The search for a theory which would unite the insights of general relativity with those of quantum theory, a theory of quantum gravity, has now lasted the better part of a century. Although a number of promising candidate theories have emerged (string theory and loop quantum gravity being the most prominent), a large array of conceptual, formal and methodological issues are still unresolved. The increasingly fractured nature of the field – with long standing and well publicised disagreements over the premisses, goals and criteria for evaluation relevant to a 'theory of quantum gravity' – might be seen as one significant factor impeding progress.
With this in mind, the aim of this workshop is to bring together physicists, philosophers and historians with interests in various approaches to quantum gravity towards a mutually beneficial cross-pollination of ideas. By looking at the problem of quantum gravity from a variety of different perspectives, it is hoped, we will all be able to see a little further.
The workshop will be held in Munich over two days (31st May - 1st June) and will feature talks by researchers with a wide range of expertise. Submission of contributed papers are welcomed from researchers with interests in quantum gravity considered from any of the perspectives mentioned above. We invite submissions of an abstract of 500 words by 1st March, 2013. Only PDF files are accepted. We anticipate there will be spacefor between two and four contributed talks.
To submit please send the file to Karim.Thebault(at)lrz.uni-muenchen.de.
'''Invited Speakers'''
* Nazim Bouatta (Cambridge)
* Richard Dawid (Vienna)
* Johanna Erdmenger (Max Planck Munich)
* Sabine Hossenfelder (NORDITA)
* Claus Kiefer (Cologne)
* Brian Pitts (Cambridge)
* Dean Rickles (Sydney)
* Nicholas Teh (Cambridge)
* Chris Wuthrich (UCSD)
'''Organizers'''
* Karim Thebault,
* Radin Dardashti
'''Graduate Fellowships'''
A few travel bursaries for graduate students are available (up to 500 Euro). See website for details.
