Events

Status of a Historic Site of the European Physical Society Conferred to the Laboratory of Theodor von Grotthuss in Gedučiai

05 07 2022

On 2 July 2022, the commemorative plaque of the European Physical Society (EPS) was unveiled in the central square of Žeimelis (Pakruojis district), close to the monument to Theodor von Grotthuss erected in March this year. The ceremony was attended by Karl Grandin (Stockholm), chair of the EPS Historic Sites Committee, Prof. Jūras Banys, President of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, Saulius Margis, Mayor of Pakruojis District Municipality, members of the community of physicists and chemists from Kaunas and Vilnius, employees of Žeimelis Borough Administration, and residents of Žeimelis. Marking a European Historic Site for Physics, this commemorative plaque is the first landmark of the European Physical Society in the Baltic countries.

Ceremony participants at the commemorative plaque

The life and works of Theodor von Grotthuss are outlined in Juozas Algimantas Krikštopaitis’s book Gyvenimas paaukotas mokslui. Dramatiška Theodoro Grotthusso istorija (Life Sacrificed for Science. The Dramatic Story of Theodor von Grotthuss), published in 2016 by the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences (http://www.lma.lt/knygos).  
For more information on the historic sites of the European Physical Society, see https://www.eps.org/page/distinction_sites.
The website of the Lithuanian Physical Society also offers information on the EPS historical site in our country (https://www.lietuvos-fizikai.lt/teodoras-grotusas).

Text and photographs by Prof. Juozas Šulskus,
Dean of the Faculty of Physics, Vilnius University

Translated by Diana Barnard