This year, the Institute of Physics together with the Institute of Physical Engineering at the Brno University of Technology organized another of a series of international summer schools Physics at Nanoscale, again with the support of the International Union of Vacuum Sciences, Technologies and Applications (IUVSTA). The series of schools repeated after 3 years was interrupted last year by the covid-19 pandemic, and even this year's postponed school had to be moved to a hybrid online environment.
More than a hundred students gathered in hubs in Grenoble, Zurich, Lausanne, Vienna, Brno and Prague. From 8 to 10 June, the participants watched the online lectures of the invited speakers in the lecture halls of the universities or institutes, in compliance with the locally valid regulations. In this way, the online environment was transformed into a lively space full of discussions and a positive atmosphere, similar to previous years.
The organizers, led by Antonín Fejfar from FZU and Tomáš Šikola from the Brno University of Technology, invited a total of 7 lecturers, who introduced the participants to various topics in the field of nanostructures, nanophotonics and spintronics. Among the school's lecturers, who are selected not only as leading experts, but also as inspiring personalities, were, for example, Pietro Gambardella, Michael Heuken or Oliver Benson.
"The lectures were led by real capacities in their fields, with an emphasis on the pedagogical dimension, which is so neglected at regular international conferences. Although as students we are each focused a little differently, all lectures were in some way enriching ", evaluates the professional program the head of the Prague hub Matěj Hývl.
The participants of the school also presented their research posters in the virtual hall gather.town, where the posters were discussed even during breaks.
During the joint program, the rich social dimension was not forgotten this year either. For example, students took part in an adventurous evening with experiments prepared by the Amazing Theater of Physics, which consists mainly of graduates of the Masaryk University. The participants of the summer school, including the lecturers, tried not only the principles of electroluminescence, linear and circular polarization of light, but also the mixing of colors. And because man does not live by science alone, all participants were able to try out an online workshop called Dance and Physics under the baton of the Ostružina ensemble.
The end of the school took place in the mysterious atmosphere of a partial solar eclipse. Although the joint photograph of the participants was not taken in one place, it was connected by this exceptional phenomenon across the whole of Europe.
The International Summer School on Physics at Nanoscale (IUVSTA) is organized jointly by the Institute of Physics, Brno University of Technology, CEITEC, the Czech Physical Society and the Czech Vacuum Society.