Lukáš Palatinus: One of the greatest challenges in materials science is determining the position of atoms in non-crystalline substances

The 2025 Academic Award, an award given each year to three outstanding individuals whose past research results promise good prospects for the future, was presented to Lukáš Palatinus, a scientist at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The award provides his research team with financial support in the amount of CZK 30 million. Over the course of six years, this money can be used for laboratory equipment, staff salaries, and other research costs.

You are bringing several large envelopes from the post office – is this how you collect samples for crystallographic analysis? Who sends them to you and where do they come from?

This is how we receive samples of materials from different parts of the world. They are mainly sent to us by academic institutions, although we also process commercial samples from time to time. For example, we have been collaborating for four years with a research group from Ljubljana that prepares compounds of rare gases, mainly xenon. We have already analysed dozens of their samples.

The whole interview can be found here.