Practicum 2026 (Links to UKR and RU versions)
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. (Confucius)
The process of problem solving is one of the most complex intellectual functions. It represents a higher-order cognitive activity that relies on the coordination and control of more basic, fundamental skills. (Wikipedia).
Organizers: Dmitri Chklovskii (Flatiron Institute) (RUS-ENG), Maxim Dzero (Kent State University), Mikhail Ivanov (MIT), Anton Kapustin (Caltech), Vladyslav Kozii (Carnegie Mellon University), Serhii Kryhin (Harvard) (UKR-RUS), Alex Levchenko (University of Wisconsin), Leonid Levitov (MIT) (RUS-UKR), Olexei Motrunich (Caltech), Alexander Nikolaenko (Harvard), Dmytro Oriekhov (TU Delft), Dmytro Pesin (University of Virginia) (RUS,UKR), with the support of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University
Practicum languages: English, Ukrainian, Russian
Questions & Answers
Q: What is the purpose of the practicum?
A: The goals of the practicum are to introduce junior students to modern directions in physics and to give them the opportunity to try their hand at research. Among the organizers are representatives of very different fields, from string theory, quantum field theory, and quantum information to neurophysiology and condensed matter physics.
Q: What kind of research project will you have?
A: By the start of the practicum, each organizer will prepare and offer their own small research project that is interesting and accessible to junior students. We will try to select projects that can be carried out in a fairly short time, from one week to one month.
Q: Is it expected that these projects might turn into something longer-term, for example term papers or thesis projects?
A: Generally speaking, we do not have such plans. Successfully solving the problems in the admission contest does not create any obligations on either side. The main benefit of short projects is the opportunity to get acquainted with some new “mysterious” area and to test one’s abilities in practice.
Q: How did the projects develop in previous years, and what were the actual time frames for their completion?
A: Two weeks turned out to be quite sufficient to make sure that a problem is interesting, can in principle be solved, and to take the most important initial steps—which is the main goal of a two-week project. In some cases, when ideas that arose during the practicum eventually came to fruition, the time spent on working them out ranged from several months to half a year. Here are a few examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
To participate in the Practicum, students must take part in the Problem-Solving Contest. Participants admitted to the Practicum will be selected based on their contest results. Students completing their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd year of study are eligible to participate in the contest, regardless of country of residence or university.
Problem-Solving Contest: July 27–30, 2026, held online on this website
Participant registration will open on July 9 and close on July 26.
Contest results: August 5, 2026
Research Practicum: August 10–21, 2026 (on the Zoom platform)
2026 project descriptions will be available later via links from the organizers’ names in the list.
Contest registration: by email to theorphys2022@gmail.com (subject: Practicum 2026).
When registering, you will need to indicate and later confirm your name, your university, and the number of the year of study you are now completing. This information will be taken into account when summarizing the contest results. Registration opens on July 9 at 12:00 EET and closes on July 26 at 12:00 EET.
Details: You can find the contest rules HERE.
Practice problems (for self-study).
The 2026 contest problems will appear on July 27 in the Assignments section.
Literature: We recommend several useful books. First, Zel’dovich and Myskis, Elements of Applied Mathematics—an excellent textbook on elementary mathematics for non-mathematicians (1st–2nd year) with many simple and substantive examples. Second, the classic Feynman Lectures on Physics and Landau & Lifshitz’s Course of Theoretical Physics, which need no recommendation.
You can also find useful two well-known and often recommended books: Feynman & Hibbs and Altland & Simons. These are more specialized texts, but some sections will be of interest to a broader audience.