A Czech team of secondary school students from Hlučín, Plzeň and Prague won a gold medal at the international round of the Young Physicists' Tournament (IYPT), hosted by Zurich, Switzerland, from 5 to 12 July.
"I'm delighted with the gold medal in this exceptionally demanding team competition. Our students succeeded against very strong competition from teams from 35 countries around the world and achieved the best Czech result since 1998," says Michael Prouza, Director of the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
Fighting for medals in physics
The Young Physicists' Tournament (YPT) simulates real scientific work. Over the course of a year, competitors tackle seventeen open research problems. They build their own experiments, analyse data, and develop theoretical models. At the tournament, they present their results and defend them in direct discussion with rival teams before an expert jury.
What does such a problem look like? Deceptively simple. For example: "The motion of a coin falling to the bottom of a container filled with liquid can be remarkably similar to the fluttering and tumbling of falling autumn leaves. Investigate how the coin's motion depends on the relevant parameters." The solver soon discovers that even observing these intriguing motions is far from easy, and that they are in fact working on a question still debated in the scientific literature.
Who represented the Czech Republic
Kryštof Basista from the J. Kainar Grammar School in Hlučín, who won a Bakala Foundation scholarship and will begin studying theoretical physics at Imperial College London this autumn. Michal Fišer and Daniel Jedlička from the Higher Vocational School and Secondary Technical School of Electrical Engineering (VOŠ a SPŠE) in Plzeň, and Lukáš Franta and Daniel Švaňa from the Ch. Doppler Grammar School in Prague. Lukáš Franta captained the team. The five emerged from a selection camp held in April after the national round of the Young Physicists' Tournament in Prague.
Anyone can take part, even as an individual
For a long time, the tournament was open only to five-member school teams. Since its 38th year, it has also been open to individuals and smaller teams, so students from any secondary school can join. The new format was introduced by Hynek Němec of the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (FZU), one of the competition's main organisers. Anyone who wants to try the competition only needs to solve a single problem and submit it to the district round.
The 40th anniversary edition starts on 12 October 2026 with an opening camp at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, where students and teachers will explore the new problems and the competition rules. Throughout the year, participants will be able to consult scientists and, for the first time, recent tournament alumni, who will pass on their practical experience. Next summer, the best finalists will represent the Czech Republic at the international round in New Zealand.
Members of the Czech team
Kryštof Basista (J. Kainar Grammar School, Hlučín)
The universe and the laws of nature fascinated him back in primary school. The turning point came with Hawking's A Brief History of Time, which made him decide to become a theoretical physicist. At secondary school, he began studying intensively on his own, and his questions soon outgrew regular lessons. Last year's international round of the YPT, where his team won bronze, proved decisive as the tournament gave him valuable experience with research methodology and teamwork. During an internship at the Silesian University in Opava, he then worked on statistical physics and black hole thermodynamics. With his supervisor, he has already published a paper on gases with zero chemical potential in the European Journal of Physics, and more publications are in the works.
Michal Fišer (VOŠ a SPŠE Plzeň)
Popular science videos on the Veritasium channel drew him to physics, but the real breakthrough came with the YPT. Unlike purely theoretical competitions, it taught him to explore complex phenomena both theoretically and experimentally, and to understand that real problems cannot be described without well-chosen simplifications. His biggest milestone was preparing for the international round, which allowed him to take measurements using Raman spectroscopy in the laboratories of the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences. After graduating, he plans to study physics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University in Prague.
Daniel Jedlička (VOŠ a SPŠE Plzeň)
Competitions, above all, the YPT, sparked his deeper interest in physics and mathematics. Working on tournament problems showed him that complex problems can be solved, and one's own methods defended, already at secondary school. Contacts from the tournament also helped him secure an internship at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, where he took part in research on MXene synthesis and in Raman spectroscopy measurements. Competitions like the YPT are, in his view, the best route to real scientific practice, international experience, and people with similar interests.
Lukáš Franta (Ch. Doppler Grammar School, Prague)
A fresh graduate and future physics student at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University. This year he took part in the tournament for the third time, and what he enjoys most is its complexity: it's not just about solving a problem, but about building a theory, constructing an experiment and defending the results in discussion. His greatest reward is the moment when the measured data don't fit the model at first, but he figures out why, fixes the model, and everything falls into place.
Daniel Švaňa (Ch. Doppler Grammar School, Prague)
Teachers steered him towards subject olympiads back in lower secondary school, and from there it was just a step to the school's competition team. With his classmates, he regularly placed at the top in Fyziklání and the Physics Brawl (Fyzikální Náboj), but the YPT became his true passion. It taught him to study scientific literature independently, design experiments and look for deeper connections in data. For him, the highlight is the defence rounds, where he can discuss the problems directly with academics and researchers. The tournament has also brought him friends among science enthusiasts from all over the country.
