On June 26, 2023, a Special Colloquium was held, during which awards were presented for the best research and popularization activities in 2022 at the Fundamental Research Department. The winners were Prof. Michał Bluj, a team consisting of Prof. Paweł Ziń and Dr. Maciej Pylak, Dr. Michael Romano, and Prof. Jerzy Kowalski-Glikman and Dr. Miguel Figueira

On June 12, at a conference organized by the Polish Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers, the conceptual design of a new Polish high-temperature research reactor developed at NCBJ was presented to the public for the first time. The helium-cooled reactor will provide 30 MW of thermal power, and the helium temperature at the outlet of the primary cooling circuit will reach 750 ⁰C.

Interstellar dust is a key component in galaxies. It favors star formation and drives the chemistry and physics of the interstellar medium. However, it hides the majority of stars in a way that it is impossible to observe them. Astrophysicists use dust attenuation laws that would uncover these hidden stars by reverse-engineering the light from galaxies to quantify how many stars are there.