The Nuclear Physics Institute of the CAS celebrated its 70th anniversary

26. 06. 2025

On Tuesday, 10 June 2025, it was exactly 70 years since the history of the Nuclear Physics Institute of the CAS began to be written. The participants were greeted by the President of the CAS, Prof. Radomír Pánek, Ph.D., Director General and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the ÚJV Řež, Ing. Martin Ruščák, CSc., MBA, Dean of the Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering of the CTU in Prague doc. Ing. Václav Čuba, Ph.D., Dean of the Faculty of Science, UJEP doc. RNDr. Michal Varady, Ph.D., and the Vice Dean for Scientific Activities and International Relations of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University prof. RNDr. Zdeněk Doležal, Dr.

The meeting was hosted by the Director of the Nuclear Physics Institute Ing. Ondřej Svoboda, Ph.D., who briefly introduced the Institute. After the greetings of the guests, the Deputy Director of the Institute prof. RNDr. Anna Macková, Ph.D. took the floor and introduced the CANAM research infrastructure operated by the Institute.

The final paper of the morning session was presented by Dr. Roman Garba from the Department of Neutron and Ion Methods. In his presentation he summarized the results of his research on the oldest settlement in Europe in the Korolevo area in western Ukraine. This research, published in 2024 in Nature, has demonstrated the presence of humans on the European continent as early as 1.4 million years ago and is the result of an international collaboration led by scientists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics.

The lectures were followed by a tour of selected laboratories of the Institute.

In the afternoon, on the occasion of the anniversary, the NPI management also met with the Institute's employees. They also listened to presentations by the Institute's management and a lecture by Roman Garba.

The former Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences was established on 10 June 1955 by government decree to carry out research and use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes. In the seven decades of its existence, the Institute has become the largest Czech institute conducting research in the broad field of nuclear and particle physics, both theoretical, experimental and applied. With a total of 250 employees (including 100 scientists), the Institute operates five particle accelerators, which represents the largest concentration of such facilities in the Czech Republic.