is also a promise of something even greater,” says Michael Prouza, director of the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, about this exceptional achievement.
The EPS Europhysics Prize is a highly prestigious award that has been presented since 1975 by the Condensed Matter Division of the European Physical Society. Until now, no Czech physicist or physicist working at a Czech research institution had ever been among the laureates.
For more than a century, scientists believed that all magnetic materials belonged to one of two basic classes: ferromagnets – that is, the common magnets we know from everyday life and which are used, for example, in hard drives or electric motors – and antiferromagnets, in which the magnetic moments of neighboring atoms cancel each other out. However, the discovery of altermagnetism has shown that a third fundamental class of magnetic orders exists in nature. This class exhibits some properties typical of ferromagnets, others characteristic of antiferromagnets, while also displaying entirely new quantum phenomena.
This discovery has changed the way we understand and classify magnetic materials. It is therefore time to rewrite the introductory chapters on magnetism in physics textbooks. At the same time, a completely new field of research into unconventional magnetism has opened up, promising new insights and technological applications across the entire field of solid-state physics.
Although this discovery represents a breakthrough in fundamental physics, it also has a groundbreaking technological potential. Modern electronics increasingly utilize not only the electric charge of electrons but also their spin, enabling the creation of devices that are faster, more energy-efficient, and can process information in an entirely new way. For decades, ferromagnets and antiferromagnets have been the fundamental building blocks of research into magnetism and spintronics. Ferromagnets can generate spin-polarized currents essential for the operation of spintronic components. At the same time, however, they generate stray magnetic fields that limit their further miniaturization. Antiferromagnets do not generate stray magnetic fields and can operate at ultrafast terahertz frequencies. However, they generally cannot generate sufficiently strong spin-polarized currents, and their magnetic state cannot be easily controlled electrically, which limits their use in spintronics.
Altermagnets combine the best of both worlds. They have no net magnetization, so there is no magnetic interference between neighboring components. At the same time, they naturally generate strongly spin-polarized currents and can operate at ultrafast terahertz frequencies. Thanks to these properties, they pave the way for ultrafast and exceptionally energy-efficient computer memories and hold significant potential for future high-performance computers and artificial intelligence hardware.
Altermagnetism is currently one of the fastest-growing fields in solid-state physics. “The original works from 2019–2024 have received thousands of citations, which is a rate ten times faster than is typical for breakthroughs in physics. This also indicates that a large number of teams around the world, across a wide range of disciplines, have embarked on research into altermagnetism,” explains Tomáš Jungwirth.
“The discovery and theoretical development of altermagnetism have been led by European researchers, establishing Europe as the birthplace of this emerging. The breakthrough has since stimulated rapidly growing research efforts worldwide, including major initiatives in the United States, Japan, and across Asia,” says the European Physical Society in a statement accompanying the award. The Czech Academy of Sciences played a significant role: at the time of the discoveries and the publication of the award-winning works, all three scientists were affiliated with the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
EPS Europhysics Prize
The prize has been awarded since 1975 (this year marks its 42nd edition) and is one of the most prestigious European awards in the field of condensed matter physics. The award will be presented at a ceremony on September 22, 2026, at the EPS Condensed Matter Division conference in Graz. The EPS Europhysics Prize is awarded in recognition of a significant and clearly identifiable discovery, breakthrough or contribution in the field of condensed matter physics that, in the opinion of the selection committee, represents scientific excellence. The prize honors research whose significant portion has been conducted in Europe.
Libor Šmejkal is a Czech theoretical and experimental physicist affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden, and with the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences. After conducting doctoral research at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences and at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, he earned his Ph.D. from Charles University. His research focuses on quantum solid-state physics, magnetism, and spintronics. He was awarded the prestigious ERC Starting Grant; in 2023, he received the Falling Walls Science Breakthrough Award in the physical sciences category; and in 2025, he was awarded the Walter Schottky Prize of the German Physical Society.
Tomáš Jungwirth is a Czech physicist working at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, and as a Distinguished Professor at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. He is among the world’s leading experts in the fields of spintronics, magnetic materials, and quantum solid-state physics. He is one of the most cited Czech scientists and has received numerous prestigious awards for his scientific achievements; he is a laureate of the 2024 “Česká hlava” National Government Award and the 2018 Neuron Award for a significant scientific discovery in physics. He is also the recipient of two ERC Advanced Grants and has long been dedicated to linking basic physics research with potential technological applications. In 2025, the President of the Czech Republic awarded him the Medal of Merit for his contributions to science.
Jairo Sinova is a Spanish-American theoretical physicist at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, where he leads a research group focused on spintronics and serves as director of the Spin Phenomena Interdisciplinary Center (SPICE). He also serves as a Senior Professor at Texas A&M University. He is the recipient of the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Professorship and was awarded an ERC Synergy Grant in 2014. He is a member of the American Physical Society. He worked at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences for many years, including the period during which his award-winning work on altermagnetism was carried out.