The Europhysics Prize Goes to the Czech Republic for the First Time

The European Physical Society’s 2026 Europhysics Prize for outstanding contributions to condensed matter physics was awarded to Libor Šmejkal, Jairo Sinova and Tomáš Jungwirth for their discovery of altermagnetism, the third fundamental class of magnetic orders. Altermagnets combine the advantages of ferromagnets and antiferromagnets while exhibiting unique properties not found in either of those classes.

The EPS Europhysics Prize is a highly prestigious award that has been presented since 1975 by the Condensed Matter Division of the European Physical Society. Until now, no Czech physicist or physicist working at a Czech research institution had ever been among the laureates.

More information about the prize, research and the awardees can be found here.