THE WORK

The Aspen Center for Physics is designed to facilitate study of the most topical and critical problems in physics. Work at the Center falls into three different categories: individual research, summer workshops and winter conferences.

INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH is generally carried out in three- to five-week segments by physicists who are given an office at the Center and access to all of the activities taking place at the Center. Although each participant sets his or her agenda for research, few scientists work in isolation and collaborations flourish.

SUMMER WORKSHOPS on topics of current interest are generally three to four weeks long. The informality of the workshops creates a high level of exchange between the presenters and the participants. Attending the workshops is a matter of choice. Usually about half of the physicists on campus at the time choose to attend. All workshops have a limited number of informal talks so that attendees still have ample time for individual discussion and research.

WINTER CONFERENCES are highly specific and intensive week-long workshops in the three major fields of condensed matter, particle physics and astrophysics. At these conferences, participants share a block of hotel rooms and eat their meals together permitting total immersion in the subject of study.

On a few occasions, the Physics Center has been used for work on long-term projects. For instance, for several years it hosted the summer studies necessary to plan what is now the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

One reward enjoyed by the Aspen Center for Physics is its frequent acknowledgments in research publications. Many seminal papers have been written in Aspen, which has grown to be the largest center for theoretical physics in the world during its summer sessions. Among many other subjects, the theories of superstrings, chaos, evolution of stars and galaxies, and high temperature superconductivity have all made large strides in recent Aspen seasons.

Furthermore, in the search for new laws, you always have the psychological excitement of feeling that . . . nobody has yet thought of the crazy possibility you are looking at right now.

- Richard P. Feynman

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