Switzerland placeS 6th at PLANCKS 2026
Two weeks ago, a team D-A-CH Srepresenting Switzerland and the Young Physicists Forum competed at PLANCKS 2026 - the international theoretical physics competition organised by the International Association of Physics Students (IAPS), held this year in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Competing against more than 50 teams from around the world, the team finished in an outstanding 6th place.
The team - Jonas Spiller (ETHZ), Lucas Hörl (ETHZ), Finnley Paolella (TUM) and Jonas Hübner (Uni Heidelberg) - qualified through the Swiss preliminaries in Bern earlier this year. Notably, a further six ETH Zurich students and one EPF Lausanne student took part in the competition as members of other national teams, proving how strongly Switzerland is represented at the highest level.
D-A-CH Schaden working tirelessly on theoretical physics problems.
the programme
Beyond the competition itself, PLANCKS offered a rich four-day programme. After arriving and registering on Thursday, Friday opened with a ceremony and a talk on photonics by Prof. Jaime Gomes Rivas. Saturday brought the competition itself, followed by a lecture on 2D materials by Prof. Martin Lee - and then a well-earned evening of bar games and cards with teams from across the world. On Sunday, participants visited the Philips Museum and heard a talk on sustainability from Cyrus Walther, former IAPS president.
Opening ceremony and Prof. Rivas’ lecture.
Looking ahead
Next year's PLANCKS final will take place in Honduras on an even larger scale. We plan to send another Swiss team and would love to see more ETH and Swiss physics students get involved — both in PLANCKS and in the broader activities of the Young Physicists Forum.
Congratulations to the whole team!
The team and YPF representative Bartłomiej Leks after the closing ceremony.