Press Releases

Scientists from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and Palacký University Olomouc, have once again successfully uncovered the mysteries of the world of molecules and atoms. They have experimentally confirmed the correctness of a decades-old theory that assumed a non-uniform distribution of electron density in aromatic molecules. This phenomenon significantly affects the physicochemical properties of molecules and their interactions. This research expands the possibilities for designing new nanomaterials and is the theme of a paper that has just been published in Nature Communications.

On the occasion of the Dvořák Lectures organized by the Institute of Physics, the FZU Director Michael Prouza handed over decrees to appoint the Emeritus Scientists of the Czech Academy of Sciences to three researchers from the Institute of Physics. In his opening speech, he thanked the appointed researchers – namely Pavel Novák, Ivan Pelant and Antonín Šimůnek – for making a significant contribution to the development of physical research by fulfilling their scientific visions.

Unique Cherenkov telescopes have successfully been installed at the Ondřejov Observatory near Prague. There are two telescopes at the site, which are now the largest optical telescopes in the Czech Republic. They have been developed in the frame of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory, and evaluated as performing telescopes in the high energy region above 1 TeV.

The atomically sharp domain walls that were discovered by an international team led by researchers from the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, might considerably improve the research of ulta-fast memory devices made from antiferromagnetic materials. 

A total of 11 postdoctoral researchers have headed back from abroad to Czechia as grant holders of the Horizon Europe’s “Excellent Science” programme. Three of the researchers who will be developing their career path at the Institute of Physics have received a total of 498 836,16 Euros awarded to them as part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships in order to finance their research in physics. In addition to this, the FZU has received an ERA Postdoctoral Fellowship.

The first year of the Science Challenge educational competition for teams of gifted high school students took place in the ELI Beamlines and HiLASE laser centres on February 18-19. During the 24-hour scientific marathon, the first place in the challenging competition was awarded to the Nafta - Anime team.

The FZU joins the Czech Academy of Sciences, which has supported the declaration of the Czech Prime Minister on the development of the situation in Ukraine.

The HiLASE Centre in Dolní Břežany is celebrating another success; another world record. At the end of January, the High Energy Slab Lasers scientific team managed to break their own world record on the BIVOJ laser system by 40%. Converting to the second harmonic frequency, they demonstrated 515 nm, second harmonic pulses with an energy of 95 J at a repetition rate of 10 Hz.