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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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