As part of the Week of the Academy of Sciences the staff of the Institute of Physics present groundbreaking research to students and the curious public. This year was no exception. The opportunity to get a glimpse into the world of scientific experiments and cutting-edge technologies that scientists work with on a daily basis has been taken by 1348 visitors.
This year's photo competition of the Institute of Physics surprised the jury not only by the number of images submitted, but also by the variety of topics chosen by the contestants. This year's main theme was physical phenomena.
This year's Researchers‘ Night at the Institute of Physics, although rainy and gloomy, attracted 494 visitors to the premises of the Institute of Physics, who overcame the bad weather to immerse themselves in the world of science. Participants were impressed by the beauties of the microworld, the starry sky in the mobile planetarium, scintillating crystals and followed the tracks of invisible particles in the fog chamber. Physics enthusiasts could attend a panel discussion with leading scientists. Yet the evening was not only about science. The program also featured the Sleeping Lion drama group with a two-act comedy from the period of the First Republic and a screening of photo contest images. The contest winner announcement ended the night's program.
The Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences organizes the Physics Photography 2024 competition, which this year is thematically dedicated to "transformation". The main goal of the competition is to popularize the beauty of physics and to break the stereotypes of the perception of this field of science. The photography competition ends with the announcement of winners and an exhibition of the awarded and selected photos during the Night of Scientists, which is organized by the institute in the Na Slovance facility on Friday, September 27, 2024.
In the newborn independent Czechoslovak Republic, the sugar industry was a key sector. The total production of the 155 sugar factories at that time was hardly believable – one million three hundred thousand tonnes of sugar per year.
RNDr. Mariana Klementová, Ph.D., head of the Electron Microscopy Laboratory, is interested in the characterization of inorganic materials at the micro to nanoscale and in 3D electron diffraction to determine the atomic structure of unknown crystalline substances.
You belong among the ten most cited women at FZU. What advice would you give to younger colleagues so that they succeeded in the scientific competition?
Don't give up. Be persistent and patient. Don't get discouraged. If you feel like your kids are holding you back, they'll grow up fast and won't need you. Be happy that you have a profession that fulfils you and someone at home who loves you.
On February 11, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science is celebrated. On this occasion, we decided to find out what status women in research have. Facts will be revealed, but in addition to graphs, we also offer interviews with female scientists working at the Institute of Physics. We wanted to find out why they chose physics and whether there are equal opportunities in physics.
Mgr. Ivana Víšová, Ph.D., a postdoc at the Joint Laboratory of Optics, her research topics included the study of interactions of functional surfaces with biological systems. A holder or a number of awards, she considers a Ph.D. degree, which opens the door to the world of science, a kind of necessary evil.
Ing. Alice Hospodková, Ph.D., head of the Department of Semiconductors and MOVPE Laboratory, is convinced that in physics it is as hard for women as it is for men. The only exception is the time of motherhood.
Basic research in physics often consumes a great deal of energy, but there are visionaries who have been pushing through plans for how to save energy in the largest experiments for years. The chairman of the FZU's International Advisory Board, particle physicist Eckhard Elsen, is one of them. The former research director at CERN is also behind the upgrade plans for the particle accelerator - the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider.
The ELI Beamlines Research Facility, which houses some of the world's most intense laser systems, was transferred from the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (FZU) to the ELI ERIC (Extreme Light Infrastructure ERIC) international research consortium at the beginning of this year. The centre in Dolní Břežany has thus joined the ranks of scientific centres such as CERN or the European Southern Observatory in Chile.
