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
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.
Participation in the Practicum is free of charge.
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 identifying the contest winners. Registration opens on July 9 at 12:00 EET and closes on July 26 at 12:00 EET.
Details: organizational matters, timeline and rules are discussed 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.