News: Institute of Physics

The Czech team achieved an outstanding result at the 5th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics for Juniors (IOAA-jr). The team returns from Thailand with one gold, two silver and one bronze medal, plus one honourable mention. Viktorie Snášelová won the competition outright. She also received awards for the best score in the theory round and for the best-performing girl.

Scientific topics don’t have to stay in academic journals. They can come to life in a mural on an underpass wall, on stage or in an animated series. At a networking mini-conference, organised on 21 October by the SciComHub association in cooperation with the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (FZU), visual artists, theatre makers, filmmakers and restorers talked about how they connect art and science.

On 15 and 16 October, the International Advisory Board of the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences met at the Slovanka campus. The Institute’s management and division heads presented their results and plans for the coming years to the international experts.

From 2027, the Czech Science Foundation (GA ČR) will fund two projects at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Tomáš Jungwirth has received an EXPRO grant for experienced researchers. Lenka Kubíčková has succeeded in the JUNIOR STAR call, which supports early-career scientists. Both projects will run for five years.

Altermagnets show no net magnetization, yet they generate spin current as efficiently as ferromagnets. A team led by Helena Reichlová, together with Fèlix Casanova of CIC nanoGUNE in Spain, has demonstrated this in the prestigious scientific journal Nature. The result opens the way to smaller and more robust spintronic devices.

The next round of the Karel Výborný Foundation Fund’s call for applications is now open! Are you a high school or college student who would like to travel abroad for academic purposes? Apply by November 30. The Foundation Fund can cover the costs of a short trip abroad, whether you’re attending a conference, a summer school, or a short research internship at a university or research institute.

The campus of the Czech Academy of Sciences lies a short walk from the Ládví metro station. A yellow building covered in Virginia creeper houses the largest photodissociation laser in the EU, the Prague Asterix Laser System, or PALS. Physicists are not its only users. Chemists work with it too. Veronika Zelenková uses it to study how molecules of greenhouse gases and interstellar dust behave under extreme conditions.

Maybe yes. A study published in Advanced Functional Materials highlights the crucial role of its naturally formed surface oxide layer in tungsten ditelluride (WTe₂). Researchers from the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (FZU), together with colleagues from collaborating institutions, investigated how surface oxidation affects ferroelectric switching and memristor-like electrical behavior in WTe2. 

Four Large-Sized Telescopes (LST) were inaugurated today in the Canary Islands. They stand at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma and form the core of the northern site of CTAO (Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory), set to become the world’s largest observatory for detecting cosmic gamma rays.

Dear colleagues,we would like to invite you to the seminar of Division of Elementary Particle Physics of Institute of Physics, presented by Tomáš Sýkora (Faculty of mathematics and physics, Charles University).For more info, please see invitation.

The Working Group of Project and Financial Managers of the Czech Academy of Sciences organises a meeting called “JAKNAJAK Communication Platform” (Komunikační platforma JAKNAJAK) focusing on OP JAK projects. Representatives from the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports will also attend the meeting.

How can we see individual molecules? Tereza Roesel from the Dioscuri Center for Single-Molecule Optics at the Institute of Physics presented this topic in the FameLab finals—and won the Audience Award for her presentation. Following last year’s silver medal and a shared Audience Award at the Falling Walls competition, this is yet another accolade for the young scientist for popularizing science—and further proof that even seemingly abstract topics can be communicated in an entertaining and accessible way.

Dear colleagues,we would like to invite you to the seminar of Division of Elementary Particle Physics of Institute of Physics, presented by Jan Řídký (FZU).For more info, please see invitation.

We invite students, PhD candidates, and academic staff to a free webinar titled "How to get published with IOP Publishing".When: Tuesday, October 6, from 11:00 to 12:30Language: EnglishRegistration: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/939163708330009691 (all registered participants will receive a recording)

On the last Friday of September, we opened the educational trail of the Czech Academy of Sciences’ Institutes in Ládví as part of Researchers' Night. Its interactive outdoor exhibits now show people walking by what scientists at the nearby institutes work on. 

One year after the Surface Science Laboratory Station (SSLS) arrived at FZU from the Joint Research Centre (JRC) Karlsruhe, its core experimental capabilities are now operational. Transferred to FZU in October 2025 following a successful bid led by FZU in a JRC tender, the facility has since undergone extensive installation and commissioning, supported by four expert visits from JRC Karlsruhe. Image

On September 22, Libor Šmejkal, Jairo Sinova, and Tomáš Jungwirth were awarded the 2026 Europhysics Prize by the European Physical Society for their outstanding contributions to condensed matter physics, specifically for their discovery of altermagnetism, the third fundamental class of magnetic order. All three laureates were affiliated with the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences at the time of their discoveries and the publication of their award-winning works. This is the first time that the EPS Europhysics Prize has been awarded to Czech scientists.