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The
school is run by a 'Steering
Committee' which solicits proposals two years in advance from
people interested in serving as 'Organizer' of the school; such
proposals should contain one or more suggestions for the site, a
budget, and a suggested list of lecturers and topics for the summer
school (discussed more below). The Steering Committee will then
discuss the proposals and seek to arrive at a
preference.
The selected
Organizer and host institution are responsible for handling the
practical arrangements (housing and meeting facilities, recruitment
and selection of students, and management of the day-to-day
activities of the school). The INT can provide poster production
and mailing if desired, as well as assistance with financial
projections. Typically the host institution will send an itemized
invoice to the INT at the end of the summer school to be reimbursed
for the costs covered by the grant. The NSF grant (held by Wick
Haxton and Bruce Barrett) is intended to cover approximately 75% of
room and board for the students, and 100% of room, board, and
travel for the lecturers. It is expected that each student's home
institution will cover the remaining 25% of room and board as well
as the student's travel costs. The host institution should plan on
providing about $2000 in support to cover various social activities
of the school (coffee breaks, receptions, etc.)
The lecture program is decided
by a suitable interaction between the Organizer and the Steering
Committee, by iterating on the originally suggested program. There
are usually five major lecture series (each consisting of four
90-minute lectures, for a total of 20 lectures), some possibility
for student seminars, separate time for 'office hours,' during
which the students can interact with the lecturers (a very
important part of the summer school), plus occasionally a few
special seminars. Each school's lecture program is intended to be
broad (as opposed to focussed), which not only helps to broaden the
perspective of the (often too specialized) new generation but also
helps to attract students from the entire cross section of the
field, thereby greatly aiding the formation of a community spirit
within the nuclear physics field (this is something the students
tend to emphasize as one of the very positve aspects of the NPSS).
The Organizer is responsible for making the practical arrangements,
including the selection of the students (we are usually
oversubscribed and tend to target students that are within
approximately one year of their PhD degree, with either sign). The
Organizer is not expected to lecture as well.
History:
The Nuclear Physics Summer School grew out of discussions at an
informal meeting between a group of theorists held at the Capra
Ranch 26-28 February 1987. It has been held each summer since 1988,
with the exception of 1994 when we went through a transition phase
to the present more formalized structure which involves the DNP in
the rotation of the Steering Committee membership.
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