: The Dynasty Foundation Summer School was held in Zelenogorsk

The Science Summer School “Relevant Problems in the Theory of the Condensed State” was organized by the Dynasty Foundation under the auspices of the International Center for Fundamental Physics, Moscow.
It was held 4–14 July 2010 in Zelenogorsk on the Gulf of Finland near Saint Petersburg.
Fifty young physicists (upper-year college students, graduate students, and candidates of science) who had been selected on a competitive basis participated in the summer school.
Academician M. Sadovskii was the head of the school.

The school program included four lecture series: “Metal–insulator phase transitions in disordered systems,” “Strongly correlated systems and the Mott–Hubbard transition,” “Superconductivity and magnetism,” and “Quantum fluids and cosmology.” There were also evening seminars and discussions.

PDF versions of almost all the lectures are on the website of the theoretical physics laboratory of the Electrophysical Institute, Ural Branch, RAS.

School lecturers

Boris ALTSHULER, Columbia University, USA
Alexander BORISOV, Institute of Metal Physics, Ural Branch, RAS
Alexandre BOUZDINE, University of Bordeaux, France
Grigory VOLOVIK, Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, RAS, Chernogolovka
Konstantin EFETOV, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
Igor MAZIN, Naval Research Laboratory, USA
Vladimir MINEEV, CEA Grenoble, France
Igor NEKRASOV, Electrophysical Institute, Ural Branch, RAS, Ekaterinburg
Mikhail SADOVSKII (Head of the school), Electrophysical Institute, Ural Branch, RAS, Ekaterinburg
Igor SUSLOV, Kapitza Institute for Physical Problems, RAS
Alexander FINKELSTEIN, University of Texas, USA
Daniel KHOMSKII, University of Cologne, Germany

More about the lecturers

The school participants speak

about their impressions, expectations, and dreams

At such events I am always impressed by how talented and intelligent the young scientists working in Russia are. During the Dynasty Summer School, this impression is even stronger.
All the lecturers are memorable because I tried to understand each of them and this meant getting used to their manners and style. But Mazin certainly made the strongest impression, maybe because he actively participated in almost all discussions.
Sadovskii and Khomskii also made a big impression by their reports; they were undoubtedly the headliners of the school. Nekrasov is memorable for his clear and detailed presentation.
There were little discoveries during every lecture. I hope that these little discoveries will grow into a really big discovery. In general, such schools teach thinking about the approach to studying physical phenomena.
I would like to single out Khomskii's lecture on “the Hubbard model”: the material was presented on the blackboard (and not through a computer presentation) and was given comprehensibly and systematically (I would even say masterfully). The main concepts were specified at the beginning of the lecture.
How much there is in a helium droplet!
The location of the conference was surprising. I didn't realize that Zelenogorsk is so green. And the enthusiasm of the summer school students is so catchy—usually one misses it at conferences.
The main thing, in my opinion, is the balance most lecturers managed to reach between easy and comprehensible presentation of the material (during which it is difficult to explain modern problems in condensed state physics) and detailed discussion of theoretical problems (not always clear to the wide audience). The lecture series structure was very good—two to three lectures devoted to one theme.
The program was intense and certainly interesting, but also too short... If there were five to ten lectures like in previous years, then each lecturer could go deeper into the topic. In my dreams I see our school lasting about 15 days...
Maybe, it would be useful to give more time in the schedule to seminars. The alternative or supplement for such seminars during subsequent schools could be stand reports (i.e., posters).
I especially want to give thanks for the opportunity to do some sports at the end of the day. I think this is very important, especially after four lectures and a seminar.