News: Institute of Physics

On January 27, 2026, the Research, Development and Innovation Council (RVVI) held an annual conference at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (FZU) dedicated to the evaluation of research organizations according to the 2017+/2025+ Methodology. The conference took place after the completion of another round of national evaluation and also included the sharing of experiences from the ongoing evaluation of the research activities of the Czech Academy of Sciences' workplaces. 

The Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences has successfully defended its prestigious HR Excellence in Research award, which it has held since April 2019. The Institute defended this award at the highest possible level, in the form of an extension without any additional conditions and without the need for any mandatory corrective measures.

The family of magnetic materials has been traditionally divided into the ferromagnetic branch known for several millennia and the antiferromagnetic branch known for nearly a century. Researchers from the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, together with international collaborators, have recently made a discovery of a new branch of the magnetic family, termed altermagnetic. Now they publish an article in Nature which gives not only a comprehensive theoretical and experimental description of altermagnetism, but also shows how the discovery of altermagnetism inspires future research into an even broader landscape of unconventional magnets beyond the traditional ferromagnets and antiferromagnets.

Astrophysicist and science popularizer Jiří Grygar from the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences received the Neuron Foundation Award for promoting a love of science at the Prague Planetarium.  

One of the winners of this year's CRYTUR Award for the best thesis in materials science, selected from more than fifty entries from Czech and Slovak universities, was Ing. Monika Kotyková, who, while studying at the Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague, also works in the Department of Optical Materials at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences. 

We are pleased to invite you to the Dioscuri Symposium on Frontiers in Biophysics and Advanced Microscopy, featuring invited talks by leading experts. The programme will highlight recent developments and emerging directions in biophysics and biotechnology.

Abstract: Reconstructing the expansion history of the universe and the properties of dark energy has been a central goal in physical cosmology, with far-reaching implications for our understanding of fundamental physics. By examining the behavior and influence of dark energy through cosmological observations, we can gain insight into the forces driving the universe’s accelerated expansion. In this presentation, I will examine methods for reconstructing dark energy properties, assess findings from the latest observational data such as DESI DR2, and discuss potential advancements in the field that may enhance our understanding of the universe’s fundamental dynamics. I will also discuss the possibility of Phantom Crossing in the equation of state of dark energy considering recent cosmological observations.

Justin C. Feng from the Department of Cosmology and Gravitational Physics at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences and independent researcher Chris Reiss have co-authored a study on using time dilation from special and general relativity to travel between stars without extreme aging differences between travelers and their home civilization.

Jan Ebr, Jakub Vícha, and Jiří Blažek from the Department of Astroparticle Physics at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences contributed to an article published recently in Nature Reviews Physics. The article deals with the topic of tuning event generators, which are computer programs that simulate particle collisions according to a theoretical model and generate hypothetical data that would correspond to real experiments on accelerators.