President Petr Pavel has awarded the Czech Republic’s highest state honor, the Order of the White Lion, to Professor Helena Illnerová for particularly outstanding service to the state in the field of science.
This year’s Europhysics Prize, awarded by the European Physical Society for outstanding contributions to condensed matter physics, has gone to Learned Society member Tomáš Jungwirth and his colleagues Libor Šmejkal and Jairo Sinova for the discovery of altermagnetism, the third form of magnetism.
The Association for Symbolic Logic has awarded the Shoenfield Prize to Jan Krajíček of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University, a member of the Learned Society. The prize is awarded once every three years for outstanding expository writing in the field of mathematical logic, and Prof. Krajíček received it for his book Proof Complexity.
On Thursday, July 23, 2026, Prof. Mgr. Pavel Jungwirth, DSc., one of the most prominent Czech physical chemists, an internationally recognized scientist, and former chairman of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic, died at the age of sixty. Through his scientific work, he significantly enriched his field and inspired countless colleagues and students. Memories of him will remain indelibly etched in the minds of all who had the honor of knowing him personally.
The incoming president of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic is its current 1st Vice-President, chemist Ivo Starý from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry. He succeeds mathematician Martin Loebl of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University.
The Learned Society of the Czech Republic cordially invites you on Tuesday, April 14, 2026, at 4:30 p.m., to the Palacký Lecture by French political scientist and Arabist Gilles Kepel, an expert on political Islam, on the highly timely topic of the conflict in the Middle East.
The Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz has admitted five new members. Among them is Pavel Jungwirth, a physical chemist at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, a member and, from 2020 to 2022, president of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic.
It is with deep sorrow that we received the news that on Wednesday, December 17, 2025, Prof. RNDr. Ivan Hirsch, CSc. (born 1946), a member of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic, passed away at the age of 79.
Jaroslav Nešetřil, together with French mathematician Patrice Ossona de Mendez, has been awarded the 2025 Nerode Prize by the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS). They laid the foundations for a significant area of structural graph theory, known as Sparsity.
Courage, bravery, humanity, and justice — these are the values embodied by the laureates of the Arnošt Lustig Prize, awarded since 2011 by the Czech Israeli Mutual Chamber of Commerce. The 2024 Prize was presented on Wednesday, October 1, in the Ball Game Hall of Prague Castle by the President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, to Professor Jan Konvalinka, biochemist, Director of the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, and member of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic.
On Wednesday, May 21, an interdisciplinary meeting connecting mathematics, physics, artificial intelligence, and art took place in the refectory of the Professional House of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University. The recording of the lectures by Marc Mézard, Lenka Zdeborová, and Annie Cohen-Solal is now available.
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.
“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.
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.
Three exceptional lectures will connect mathematics, physics, artificial intelligence, and art, offering a fresh perspective on the modern world.
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.
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.
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