News from FZU

Thomas Gouder’s life's work at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in Karlsruhe (JRC) is a state-of-the-art modular system for surface science. The instrument, used for cutting-edge research on nuclear fuel safety, corrosion, catalysis, and actinide chemistry, has served scientists from all over Europe, including teams from Prague. How does it work, why is it being moved to Prague, and what lies ahead for its future?

We invite you to the traditional HR Coffee & Talk meeting at Cukrovarnická.

We invite you to the traditional HR Coffee & Talk meeting at Slovanka.

Will Barker is part of a new generation of theoretical physicists reshaping how we think about gravity, black holes, and the fundamental structure of the universe. His recent research explores the strange frontier where Einstein’s general relativity may no longer hold — a region populated not by traditional black holes, but by their uncanny cousins: black hole mimickers. Since joining the Physics for Future fellowship in Prague, Barker’s work has taken on a broader scope. In this interview, he reflects on the role of uncertainty in physics, how cosmology can test bold new ideas, and why running to work through the hills of Prague has become part of his scientific routine.

A team of physicists from Czech research institutions shows how shaped light fields can steer ultrafast processes inside solids with remarkable precisionResearchers from the Division of Optics  of the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University, and the IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center at VSB – Technical University of Ostrava have succeeded in controlling the motion of electrons in solids with exceptional precision — on the attosecond timescale, i.e., in intervals of a billionth of a billionth of a second (10⁻¹⁸ s). Their findings have been published in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters as editor’s suggestion.

Over 600 scientists gathered at the Open Symposium in Venice, Italy, to discuss the future direction of European particle physics in a global context. When assessing scientific priorities, the main topic of discussion was the possible successor to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, which will reach the end of its operational lifetime in 2041. The Open Symposium was part of the process of updating the European Strategy for Particle Physics (ESPP).