Pavel Jungwirth

{{Short description|Czech chemist and university educator}}

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| name = Pavel Jungwirth

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| image = Pavel Jungwirth (2018).jpg

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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1966|05|20|df=y}}

| birth_place = Prague, Czech Republic

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| fields = Organic chemistry

| workplaces = Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences

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| alma_mater = Czech Academy of Sciences (D. Phil., 1993)

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| doctoral_advisor = Rudolf Zahradník

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| awards = Otto Wichterle Prize (2002), Spiers Memorial Prize from the Royal Society for Chemistry (2008), Member of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic since 2009

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| spouse = Iva (née Kratochvilova)

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| website = {{URL|https://jungwirth.group.uochb.cz/en}}

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Pavel Jungwirth (born 20 May 1966 in Prague, Czech Republic) is a Czech physical chemist. Since 2004, he has been the head of the Senior Research Group at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences. He has also been a professor in the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University since 2000.{{Cite web |url=http://www.uochb.cz/web/structure/268.html?do%5BloadData%5D=1&itemKey=en_1 |title=Pavel Jungwirth, Ph.D. |website=Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry |publisher=Czech Academy of Sciences}}{{Cite web |url=http://jungwirth.uochb.cas.cz/cv.php|title=Pavel Jungwirth Curriculum Vitae |last=Jungwirth |first=Pavel}} He has also been a senior editor of the Journal of Physical Chemistry since 2009. He is popularly known for studying the explosive reaction between alkali metals, such as sodium and potassium, and water; his research on this subject indicates that these reactions result from a Coulomb explosion.{{Cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30983141 |title=Metal explosions 'driven by charge' |last=Webb |first=Jonathan |website=BBC News |date=26 January 2015}} He and his colleagues have also discovered a way to slow down this reaction, which they used to determine the source of a blue flash that is briefly produced during the reaction.{{Cite web |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/2100471-watch-a-classic-chemistry-lab-explosion-tamed-to-run-in-slow-mo/ |title=Watch a classic chemistry lab explosion tamed to run in slow-mo |last=Coghlan |first=Andy |website=New Scientist |date=9 August 2016}}

Pavel Jungwirth is a coordinator of an international science competition Dream Chemistry Award. The historian of philosophy explores the scientific tradition and its roots in an international context, examining the influence of scientific elites in European history. The laureate also appeared on the Academy of Sciences podcast. https://www.avcr.cz/cs/veda-a-vyzkum/matematika-fyzika-a-informatika/Fyzikalni-chemik-Pavel-Jungwirth-ziskal-Cenu-Neuron-za-celozivotni-prinos-vede/