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.
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.
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