Institute for Advanced Study Hosts Summer Program in Theoretical Physics

Prospects in Theoretical Physics (PiTP), an intensive two-week summer program for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars considering a career in theoretical physics, will take place at the Institute for Advanced Study from July 14 to 25. The theme of this year's program is Strings and Phenomenology.

First held at the Institute in 2002, Prospects in Theoretical Physics has, in past years, covered topics ranging from the standard model to the physics at Large Hadron Collider.  The program builds upon the strong relationship between the research groups at the Institute and Princeton University.  Representatives from both institutions are among the program's organizers and lecturers.

This year's program is designed for string theorists who want to learn about issues of the compactification of space relevant to phenomenology and cosmology, and for phenomenologists who want to learn about strings and their applications to phenomenology.  The topics in strings and phenomenology have been selected to make the maximum contact between the two fields, and the lecture series will be as self-contained as possible.

PiTP 2008 is scheduled to precede the International Conference on High Energy Physics (ICHEP 2008), which will take place in Philadelphia from July 29 to August 5.  

"It is a privilege to have the opportunity to help train the young scientists who will become the future of the field," states Chiara Nappi, Professor of Physics at Princeton University, one of the program organizers. 

Organizers and lecturers for PiTP 2008 include: Nima Arkani-Hamed (Institute for Advanced Study), Luis E. Ibáñez (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), Shamit Kachru (Stanford University), Chiara Nappi (Princeton University), Hans-Peter Nilles (Physikalisches Institut der Universität Bonn), Stuart Raby (The Ohio State University), John Schwarz (California Institute of Technology), Herman Verlinde (Princeton University) and Edward Witten (Institute for Advanced Study).

Prospects in Theoretical Physics 2008 is hosted by the Institute's School of Natural Sciences.  For further information about the program, please visit www.ias.edu/pitp.