Max Planck-IAS-NTU Center Kick-off Conference

March 16 - 19, 2026

Conference Announcements:

LOST PHONE: a phone was found. Please go to Fuld Hall Reception and describe the phone to collect.
Luggage Drop on Thursday, March 19th - if you would like to store your luggage on Thursday, March 19th, please place it in the coat rack area across from the Bloomberg Hall Lecture Hall. Please pick up your luggage by 5:00pm.
Beginning Tuesday, March 17th, coffee and tea will be available for conference participants beginning at 8:30am until 9:00am in Rubenstein Commons. Please note that breakfast items will not be served.
Please wear your conference badge at all times as it serves as your ticket for all meals. (Registration begins at 1:30pm on Monday, March 16th in Wolfensohn Hall)
The daily lunch menu is available here: https://www.ias.edu/dining/lunch. Note that lunch begins at 1:00pm in Simons Hall and the servery doors close at 1:30pm. Lunch includes choice of one hot entree, dessert and a soft drink
On Wednesday, March 18th, the dinner will be held in SImons Hall.
On Tuesday, March 17th, the pizza dinner will be held in Rubenstein Commons beginning at 6:30pm.
The Reception begins at 5:30pm on Monday, March 16th in Simons Hall.

Link to Conference Schedule

This event is the kick-off conference for the Max Planck-IAS-NTU Center for Particle Physics, Cosmology and Geometry. It is a collaboration between the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Garching (Germany), the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (USA) and the National Taiwan University in Taipei (Taiwan). It aims to bring together researchers from particle physics, cosmology and mathematics to foster collaboration, with the goal of bridging the gaps between these fields, and gain new insights into the universe that would otherwise be inaccessible from the perspective of each field alone.

Some of the topics discussed in this conference will include: quantum field theory, scattering amplitudes, inflationary physics, cosmological correlators, CMB physics, gravitational waves, large-scale structure of the universe, dark matter, positive geometry, algebraic geometry and combinatorics.

Program Organizers:

Nima Arkani-Hamed, Institute for Advanced Study
Giovanni Maria Tomaselli, Institute for Advanced Study
Francisco Vazão, Institute for Advanced Study
Matias Zaldarriaga, Institute for Advanced Study

Confirmed Speakers:

Alexandra Amon, Princeton University
Nima Arkani-Hamed, Institute for Advanced Study
Clifford Cheung, CalTech
Carolina Cuesta-Lazaro, Flatiron Institute
Jo Dunkley, Princeton University
Joshua Foster, University of Wisconsin
Elena Giorgi, Columbia University
Enrico Herrmann, UCLA
June Huh, Princeton University
Maximiliano Isi, Columbia University
Callum Jones, University of Arizona
Austin Joyce, University of Chicago
Matt Larson, Institute for Advanced Study
Qianshu Lu, Institute for Advanced Study
Ue-Li Pen, Academia Sineca, Taiwan
Oliver Philcox, Stanford University
Isobel Romero-Shaw, Cardiff University
Uros Seljak, UC Berkeley
Leonardo Senatore, ETH Zurich
Shu-Heng Shao, MIT
Andrew Strominger, Harvard University
Bernd Sturmfels, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences
Edward Witten, Institute for Advanced Study

To register to attend the conference, please click here. Registration is limited to 100 participants. The deadline to register is Monday, February 23, 2026.

There is a non-refundable fee of $49.87 to register. You must be a current faculty member, researcher or graduate student at an accredited institution to register and attend. Registration includes all coffee breaks, lunches, a welcome reception and two dinners during the conference program. Accommodations and travel expenses are not included in the conference fee.

For further information on the Max Planck-IAS-NTU Center (MPC) for Particle Physics, Cosmology, and Geometry: New Global Research Center a Rosetta Stone for Understanding the Universe at All Scales, Institute for Advanced Study, June 16, 2025

This workshop is sponsored by the Jonathan M. Nelson Center for Collaborative Research at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Contact Audrey Smerkanich, audrey@ias.edu, with any inquiries.