The European Conference
PHYSICS OF MAGNETISM 2026 (PM'26)
Celebrating 50th Anniversary
June 22-26, 2026 | Poznań, POLAND
Physics of Magnetism Conference, Poznań (Poland)
1975-2026
From the 1st National to the 18th European Physics of Magnetism Conferences.
The Physics of Magnetism (PM) conference series boasts the longest-lived record among meetings organized by Poznan’s community of magneticians. The need for a conference around this topic is confirmed by the fact that the very first meeting was attended by more than 200 scientists. The conference was created in 1975 and since then has been organized jointly by the Institute of Molecular Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IMP PAS) and the Institute of Physics at the Adam Mickiewicz University (AMU) in Poznań (Faculty of Physics after 1993, and Faculty of Physics and Astronomy since 2024). Seven meetings were held triennially between 1975 and 1990 when the Organizing Committee was headed by the initiators of Physics of Magnetism: Prof. Janusz Andrzej Morkowski (IMP PAS) and Prof. Bogdan Fechner (AMU). The persistent growth of the prestige of the Physics of Magnetism conference series has made it increasingly popular. In 1987 and 1990, the conference proceedings reached nationwide coverage through their printing in the periodical Acta Magnetica of the AMU's Scientific Publishing House. Since 1987, the conference logo, with two goats butting the hysteresis loop, has been the hallmark of the conference. The logo refers to the old legend of Poznań about two goats butting heads every day at noon on the Town Hall tower.
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| The conference logo designed by Andrzej Szajek, secretary of the PM conference | Two goats from the Town Hall tower Photo by Łukasz Zandecki |
The year 1990 was exceptional as almost half of the plenary lectures were delivered by foreign speakers. Starting in 1993, the conference’s profile changed from being national to having an international span. Since PM'93, the ratio of foreign to local plenary lecturers has floated to around ¾ and foreign participation is around ¼ of the total. These milestones were reached after the new chairs, Prof. Roman Micnas of AMU and Prof. Stefan Krompiewski of IMP PAS, took over the leadership of the conference. In 1993 the conference cycle was rebranded to its current name: “The European Conference Physics of Magnetism”. On the AMU side, Prof. Micnas served continuously as conference chairman until his passing in 2022; the IMP PAS used instead a rotating leadership between 1993 and 2023, and the co-chairs were: PM'93, '96 and '99 - Prof. Stefan Krompiewski, PM'02 and '05 - Prof. Andrzej Jezierski, PM'08 - Prof. Feliks Stobiecki, PM'11, '14, '17, '21 and PM'23 - Prof. Bogdan Idzikowski.
A new generation was supposed to take over the chairing of the conference at PM'20; However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced a one-year postponement of the conference and an adjustment to an online format. The senior presidents were joined by two junior colleagues, Prof. Maciej Krawczyk of AMU and Prof. Tomasz Tolinski of IMP PAS. The formula with four chairmen was still to be repeated at PM'23, had it not been for the untimely passing of Prof. Micnas. PM'23 conference was dedicated to his memory. PM'26 marks the return to dual chairing, with Prof. Ireneusz Weymann of AMU and Assoc. Prof. Piotr Kuświk of IMP PAS. There is also a plan to change the position of secretary, which has been filled by Assoc. Prof. Andrzej Szajek of IMP PAS since 1996. This role has evolved as well: on the UAM side, the co-secretaries in 1996-99 and 2002-11 were Dr. Marek Thomas and Assoc. Prof. Ryszard Wojciechowski, respectively. A new co-secretary, Dr. Karol Synoradzki of IMP PAS, will participate in the planning of PM'26.
To ensure the high scientific level of the conference, the Conference Chairs formed a Program Committee as well as an Advisory Committee, which supplemented those dedicated to scientific and organizational matters. The Program and Advisory Committees are amended periodically. A significant part of the invited lecturers in the next edition of the conference will serve on these committees.
To incorporate developments in the physics of magnetism, the members of the Organizing, Program, and Advisory committees monitor the research landscape and update the conference agenda by introducing trending topics that include: properties of highly correlated electron systems, high-temperature superconductivity, modern computational methods of electronic structure and spintronics among others.
Since PM'93, in addition to the book of abstracts, post-conference proceedings have also been published. These include all articles by invited lecturers and a selection of presentations by other participants. All articles have been subjected to the regular review process of the individual journals, backing the conference at the time: Acta Physica Polonica A (PM'93-'99, PM'08-'17), Physica Status Solidi (PM'02-'05), Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials (PM'21-'26).
From 2011 onwards, the conference has included exhibitions of scientific equipment and books. Prizes began to be awarded to young scientists for the best poster or oral presentation, which were funded by the European Physical Society, the Polish Physical Society - Poznań Branch, and the exhibitors. For the first time in PM'21, a special session was organized for outstanding early-stage scientists, called the “Young and Brilliant” award. This session was restricted to researchers who were prior to or immediately after completion of their doctorates, within a strictly defined age range, and demonstrated above-average scientific achievements. The selection committee chose up to ten people who were then granted the privilege to present their achievements in the form of invited lectures and were exempt from the conference fee.
There have been 17 conferences in close to 50 years since 1975. The organizers have aimed to align the lecture topics with the latest trends in leading scientific journals maintaining a balance between theory and experiment.
