Václav Votruba Prize
for the best thesis in theoretical physics
for the best thesis in theoretical physics
To commemorate late Professor Václav Votruba, the founder of the modern Czech theoretical physics, the Doppler Institute has established a prize bearing his name, which is awarded annually to the author of the best doctoral thesis in theoretical physics. Since its first years, the prize was sponsored by the Foundation for Support of Theoretical Physics, from 2013 on it is supported by the Czech Technical University in Prague.
- The prize is awarded officially every year on December 19 for the best theoretical-physics doctoral dissertation defended during the three previous academic years; it is handed over at a festive opportunity, usually shortly before that date.
- The prize comes with an (indivisible) financial award of 50000 Czech crowns (before tax). In addition to the main prize, the jury may distinguish other presented work.
- The contest is open to everybody independently of his or her university or institute provided his/her age does not exceed thirty years at the moment of the application*. It is considered as a preference if the work follows the scientific legacy of Professor Votruba.
- The deadline for applications in the running year is September 30. A written application together with personal data, a copy of the thesis, and a document confirming its successful defence should be submitted to the steering committee of the contest. The candidate should also submit an electronic version, preferrably in a pdf form. He or she may attach copies of the referee reports; the jury has the right to choose additional referees to evaluate the submitted theses.
- The contest takes place if at least three theses are presented. In case of a lesser number of applications the works are automatically transmitted to the next-year contest.
- The Doppler Institute pledges to assist at advertising the winning results.
* Meaning that he or she has not reached the 31st birthday at the day of application.
Prof. RNDr. Pavel Exner, DrSc., chairman - phone +420-266-173-293, +420-776-154-823, e-mail exner@ujf.cas.cz
RNDr. Jaroslav Dittrich, CSc. - phone +420-266-173-637, e-mail dittrich@ujf.cas.cz
Prof. Ing. Miloslav Havlicek, DrSc. - phone +420-222-323-033, e-mail Miloslav.Havlicek@fjfi.cvut.cz
Ing. Pavel Streda, DrSc. - phone +420-220-318-518, e-mail streda@fzu.cz
Prof. Ing. Jiri Tolar, DrSc. - phone +420-222-317-661, e-mail Jiri.Tolar@fjfi.cvut.cz
All correspondence should be either passed through a member of the steering committee or sent to one of the following addresses:
- Votruba Prize Committee, Department of Theoretical Physics, NPI of the CAS, 25068 Rez near Prague
- Doppler Institute, FNSPE CTU of Prague, Brehova 7, 11519 Prague 1
- The 2022 prize was awarded to Dr. Simon Lukas Becker for the thesis Spectral gaps for many-particle systems, semiclassical analysis of graphene, and quantum dynamics
- The 2021 prize was awarded to Dr. Francesco Di Filippo for the thesis Beyond general relativity: modified theories and non-singular black holes
- The 2020 prize was awarded to RNDr. Arman Tursunov, PhD., DSc., for the thesis Astrophysical processes in the field of compact objects
- The 2019 prize was awarded to Dr. Andrea Giusti for the thesis On the corpuscular theory of gravity
- The 2018 prize was awarded to RNDr. Tomás Husek, PhD., for the thesis Some aspects of the low-energy QCD at the precision frontier
- The 2017 prize was awarded to Dr. Dalimil Mazac for the thesis Explorations in the Conformal Bootstrap
- The 2016 prize was awarded to Ing. Jakub Zelezny, Ph.D., for the thesis Electronic structure and magnetic properties of antiferromagnetic semiconductors and metals
- The 2015 prize was awarded to Ing. Jan Vysoky, Ph.D., for the thesis Geometry of membrane sigma models
- The 2014 prize was awarded to Dr. Nicolai Friis for the thesis Cavity mode entanglement in relativistic quantum information
- The 2013 prize was awarded to Mgr. Jaroslav Trnka, Ph.D., for the thesis Grassmannian origin of scattering amplitude
- The 2012 prize was awarded to Dr. Sergej Moroz for the thesis Few-body physics with functional renormalization
- The 2011 prize was awarded to Dr. Steffen Gielen for the thesis Geometric Aspects of gauge and spacetime symmetries
- The 2010 prize was awarded to Mgr. Petr Marek, Ph.D., for the thesis Non-classicality of quantum states: decoherence and purification.
- The 2009 prize was awarded to Mgr. Ludovit Liptak, Ph.D., for the thesis Aspects of thermodynamics nad confinement in the lattice formulation of QCD.
- The 2008 prize was awarded to Mgr. Lenka Zdeborova, Ph.D., for the thesis Statistical physics of hard optimization problems, for a published version of the thesis click here.
- The 2007 prize was awarded to Mgr. Miroslav Jezek, Ph.D., for the thesis Quantum measurement and reconstruction with applications in optics.
- The 2006 prize was awarded to Ing. Michal Malinsky, Ph.D., for the thesis Quark and lepton masses and mixing in supersymmetric grand unified theories.
- The 2005 prize was awarded to Dr. Daniele Oriti for the thesis Spin foam models of quantum spacetime.
- The 2004 prize was awarded to Mgr. Katerina Nemcova, Ph.D., for the thesis Solvable models of quantum systems with non-trivial geometry.
- The 2003 prize was awarded to Mgr. Jaromír Fiurasek, Ph.D., for the thesis Conditional generation, reconstruction and cloning of quantum states of light.