The GAČR Junior Star grant is designed to support outstanding early-career scientists within eight years of earning their doctoral degree, providing up to 25 million CZK over five years to foster scientific independence. Since the grant’s inception four years ago, only four researchers at Brno University of Technology have received this honor, including this year’s recipient, Filip Ligmajer. Filip is also the second successful applicant from the Institute of Physical Engineering at IPE FME BUT, following the previous success of Andrea Konečná.
Filip Ligmajer’s current research focuses on metasurfaces and thin optics, with particular emphasis on metasurfaces featuring tunable optical responses, utilizing materials such as VO₂ and Sb₂S₃. With the GAČR Junior Star grant for his project titled Phase-change materials for photonic neural networks and neuromorphic computing, Filip now has an opportunity to deepen his exploration of this field.
This grant will enable Filip and his collaborators to expand their study of tunable nanostructures and their integration into advanced optical systems. This research could find applications in areas such as optical communications, sensing, and neuromorphic computing, marking a step toward developing technologies inspired by the human brain. We congratulate Filip on this achievement and wish him all the best as he embarks on this ambitious project!