20th Asian Winter School
on Strings, Particles and Cosmology

About the School

The Asian Winter School (AWS) on Strings, Particles, and Cosmology is a pan-Asian initiative by high-energy theorists from China, India, Japan, and Korea. It provides young researchers in Asia with an opportunity to learn about recent developments in high-energy theory from leading experts.

Now in its 20th edition, the school is aimed at advanced graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and active researchers. It offers a platform for participants to engage in discussions with world experts and foster collaborations with peers from different countries, continuing a tradition of building a vibrant regional community in theoretical physics.

This year’s school offers nine intensive mini-lecture courses and three colloquium talks on cutting-edge research, complemented by engaging public outreach events.

For any questions, please email us at aws2025@iiserb.ac.in.

Lecturers and Tentative Topics

• Simon Caron-Huot (McGill University, Canada)
  TBA
• Yiming Chen (Stanford University, USA)
  Black Holes and Chaos
• Shota Komatsu (CERN, Switzerland and Imperial College London, UK)
  Matrix Models and Holography
• Shiraz Minwalla (TIFR-Mumbai, India)
  TBA
• Enrico Pajer (University of Cambridge, UK)
  An Open System Approach to Cosmology
• Shruti Paranjape (Brown University, USA)
  TBA
• Julio Parra-Martinez (IHES, France)
  TBA
• Renato Renner (ETH-Zurich, Switzerland)
  TBA
• Xi Yin (Harvard University, USA)
  Some Applications of String Field Theory

Colloquium Speakers

• Amol Dighe (TIFR-Mumbai, India)
  TBA
• Aninda Sinha (IISc Bengaluru, India)
  TBA
• Cristhian Garcia-Quintero (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA)
  TBA

Public Talks

Two public lectures will be organized as part of the school's science outreach program. Stay tuned for more details!

Application

Interested graduate students and early-stage postdoctoral researchers may apply to the school by filling out this form. The deadline for applications is July 25, 2025. Participation in the school is by invitation only.

Program Schedule

The detailed schedule will be announced soon. The school will include morning and afternoon lecture sessions, followed by discussion sessions and student presentations.

Committees

Local Organising Committee

• Nabamita Banerjee (IISER Bhopal, India)
• Suvankar Dutta (IISER Bhopal, India)
• Raghu Mahajan (ICTS-TIFR, India)
• Arnab Rudra (IISER Bhopal, India)
• Rahul Shaw (IISER Bhopal, India)

Course Organising Committee

• Masazumi Honda (RIKEN iTHEMS, Japan)
• Toshifumi Noumi (U. Tokyo Komaba, Japan)
• Junggi Yoon (Kyung Hee University, South Korea)
• Heeyeon Kim (KAIST, South Korea)
• Yi Pang (Tianjiu University, China)
• Xin Wang (University of Science and Technology of China, China)
• Nabamita Banerjee (IISER Bhopal, India)
• Raghu Mahajan (ICTS-TIFR, India)

International Steering Committee

• Bin Chen (Peking University, China)
• Atish Dabholkar (ICTP, Italy)
• Rajesh Gopakumar (ICTS-TIFR, India)
• Koji Hashimoto (Kyoto University, Japan)
• Seok Kim (Seoul National University, Korea)
• Kimyeong Lee (KIAS, Korea)
• Ahmed Almheiri (NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE)
• Shiraz Minwalla (TIFR-Mumbai, India)
• Jun Nishimura (KEK, Japan)
• JianXin Lu (USTC, China)
• Hirosi Ooguri (Caltech, USA & Kavli IPMU, Japan)
• Ashoke Sen (ICTS-TIFR, India)
• Sang-Jin Sin (Hanyang University, Korea)
• Wei Song (Yau MSC, Tsinghua, China)
• Tadashi Takayanagi (Yukawa ITP, Japan)
• Agnese Bissi (ICTP, Italy)
• Spenta R. Wadia (ICTS-TIFR, India)
• Piljin Yi (KIAS, Korea)