Do quantum computers exist? Is there any hope that we will ever be able to build relevant quantum computers in the future? These questions were the subject of a friendly debate between two leading global experts on May 20, 2025, at the National Library of Technology in Prague. A recording of their discussion is available.
Three exceptional lectures will connect mathematics, physics, artificial intelligence, and art, offering a fresh perspective on the modern world.
“I tried to tell people that psychiatric patients – with rare exceptions – don’t bite and don’t kill. To some extent, I think that message got through. But you have to keep blowing on it.” This is how psychiatrist Cyril Höschl, founding member of the Learned Society, summed up his life’s mission last year when he received the Neuron Award. On Monday 21 April 2025, he passed away from multiple system atrophy, aged 75.
The Learned Society of the Czech Republic is hosting a discussion on whether we will ever have practically relevant quantum computers. Matthias Christandl argues that qubits have already been created, and that this will lead to the development of useful quantum computers. Gil Kalai does not dispute the creation of qubits, but he argues that, because of their inherent properties, we will never have practically relevant quantum computers.
The Learned Society of the Czech Republic cordially invites you to the fifth Bolzano lecture. The Fields Medal winner, the French mathematician Hugo Duminil-Copin, will deliver it on Wednesday, 16 April 2025, in the Blue Hall of Karolinum, Prague. He will discuss the role of the Ising model not only in the study of ferromagnetism but will present it as a general mathematical framework for understanding the phenomena of statistical physics.
Invitation to the symposium (including online access) organized by the Learned Society of the Czech Republic and the Czech Medical Academy. The Czech Academy of Sciences, Národní 3, Praha 1, Tuesday, February 18, 2025.
On Sunday, 5 January 2025, Professor František Šmahel, a prominent Czech historian, medievalist, and member of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic, passed away at the age of 90. He significantly influenced historical research both in the Czech Republic and abroad, profoundly enriching Czech and global historiography. While his scholarly works were primarily focused on the late medieval history of the Czech lands, they also extended to broader European contexts and occasionally addressed contemporary historical themes.
On Saturday, November 16, Martin Loebl, President of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic, met in Prague with Hans-Georg Kräusslich, President of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, to discuss potential forms of collaboration.
The Learned Society of the Czech Republic is pleased to launch the second annual Jiřina Michlová Award for doctoral students, recognizing outstanding original scientific work. Eligible submissions include scientific articles, student theses, or studies created specifically for the award.
Representatives of the Learned Society today laid a wreath at the commemorative plaque on Národní třída in Prague, which marks the events of 17 November 1989. The wreath bore the timeless quote from Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk: "Freedom means responsibility."
The First Vice-President of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic, Ivo Starý from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (IOCB), has been awarded this year's Praemium Academiae — a prestigious grant from the Czech Academy of Sciences providing up to CZK 30 million over the next six years.
What role did religion play in the modernisation of Europe? Is its influence still present or has secular modernity made religion obsolete? Watch the recording of a lecture by Oxford historian Stein Ringen: The Role of Religion in European Modernisation.
Lawyer and sociologist Jiří Přibáň, a foreign fellow of the Learned Society, will become the new judge of the Constitutional Court. On Wednesday 19 June, the Senate approved his nomination by President Petr Pavel (along with Tomáš Langášek).
"In addition to the highly technical topics of contemporary science and education, it is a vital role of the Learned Society to protect democracy and freedom in our country, to speak out in their defence at any hint of their restriction," said Libor Grubhoffer, who has served as President of the Learned Society for the last two years.
The new President of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic is Martin Loebl, a mathematician. He will succeed Libor Grubhoffer, Director of the Biological Centre of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, whose two-year mandate ends at the XXXth General Assembly of the Learned Society (20-21 May 2024).
On Monday, 13 May 2024, Prof. Josef Michl, a world-renowned chemist and a foreign fellow of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic, died unexpectedly.
Prof. Julius Lukeš from the Institute of Parasitology of the Biological Centre of the CAS, a member of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic, was elected on 30 April 2024 (as the third Czech citizen) as an international member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NSA).
The Learned Society of the Czech Republic cordially invites you to attend Palacký lecture by Stein Ringen, historian and political scientist from Oxford. On Thursday 25 April 2024 in the refectory of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University on Malostranské náměstí in Prague. The lecture will be held in English.
On Friday, January 26, 2024, Prof. RNDr. Jiří Bičák, DrSc., Dr.h.c., theoretical physicist, expert in the field of theory of relativity and cosmology, founding member of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic and between 2014-2016 also its President, died at the age of 82.
It is with great sadness that we have just received the news that Jan Závada, PhD, molecular oncologist, expert in virus genetics, and founding member of the Learned Society, died on Friday, January 5, at the age of 90.
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