News

On Friday, November 7, during the Open Days at FZU, the winners of the FZU photo competition were announced and received their awards from FZU Director Michael Prouza. In the employee category, first place went to a photograph byintern Lucie Krejčová entitled Crack. The student category was dominated by Adam Lorenc, a second-year student at Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, whose photographs of crystalline silicon carbide took first and second place. 

Leading scientists and talented experts received awards, which include financial support for their research, from Radomír Pánek, President of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Lukáš Palatinus received the prestigious Praemium Academiae Award, while Filip Křížek received the Lumina quaeruntur Award. Both award winners work at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences. 

On October 28, 2025, the President of the Czech Republic awarded the Medal of Merit to Professor Tomáš Jungwirth, head of the Spintronics and Nanoelectronics Department at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Professor Jungwirth and his team were behind a discovery that paves the way for digital data storage that is a thousand times faster.

Unlike in working with particle accelerators, where scientists plan their experiments in detail in advance, Patrik Čechvala has to wait and see what particles arrive from the depths of space. He is dedicated to observing particle showers caused by photons with extraordinary energies. In an interview about the MSCA COFUND Physics for Future postdoctoral program at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, he talks about why space is the best laboratory and how cosmic rays help uncover the secrets of the pyramids – as well as how to present the topic to the public in contests such as FameLab, in whose Czech finals he represented the Institute of Physics this year.

Imagine flipping a dial to make a material behave like a perfect conductor, a complete blocker, or something intriguingly in-between that could help us to better understand the puzzling quantum world. That’s the idea behind a new study in Physical Review Letters, co-authored by FZU researcher Filip Křížek within an international collaboration.

On Tuesday, October 7, 2025, a joint conference of the Institute of Physics (FZU) and the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (IOCB) of the Academy of Sciences took place. Its aim was to find potentially interesting topics on which to build long-term cooperation between the two institutes of the Academy of Sciences.

On October 6, 2025, physicist Václav Špička from the Institute of Physics received the De scientia et humanitate optime meritis medal, the highest award of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

The scientific work of our colleague, Mgr. Ing. Oleg Heczko, Dr., DSc., was recognized with the prestigious title of Doctor of Science.

On the last Friday in September, Researchers' Night attracted more than 1,400 physics enthusiasts of all ages to the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences.