Great news for all physics enthusiasts: Once again, TU Graz is delighted to host the Austrian preliminaries for the international competition PLANCKS!

This year, the international competition will take place in Barcelona, where the best of the best—the top 1 to 3 teams from Austria (the number of spots depends on the total number of competing teams)—will have the chance to prove their skills!

Don’t miss out on this opportunity! Expect an exciting event with a diverse supporting program, a thrilling competition featuring 8–10 problems from various areas of physics, and, for the winners, the ultimate highlight: a five-day trip to Barcelona for the international finals.

The Austrian preliminaries will take place on

Saturday, April 5, 2025 at TU Graz

Register your team here! If you’re interested but don’t have a full team or are only two people, sign up here—we’ll help you find teammates.

To keep the excitement going, a solution discussion and award ceremony will follow on Sunday, April 6, 2025. Snacks and drinks will be available throughout the event, and on Saturday evening, we invite you to a dinner together!

Sign up quickly—while our budget allows, we can subsidize travel and accommodation costs! If you have any questions about the event feel free to contact us anytime at [email protected].

We look forward to seeing you there!

For the first time: Beat the Professors!

While students are still wrestling with the fundamentals of physics, their professors have long since mastered them. They are the undisputed experts in their fields. Exam stress? A distant memory. They now stand on the other side, seemingly all-knowing and wielding the power to ask the questions.

But what if the roles were reversed? How confident are they when they themselves are tested? Could the students actually beat their professors? Or will the myth of their superiority hold true?

Find out at this year’s PLANCKS Austria! For the first time in PLANCKS history, a team of professors will compete against the students—a one-of-a-kind experiment! Seize this opportunity, challenge the experts, and show what you’re capable of. Who will emerge victorious?

Be there on Saturday 5th of April 2025 and make history with us!

Can you beat them?

Prof. Enrico Arrigoni	Prof. Arrigoni studies quantum systems that interact with their environment. He is the deputy head of the Institute for Theoretical Physics and was already a successful participant in physics competitions during his school years. Defeating this ambitious problem-solver will be a serious challenge!
Prof. Markus Aichhorn	Prof. Aichhorn works in theoretical solid-state physics at TU Graz. His group uses supercomputers to analyze materials and determine their properties.
Prof. Christopher Albert	Prof. Albert conducts research in plasma physics. His group collaborates with the Max Planck Institute in Munich on non-axisymmetric perturbations in tokamak plasmas and uncertainty quantification.
Prof. Christoph Heil	Prof. Heil is active in theoretical solid-state physics. His research focuses on discovering high-temperature superconductors—requiring enormous computational power, just like Markus Aichhorn.
Priv.-Doz. Viktor Eisler	Priv.-Doz. Eisler also works at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Graz. A passionate soccer player, he studies open quantum systems, using statistical physics methods to understand them, just like Enrico Arrigoni.