News: Institute of Physics

Silence, the smell of books, and whispering readers. That is the traditional image of a classic library. But the Scientific Library Cukrovarnická at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences quickly proves this stereotype wrong. There is no quiet reading room here, and the idea of sacred silence is just a dream. In reality, it is an active workplace that provides solid support for research teams.

From 4 to 6 June 2026, the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (FZU) will be at the Science Fair every day from 10 am to 6 pm. Come and see what really goes on inside a physics laboratory.

She spent a year in the FZU laboratories, researching structures invisible to the naked eye, and advanced to the national round of the Students’ Professional Activities (SPA). How did Lucie Krejčová work her way to such a remarkable success?

The Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (FZU) is helping to organise the Month of Science on Wikipedia, a nationwide initiative to create and improve science articles on the Czech Wikipedia. The main editathon will be held on 14 May 2026 at our Prague site on Cukrovarnická. Everyone is welcome, whether you have edited Wikipedia before or not. The initiative runs from 1 May to 15 June 2026.

This year marks 65 years since Yuri Gagarin became the first person to fly into space. He was 27 years old and the flight lasted 108 minutes. To celebrate the anniversary, the Institute of Physics (FZU) and the science outreach community Pátečníci put together an afternoon of talks at Dvořák Hall on 12 April. 

The Institute of Physics has received an award for a video about the testing of silicon sensors for CERN. The reason? The video, made for the institute's social media, explains the testing process in a way that is both clear and engaging. The award itself takes the form of a statuette resembling a film Oscar.

Eight teams, six months of preparation, three days of physics competitions. The winners of this year’s 39th Young Physicists’ Tournament have been announced. The title went to Kryštof Basista (J. Kainar High School in Hlučín) and Michal Fišer and Daniel Jedlička from the Higher Vocational School and Secondary Technical School of Electrical Engineering in Plzeň. Second place went to a team composed of students from the Ch. Doppler High School in Prague and the Týn nad Vltavou High School, while the bronze medal goes to Mendel High School in Opava.

In recent weeks, CERN has delivered two results worth paying attention to. The LHCb experiment discovered a long-sought particle. The BASE experiment, for the first time in history, transported antiprotons outside the laboratory. 

The FZU Photography Competition is back. As every year, we are inviting everyone who wants to capture the world through the lens of science and their own imagination. The competition is open in two categories, and the best photos will be awarded at a ceremony in autumn 2026.

On Czech Wikipedia today, you will find over 133,000 articles about men and only 30,000 about women, a mere 22% of all biographies. The missing aren't only historical figures. Many current female scientists, internationally recognised and published in leading journals, have no entry at all. In March, the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (FZU) joined forces with Wikimedia Czech Republic to do something about it, co-organising an editathon on 24 March focused on women in science. 

ProgramThe workshop is designed to include lectures followed by a hands-on session, during which participants can work on selected examples from the Jana cookbook using their laptops.Here is the program draft. It may be fine-tuned according to the participant's wishes.Day 1, 9:00-12:00, Simple 3d structuresLecture: Introduction to Jana2020 Day 1, 13:00-18:00, Modulated structuresLecture: Modulated structures Day 2, 9:00-12:00, Powder structuresLecture: Powder structures Day 2, 13:00-18:00, Electron density studiesLecture: Electron density studies

ProgramThe workshop is designed to include lectures followed by a hands-on session, during which participants can work on selected examples from the Jana cookbook using their laptops.This workshop focuses on all aspects of indexing, solution, and refinement of powder structures in Jana2020.Online participation is not possible. Topics:Introduction to Jana2020Indexing and solution of powder structures by external programs, their communication with Jana2020Restraints and constraints to control geometryModulated structures from powder dataMultiphasesAutomatic refinement and analysis of many data setsSharpening of electron density maps

What happens when a particle from deep space hits the Earth's atmosphere? And how do scientists actually find out? A group of secondary school students explored these questions after being invited by the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (FZU) and the Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering at CTU (FJFI) to a full-day seminar on astroparticle physics.

ProgramThe workshop is designed to include lectures followed by a hands-on session, during which participants can work on selected examples from the Jana cookbook using their laptops.Here is the program draft. It will be fine-tunedThis workshop is focused on the solution and refinement of magnetic structures in Jana2020.Day 1, 9:00-18:00, Simple magnetic structuresDay 2, 9:00-18:00, Advanced magnetic structuresLectures: Introduction to Jana2020; Magnetic structures; Magnetic symmetry; Superspace and magnetic superspace groups; Commensurate structuresLecturers: Václav Petříček, Margarida Henriques, Manuel Perez-Mato, Michal Dušek

Ing. Vladimír Nekvasil, DrSc. belonged to those scientists who feel a responsibility for the environment in which science is made. He devoted his entire life to condensed matter physics and, after 1989, became one of the key figures in building Czech science on new, free foundations. On 20 April, he would have turned 82.