What does research at the Institute of Physics look like? Researchers at the Institute conduct research in 25 laboratories equipped with competitive research infrastructure in various fields of modern physics including new materials studies and alternative theories of gravity. Approximately 75% of researchers are organized within the so-called centres of excellence – larger research units encompassing laboratory groups dedicated to the Institute’s priority fields of study.
As is common in physics, some research groups at the Institute focus solely on theoretical physics – they develop theoretical models with the ever-growing use of super-computers for simulations. Others, however, specialize exclusively in experimental research using available equipment for novel measurements, while there are mixed laboratories where both theoreticians and experimentalists work. Some research is multidisciplinary, emerging at the intersection of physics and biology, as well as other fields, leading to the Institute employing not exclusively physicists but researchers in other disciplines.
In addition to measurements and calculations, the Institute’s life constitutes seminars and conferences as well as ongoing cooperation with researchers across the globe. The Institute itself maintains strategic partnerships with some of the largest world laboratories such as CERN. As a national institute of the Republic of Serbia, in addition to the science pillar, the Institute rests on two more activity foundations and they are education and innovation. To support these missions, along with laboratories and centres of excellence, the Institute has its own Innovation Centre and the CERN Industrial Link Office in Serbia, workshops, spin-off companies, as well as the Department of Communications and other administrative services.
The top image shows a conversation between two physicists Dr Nenad Lazarević running the Centre of Solid State Physics and New Materials and Dr Emil Božin, a recently returned researcher from Brookhaven Laboratory in the USA. They are seen in front of equipment used in an experiment involving Raman spectroscopy. The subsequent images offer a glimpse into the dynamic and visually engaging research environment at the Institute of Physics.
Photos by: Bojan Džodan
