• N1 - Impakt Pavilion
• T1 - Lecture Hall Building

• S9, Refectory - 1st floor
• S3 - 3rd floor

The tour will be divided into four routes, and you will be able to choose one of them in the registration form. The meeting point for everyone is at 19:00 in front of Hotel Duo, where you will split into groups and be taken over by your guides. The expected return to the hotel is at 22:00, except for the Letná route, which is planned to end at approximately 23:00.

If you're staying at the PULSE8 hotel, you'll receive meeting point details in a separate email.

Discover the beauty of Vyšehrad and its unique views over Prague. At Vyšehrad, we'll stop by the Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul, and enjoy several viewpoints overlooking the Vltava River. Then we’ll set off for a calm (and, if you like, even romantic) walk along the river embankment all the way to the Dancing House.

A packed evening tour of Prague's historic center, where you’ll see the city’s most famous landmarks as well as lesser-known corners. Expect striking night panoramas of the Old Town and Lesser Town. The program is flexible — depending on the group’s pace and your preferences, the route can be shortened or adjusted.

Žižkov and Karlín — two neighborhoods connected by a single tunnel, places every local knows, but most tourist guides won’t take you to. After a look at the Church of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, a beautiful and somewhat underrated Gothic building, we’ll begin a gentle climb through the city bustle toward Jan Žižka of Trocnov — the monumental statue watching over Žižkov. From there we’ll walk through the park on Vítkov all the way to Vítkov Hill itself. Through Žižkov and the Žižkov Tunnel, a big-city underground gem, we’ll then make our way back at an easy pace.

A longer walk featuring Prague's evening viewpoints. We'll cross Letná Plain to reach Prague Castle and Petřín, then finish by descending to Lesser Town and crossing Charles Bridge into the Old Town. If you're interested and the weather is good, we can also stop by Strahov Stadium along the way.

The Morning with Astronomy program features a workshop by the Czech Rocket Society followed by a lecture by RNDr. David Píša, Ph.D. Further details about each session can be found in the schedule and abstracts below.

Introducing the world of amateur and student rocketry through the activities of the Czech Rocket Society. Participants will learn what it takes to design, build, and successfully launch a functional rocket; from the initial idea, through the basic principles of rocket propulsion, aerodynamics, and structural design, to testing, safety, and teamwork. The lecture shows that building a rocket is not only about physics and calculations, but also about project management, creativity, and perseverance. The goal is to provide a clear introduction to rocket engineering and to motivate students to get involved in technical and scientific projects.

The Department of Space Physics at the IAP CAS is involved in some of the most ambitious missions of the European Space Agency (ESA). This lecture will introduce flagship projects exploring the physics of the Sun (Solar Orbiter), the icy moons of Jupiter (JUICE), and upcoming missions targeting comets and Mars. Students will gain insight into the physical principles behind these measurements and the engineering challenges of operating in extreme deep-space environments. Join us to discover how local research contributes to global discoveries across our Solar System.

The program will take place in N1 lecture hall in the Troja Campus.

Tour of the newly renovated Planetarium Prague. You can look forward to a “stargazing” show of the projected night sky in the planetarium dome, followed by a short film. After the program ends at 16:00, you can stay in the planetarium to explore its exhibitions.

Arrive no later than 14:40 at the tram stop Výstaviště (do not confuse it with the stop Výstaviště Letňany).

The Nations' evening will be an opportunity for all foreign participants to get to know each other's cultures and learn something new about them. Each team will prepare a small introduction to their country, which may include food, clothing, songs, dances, or other cultural enrichment.

The program will take place in the Impakt Pavilion in the Troja Campus; participants have received detailed information by email.

Lab tours at Troja Campus. In your application form, you may choose one of the sets of excursions listed below. Please arrive no later than 8:45 at the Troja Campus at the Lecture Hall Building auditorium.

Schedule of the excursions

Annotations of the excursions

Combined Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy (STM/AFM) is widely used for imaging surfaces with atomic resolution. We will discuss its capability of analyzing the structure and electronic properties of complex materials. The presented results will be linked with current needs in modern technologies, such as renewable energy and semiconductor applications.

Chemical reactions at solid/gas or solid/liquid interfaces determine the efficiency of many energy-related, chemical or environmental technologies including the emerging game-changer - water electrolysis. In this labtour, we get acquainted with all scales of electrolyzer design from device engineering and synthesis of the required electrocatalysts down to electrocatalyst optimization based on atomically resolved observations of the electrochemical reactions at catalyst surfaces.

Mössbauer spectroscopy is a nuclear (gamma-ray) method that uses radiation from a radioactive source to probe the properties of solid materials. It is a non-destructive technique that does not alter the sample and is especially valuable for solids where other approaches can struggle – such as amorphous materials (glasses) and nanoparticles. In practice, it can reveal the oxidation/valence state (e.g., Fe²⁺ vs. Fe³⁺), local structure and defects around the nucleus, spin state, and magnetic ordering (whether the sample is magnetic, what type of ordering it has, and the orientation/size of local magnetic moments, including relaxation effects like superparamagnetism).

During the excursion, you will get a short historical and theoretical introduction, see how measurements are performed in our lab and what kinds of samples we analyze, and learn where the results are useful. We’ll also include a small “applications window” showing Mössbauer spectroscopy beyond the lab – ranging from Mars missions to studies of prehistoric cave paintings and investigations in galleries – plus time for your questions.

A very simplified desktop model of Earth's system components (Sun, cloudiness, Earth's surface and albedo, ocean, and atmosphere), their interactions, and climate changes.

Our main projects include the ATLAS internal silicon strip detector (SCT) and its upgrade (ATLAS ITk), as well as collaborations on the DEPFET, BELLE, and BELLE II projects. We conduct research on radiation-hardened detectors and contribute to the preparation of the new ILC linear accelerator.

Our work covers physics experiments and their simulation, programming for testing and analyzing silicon strip and pixel detectors in particle physics, and operating a clean laboratory for laser tests and data acquisition. This spans from setting up automated laser tests at sub-micron precision and low temperatures (-20°C) to the discovery of new particles in CERN (Geneva) and KEK (Japan). Our expertise extends from weak signal readouts in our lab to large-scale computing simulations on the world's most powerful computational grids.

Today, most nanoparticles are synthesized chemically. This approach enables the production of nanoparticles from a wide variety of materials with diverse structures and properties. It also allows for the creation of heterogeneous nanoparticles, such as core@shell and dumbbell types.

However, a significant drawback of chemical synthesis is that nanoparticles are typically prepared in solution using stabilizing agents to prevent aggregation, which can compromise their final purity. Additionally, synthesizing nanoparticles from metals prone to rapid oxidation is challenging or even impossible with chemical methods.

We employ the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) to obtain the molecular or crystal structure and dynamics with atomic resolution. Our lab touches the borders between physics, chemistry, and even biology: we investigate various properties of solid materials (non-magnetic and magnetic), organic molecules as well as solutions of biological macromolecules. For this, we need a strong magnetic field that is usually created by a superconductive coil. In addition, the resonance of nuclear magnetic moments is achieved by short pulses of alternating magnetic field in MHz to GHz range. We will show you our strong magnets, electronic equipment, and liquid and solid samples that we study.

The Laboratory of Elementary Processes in Plasmas studies the interactions of ions with molecules and electrons in interstellar plasmas. We operate several experimental facilities that allow us to conduct measurements at temperatures down to -260°C, typical of interstellar gas clouds. Our research employs ion traps and highly sensitive laser absorption spectroscopy techniques.

The accelerator serves as a tunable source of heavy charged particles—including protons, deuterons, alpha particles, and nitrogen nuclei—within the energy range of 200 keV to 2.5 MeV. It is also the only facility in the Czech Republic capable of generating fast mono-energetic neutrons with energies up to about 17 MeV.

The Van de Graaff accelerator laboratory is dedicated to both fundamental and applied research in experimental nuclear physics. While fundamental studies focus on reaction cross-section measurements to refine theoretical predictions, applied research includes radiation detector testing, material and surface analysis, and space-related experiments. Additionally, the laboratory plays an educational role, providing students with opportunities to engage in experimental projects.

Laser Centre PALS is a joint facility of the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, equipped with a terawatt iodine laser and a Ti:sapphire laser. It is conceived as a user laboratory providing a base for experimental research in the field of high-power lasers and the physics of laser-generated plasma for more than a quarter of a century.

In the early summer of 1925, Werner Heisenberg discovered mathematical laws governing observable quantities in the microworld and formulated the first complete version of what later became quantum mechanics. We will revisit the historical context of this discovery and explain the key elements of Heisenberg’s reasoning. This will provide relatively simple tools to demonstrate the crucial differences between classical and quantum mechanics, and to explain how the two theories come to agree as we approach the realm of macroscopic objects.

The lecture will take place in N1 lecture hall in the Troja Campus.

During the panel discussion on the topic Czechs in Large-Scale Projects, several leading scientists will share their experience from international collaborations—how Czech teams get involved, what it takes to work with massive infrastructure, and what opportunities and challenges such projects bring. The panel will feature

• RNDr. Martina Boháčová, Ph.D. | An astroparticle physicist at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences. She focuses on developing and testing detectors for major international cosmic-ray observatories and is involved in the Pierre Auger Observatory project.
• Mgr. Martin Rybář, Ph.D. | An experimental particle physicist at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University. His research focuses on the ATLAS experiment at the LHC (CERN). He is also a prominent science communicator and takes part in public outreach events.
• doc. Petr Kabáth, Dr. rer. nat. | An astronomer at the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences specializing in exoplanets. He is a member of the PLATO (ESA) Mission Board and also leads the PLATOSpec spectrograph project (ESO, La Silla) for the discovery and characterization of exoplanets.
• Ing. Jan Souček, Ph.D. | A scientist at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences involved in ESA space missions. He works on plasma and radio-wave measurements and instrumentation for missions such as Solar Orbiter, LISA, and Athena.

The discussion will be moderated by Marek Milička, a theoretical physics student at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, and a long-time FYKOS organizer.

The discussion will take place in lecture hall N1 at the Troja Campus.

The program for the teachers is, unfortunately, held entirely in Czech. However, there will be an open café area for everyone, where you can sit down and relax.

Parallel program for czech-speaking participants.

Analysis of competition problems with some of their authors. The program will take place in lecture hall S9 in the Malá Strana Campus.

After Friday's competition, you will have the opportunity to meet all participants staying in Prague at a festive reception and celebrate 20 years of Fyziklani together with us.

The reception will be held in the first floor of in the Malá Strana Campus. The venue will open to participants at 18:30, followed by the ceremonial opening at 19:00.

What really happens inside a metal when we try to pull it apart? With electron microscopes, we can watch metals deform from the inside, at a scale where atoms rearrange. Why are some metals stronger than others, and just how close can electrons let us see? In this talk, we’ll zoom into matter using transmission electron microscopy and explore what we actually see when we look really, really close.

The lecture will take place in T1 lecture hall in the Troja Campus.

Hydrogen is a promising energy carrier for large-scale storage of renewable electricity, with proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEM-WE) being among the most efficient production technologies. Its major limitation is the reliance on scarce and expensive iridium-based catalysts that must operate under harsh electrochemical conditions.

This lecture focuses on why catalysts cannot be reliably understood solely through ex situ experiments and why operando techniques are essential. It introduces operando methods that allow direct observation of chemical and structural changes during electrolysis. Using examples of bimetallic catalysts such as Ir–Ru, the lecture shows how dynamic surface transformations and nanoscale structure enable significant reductions in iridium loading without sacrificing performance or stability.

The talk highlights how combining electrochemistry with surface-sensitive physics provides the insight needed to rationally design catalysts for green hydrogen technologies.

The lecture will take place in T1 lecture hall in the Troja Campus.

Come meet scientists and other experts in person and chat with them about their work, studies, science, and anything else you're curious about. Our invitation was accepted by

• Mgr. Daniel Dupkala | Conducts exoplanet research at Trinity College Dublin and has long been involved in organizing the FYKOS and Fyziklani competitions.
• RNDr. Tomáš Hrbek, Ph.D. | Works at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, at the Department of Surface and Plasma Physics within the Nanomaterials Group, focusing on applied research for hydrogen technologies.
• Mgr. Vojtěch Pleskot, Ph.D. | Works at the Institute of Particle and Nuclear Physics, is also involved in the ATLAS experiment at CERN, and is active in particle physics outreach and science communication.
• doc. Mgr. Jan Hanuš, Ph.D. | An associate professor at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, in the Department of Macromolecular Physics. He focuses in particular on preparing nanoclusters and nanoparticles and on developing nanoparticle sources.
• doc. RNDr. Martin Kozák, Ph.D. | An associate professor at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, in the Department of Chemical Physics and Optics. His research focuses on advanced and ultrafast electron microscopy.
• RNDr. Klára Uhlířová, Ph.D. | Works at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, in the Department of Condensed Matter Physics in a group focused on the magnetic properties of materials.
• doc. RNDr. Karel Houfek, Ph.D. | Head of the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University. He works in theoretical atomic and molecular physics and is also involved in faculty governance, for example through the Academic Senate.
• RNDr. Petr Čermák, Ph.D. | Works at the Department of Condensed Matter Physics at CUNI MFF. His experimental research focuses on magnetic materials. Besides the measurements themselves, he also works on robotization of experiments and automation of data processing. He is the founder of a spinoff Charles Automata.
• RNDr. Jan Čapek, Ph.D. | Research assistant at the Department of Physics of Materials, CUNI MFF. He focuses on research of the mechanical properties of advanced metal alloys, particularly those based on iron, titanium, and magnesium.
• doc. RNDr. Robert Švarc, Ph.D. | Associate Professor at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, CUNI MFF. His research focuses on theories of gravity, particularly general relativity and its modifications.

The program will take place in the Impakt Pavilion at the Troja Campus.

The accompanying program of Fyziklani started in 2012 as an informal post-competition gathering focused on board games. Come meet other participants and organizers, play a variety of board games, and enjoy a relaxed evening, possibly with additional activities.

The program will take place in the first floor of the Lecture Hall Building in the Troja Campus.