LQG Grad School(s)?

[Freeman]

I've been discussing with an undergrad in math (he's a physics major) and he mentioned casually that he'd like to study Loop Quantum Gravity at grad school. Since I have only read a little on LQG, I really didn't know what to tell in terms of where to apply.

 

So, I googled Ashtekar and found out he teaches at Penn State University. That is the only place I could think of for studying LQG but I don't want to tell my friend "Hey, you're doomed to go only there!"

 

Where else is LQG dominant? Caltech or MIT maybe?

[Martin]

I've been discussing with an undergrad in math (he's a physics major) and he mentioned casually that he'd like to study Loop Quantum Gravity at grad school. Since I have only read a little on LQG' date=' I really didn't know what to tell in terms of where to apply.

 

So, I googled Ashtekar and found out he teaches at Penn State University. That is the only place I could think of for studying LQG but I don't want to tell my friend "Hey, you're doomed to go only there!"

 

Where else is LQG dominant? Caltech or MIT maybe?[/quote']

 

Ask him to check out the University of Waterloo, in Ontario Province, Canada.

 

I think Penn State would be a good place, if he can get into the graduate program there. Ashtekar has a quantum gravity institute there.

 

Waterloo has the Perimeter Institute, with Lee Smolin. It pursues several alternative approaches to QG, including LQG and spinfoam.

 

Worldwide I think the two best places for graduate study in QG are Waterloo (Perimeter) in N.America and Utrecht in Europe.

 

You can watch videos of many of the graduate seminars given at Perimeter and get a sample of what it is like. The seminars at Penn State are also online (audio, and or lecture slides, not video) .

[ecoli]

I had a friend who did a program at Waterloo at the Perimeter Institute, and he really liked it there.

[Martin]

I had a friend who did a program at Waterloo at the Perimeter Institute, and he really liked it there.

 

Yes, they are also strong in computing and in Quantum Computing.

 

Scott Aaronson left the Princeton Institute of Advanced Study and went to Waterloo. he has a blog, you might like to check it out if you want a glimpse into the quantum information and computing world.

http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/

 

U.Waterloo may be one of the best overall places for grad study in N.America (at least in some new emerging fields).

 

FOR ONLINE VIDEOS from the Perimeter Institute (independent adjunct of U.Waterloo) go here:

http://streamer.perimeterinstitute.ca:81/mediasite/viewer/FrontEnd/Front.aspx?&shouldResize=False

 

for the seminars click on "seminar series" in the menu on the left margin

they also have a bunch of videos from conferences, symposia, workshops

 

a recent seminar I found interesting was in November by a young Australian particle theorist named Sundance Bilson-Thompson. He is collaborating with Lee Smolin on putting the standard model particles into spinfoam QG. It is a pretty amazing talk

 

it is currently on page 2 of the seminar series menu. If you cant find it, and want to watch it, let me know.

this post has links to the Bilson-Thompson talk

http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/showthread.php?p=229811#post229811