The Symposium
Young Physicists Presentations

The 18 finalists from the Young Scholars Competition will be invited to the symposium to present short research papers at the finalist session on October 7, 2005. The 18 talks will be scheduled in 25-minute slots (15 minutes plus 10 minutes Q&A) in three parallel sections (six talks per section), according to the three topical areas described below. The presentations will be made before three panels of judges. These panels will consist of distinguished members from the program committee. The panels will award three First Prizes of $20,000, three Second Prizes of $10,000, and three Third Prizes of $5,000, one Prize in each category for each of the three topical areas. The prizes will be presented at the gala banquet honoring Professor and Mrs. Townes on Saturday evening, October 8, 2005.

Space for displaying posters will be provided throughout the symposium. Attendees will include distinguished research leaders from around the world whose work is focused on the challenges of exploring the deep structure of reality and the technological potentialities for investigating nature in the coming decades.

A schedule of the presentations of the finalists in the Young Scholars Competition talks will be posted in August.

The three topical areas to be explored in the competition are:

Topical Area 1: Research yielding powerful new insights and innovative concepts based primarily on quantum mechanics

Topical Area 2: Research yielding profound new insights and perspectives toward answering “really big questions” in astrophysics, cosmology, and physics-related interdisciplinary research areas engaging with biophysics, physical chemistry, electronics, quantum computing, etc.

Topical Area 3: Technological innovation linked with new deep physical insights generating powerful innovative new physics-related technologies and specific inventions

For further details on these topical areas and the Young Scholars Competition