Sidebar

Vilnius University (VU) continues to be the most highly ranked among public and private universities in the national ranking of education and higher education institutions published by the magazine ‘Reitingai’. This year, VU scored 63.69 points out of a possible 100.

Researchers from the Faculty of Physics at Vilnius University (VU) have won a funding competition within the Lithuania–Japan bilateral project programme. The project will combine the expertise in pentaquark modelling of VU physicists, members of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) LHCb Vilnius group, and Nagoya University in Japan. Dr Mindaugas Šarpis lead the project in Lithuania.

Dr Kazimieras Černis of the Faculty of Physics at Vilnius University, who has named about 200 asteroids throughout his career, has received exceptional recognition – a celestial body has been named after him. A Spanish and Venezuelan astronomer and asteroid researcher, Professor Orlando Naranjo, named an asteroid he discovered after Dr Černis.

The mind often feels like a given – it allows us to think, feel, decide, and create. Yet we rarely pause to ask: what actually is the mind, and where are its boundaries? On 14 May, the Vilnius University (VU) Discussion Club invites you to explore the mind from different perspectives: as a biological process, a subjective experience, a structure of thought, and increasingly, as something we attempt to recreate through technology. The event will be held in English.

From 21 to 24 April, Vilnius University (VU) hosted distinguished guests – members of the Executive Committee and Division Presidents of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The organisation brings together astronomers from 102 countries worldwide; it serves as the principal global association of professional astronomers, coordinating scientific research, the naming of celestial bodies, and public education in astronomy. This was the first visit of its kind to Lithuania in the more than 100-year history of the IAU.

“The Universe doesn’t care what I like. It just does what it does,” said Prof. Brian P. Schmidt, a US-born Australian astrophysicist and 2011 Nobel Prize laureate in Physics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for showing that the Universe is not only expanding, but that this expansion is accelerating. At Vilnius University, Prof. Schmidt outlined how we understand the evolution of the Universe today, from the discovery of its expansion to the unexpected realisation that this expansion is speeding up.

Vilnius University (VU), together with partners from the Arqus Alliance, is implementing an initiative aimed at strengthening awareness of research security and enhancing related institutional practices across the Alliance. The initiative promotes inter-institutional collaboration, the exchange of good practices, and capacity building among partner universities. As part of its implementation, a series of workshops and webinars is being organised, focusing on the development of secure research management.

Lasers have become an indispensable part of modern infrastructure – often operating out of sight, yet essential to countless technological processes. Without lasers, today’s world would simply come to a standstill. Their applications span everyday technologies, medical and industrial equipment, and fundamental research laboratories. However, it is not widely recognised that one of the most remarkable success stories in this field is being written in Lithuania.

Lithuania has every reason to be proud of being home to some of the world’s most talented laser scientists and globally recognised companies. The Physics Faculty Laser Research Center (LRC) at Vilnius University (VU) is at the forefront of the field. Historically, it has been the major hub of laser physics, and today the centre is training the next generation of laser physics specialists and future scientist-innovators. Another recent milestone was reached this year when VU signed a partnership agreement with ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure), marking a new chapter in collaboration and further strengthening of both VU’s and Lithuania’s role in this unique research ecosystem.

Vilnius University (VU) community is invited to participate in the annual spring clean-up event #VUŠVARU, which will take place on 23 April this year. Participants will not only engage in meaningful, environmentally beneficial activities but also take part in a contest – the participant with the most interesting find will receive a subscription to the VU Health and Sport Center.

CERN has announced a breakthrough from the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, revealing the discovery of a new particle. This particle belongs to a category called baryons. The familiar baryons include protons and neutrons, the particles found at the centre of atoms. Dr Adam Benjamin Morris, a researcher of the LHCb Vilnius group at the Faculty of Physics of Vilnius University (VU), says that this discovery by LHCb resolves a quarter-century controversy over its existence and properties.

Scientists from Vilnius University’s (VU) Faculty of Physics, drawing on tools used in quantum technologies, have collaborated with an international team to develop a promising new spectroscopic device – a superconducting microwave microresonator. The innovative study has been published in the prestigious journal “Small Methods”. This achievement expands the range of applications of microresonators and paves the way for studying trace amounts of a wide variety of materials.