Department of Nuclear Physics, Institute of Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences

Bratislava is the capital and largest city of the Slovak Republic. In the Middle Ages, as a part of the Hungarian Empire, it became one of its centers of politics, culture, education and science. In 1467, the first university in the territory of the present Slovakia, named the Academia Istropolitana, was founded in the city of Bratislava. The name of the university was derived from the ancient name of the Danube River, Istros. In 1825 the Hungarian National Learned Society, which is the present Hungarian Academy of Sciences, was founded in Bra ti slava using a donation from count István Széchenyi. After the First World War, Slovakia became a part of Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia, as a common state of Czechs and Slovaks needs to be considered as a successful historical project, although it was not democratic during most of its existence. One of the most significant scientific and technological achievements was the design and construction of a nuclear reactor, which was operational at the Jaslovské Bohunice Power Plant. The Slovak Academy of Sciences is the main scientific and research institution in Slovakia, pursuing funda­ mental and applied research. It was founded in 1942, closed after the Second World War, and then re­ established in 1953. In 1955, physical chemist Dionýz Ilkovič, a close colla­ borator of Nobel Prize laureate Jaroslav Heyrovský, founded the Cabinet of Physics at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, which later evolved into the Institute of Physics. Since the begin­ ning, nuclear physics was one of the leading focuses of the Institute. It is worthwhile to mention contributions to the theory of pre­equilibrium nuclear reactions [1], which was developing rapidly in 70’s and 80’s. An important part of experimental program was rel­ ated to neutron physics. Several neutron generators, based on the d + T reaction, were constructed and operated [2]. Ex­ periments were focused on neutron scat­ tering, fast­neutron induced reac tions and national security appli cations. The positron annihilation spectro scopy group has been engaged in research at the inter­ face of several scientific fields, e.g., ma­ terials research, physical chemi stry and applications in biology [3–9]. Important societal changes during the last decade of the 20th century dra­ matically changed the nature of research in Slovakia. First was the Velvet revol­ ution in 1989 that transformed Czecho­ slovakia from communism with a planned economy to democracy with a free market economy. It was followed by a peaceful separation of the federation into two independent states in 1993. Such major changes in a short period of time, had many negative socio­economic consequences. One of these was the ext­ reme reduction of fundamental science funding, leading, e.g., to exodus of many of the best researchers, that mostly never returned. On the other hand, the change in the political system has made travel­ ling abroad much simpler, which opened new collaboration possibilities for Slo­ vak scientists. Slovakia became a member of the European Union in 2004. As a direct consequence, funding through struc­ tural funds of the EU became possible. This allowed significant improvement of scientific infrastructure in the coun­ try. This included also infra struc ture for nuclear physics. Presently, the nuclear physics group at the Institute of Physics has ten permanent staff, complemented with many students. It has extensive international collaboration with CERN, University of Jyväskylä, University of Liverpool, and iThemba Labs and op­ erates its own laboratory, equipped with a Tandetron® accelerator. The ISOLDE facility allows a unique possibility for small groups to run their own experimental program. Although first informal contacts emerged earlier, in 2016 Slovakia became a member of the ISOLDE collaboration. Another im­ portant mile stone was in 2019 when, following the strong suggestion of RECFA, Slovakia joined NuPECC as a full member. Strong efforts of the group from the Institute of Physics were cru­ cial for the establishment of these member ships.