Stanley Mandelstam was an eminent South African-born American Theoretical Physicist and a Wits graduate. He made seminal contributions to Particle Physics and String Theory. This series of schools, named in Stanley Mandelstam’s honour, aims to expose local South African Theoretical Physicists, both post-graduate students and academics, to exciting recent developments in Theoretical High Energy Physics.
The School is usually followed by a high-level workshop that aims to stimulate discussion and interaction which might lead to new research directions and collaborations. The meeting brings leading experts together to accomplish these goals.
Chris Engelbrecht was a South African theoretical physicist and a deeply influential teacher and mentor. The Chris Engelbrecht Summer School is a long-running annual South African program in theoretical physics intended for postgraduate students, early career researchers, and academics. It is organized under the auspices of the National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences (NITheCS).
The School typically runs for about a week and has included lectures, tutorials, exercises, and opportunities for interaction with experts in the field. Over time, the themes have broadened from more traditional theoretical physics topics to include quantum science, quantum technologies, and related modern topics.
The two are being held jointly held this year. We will have number of international plenary lecturers who will each deliver two pedagogical talks (aimed at graduate students) and one technical talk at the School. Each lecture will last for 50 minutes. The workshop will be used for cutting edge research talks, both by the School lecturers and by international and local participants. The loose format of the school leaves plenty of time for discussion and collaboration.
Organizers:
- Pallab Basu (Wits)
- Robert de Mello Koch (Huzhou)
- Kevin Goldstein (Wits)
- Vishnu Jejjala (Wits)
- Antal Jevicki (Brown)
- Anosh Joseph (Wits)
- João Rodrigues (Wits)
- Sam van Leuven (Wits)
Venue:
NITheCS , Merensky Building, Stellenbosch University
Important dates:
Registration deadline : 31 October 2025
Schedule:
TBA
Topics:
Lectures will cover the following topics: TBA
Pedagogical Lecturers:
- Dr Seok Kim (Seoul National University, Korea)
- Dr Xinan Zhou (Shanghai Technical University and Kavli Institute for Theoretical Sciences, China)
- Dr Tarek Anous (Queen Mary University of London, UK)
Support / Scholarships:
During the school, lunch, coffee/tea/snacks will be provided. A limited number of scholarships are available to assist individuals to attend the school. As a publicly funded institution, we encourage applications from individuals from previously disadvantaged backgrounds.
We would appreciate the use of your own travel funding sources as much as possible, to maximize the number of
participants in the program (particularly, young researchers). Please contact Farah-Naaz Samuels (Farah-Naaz.Samuels@wits.ac.za) if you would like to ask for
financial assistance for your travel costs.
Acknowledgements:
The organisers thank NITheCS for generously funding the school and WITS for their support.
