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Scintillation materials play a crucial role wherever ionizing radiation or accelerated particle beams need to be monitored. There are increased requirements on them for example in accelerators in industry, electron beam detection in scanning electron microscopes, or in hybrid detectors for the new generation of medical imaging devices in positron emission tomography. 

The first ground-based wide-field observatory designed to detect very high to ultra-high energy gamma rays in the Southern Hemisphere will be built in the Atacama Astronomical Park in Chile. The observatory will study radiation from space that is emitted by the most extreme objects in the universe, such as black holes and neutron stars, gamma-ray bursts and supernovae.

Enthusiasm for science is the driving force behind success. This is also demonstrated by Lindau Meetings, where for decades young scientists from all over the world have been meeting Nobel laureates. "The atmosphere of togetherness and mutual support they experience there is an invaluable source of inspiration," says this year's participant Petr Veřtát, a postdoctoral fellow from the Department of Magnetic Measurements and Materials at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

For Hana Lísalová, head of the Laboratory of Functional Biointerfaces from the Division of Optics, this year's fifth edition of the International Conference on Bioinspired and Zwitterionic Materials, which was held at Cornell University in the USA, meant a significant accomplishment. She received the prestigious Mid-career Award for her contribution to the development of a new generation of antifouling layers with biofunctional elements, biosensors and biomimetic systems.

A research team from the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences led by Zdeněk Hubička and Jiří Olejníček, in collaboration with teams from Japan's Osaka University and New Zealand's Unitec Institute of Technology, have achieved significant progress in the development of ultrafast luminescent layers of zinc oxides. 

Scientists from the Joint Laboratory of Optics, a collaboration between Palacký University and the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, have significantly refined and improved the efficiency of quantum entanglement tests, which play a crucial role in the development of quantum computers, by incorporating artificial intelligence.

Jiří Hybler studied geology at the Faculty of Science and was directed to crystallography, which was then beginning to develop rapidly in our country, by Professor Jiří Novák. 

A book titled "Věda je odvaha” (Science Requires Courage) presenting life stories of sixteen inspiring scientists has just been published. One of the stories in this book is dedicated to Hana Lísalová, head of the Laboratory of Functionl Biointerface of the Division of Optics at the Institute of Physics.

The ICHEP 2024 conference, the premier event in particle and astroparticle physics, is set to take place from18 to 24 July at the Prague Congress Centre. This highly anticipated conference will gather over 1300 scientists from around the globe to discuss the latest findings and advancements in the field.