News and Updates
February 2026
News from the Young Researchers' Working Group
The Young Researchers' Working Group (YRWG) has been in contact with the local organisers of LOOPS'26 about including a dedicated Young Researchers' Session. The organisers of LOOPS'26 fully support the working group's initiative and have confirmed its inclusion in the conference programme.
In addition, the working group invites young researchers in the society to take part in a short survey:
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/uJRUuVhA4t
The survey takes no more than five minutes to complete and will help the working group to shape future activities, initiatives, and communication channels in a way that best reflects our interests and needs. The deadline to contribute with our survey is 28 February 2026.
Researchers are invited to contact the members of the working group directly by e-mail. The working group welcomes ideas, suggestions, or comments. Contact details can be found here.
Analogue Gravity in 2026
The event Analogue Gravity in 2026 consisted of a winter school combined with a workshop. It took place from 8 January to 17 January at the Centro de Ciencias Pedro Pascual in Benasque, a mountain village in the Spanish Pyrenees. The event was organized by Ivan Agullo (Louisiana State University), Alessandro Fabbri (University of Valencia), Maxime Jacquet (Sorbonne University), and Justin Wilson (Louisiana State University). The school included lecture courses on quantum field theory in curved spacetime, relativistic quantum information, theoretical and experimental aspects of Bose-Einstein condensates, quantum fluids of light, nonlinear optics, and the quantum Hall effect.
During the workshop, invited speakers and contributed talks presented recent research on both theoretical and experimental aspects of quantum field theory simulators in curved spacetimes, realized across a variety of experimental platforms. Particular emphasis was placed on three main topics:
(i) the observability of quantum correlations (entanglement) in pair-creation processes;
(ii) the study and recreation of nonlinear effects in field theory; and
(iii) the possibility of using analog gravity systems to gain insight into physics beyond classical gravity.
In connection with the ISLQG, Daniele Oriti delivered an invited talk on the group field theory description of cosmological spacetimes, where the cosmological dynamics is extracted from the mean field hydrodynamics of an underlying condensate (the extension beyond mean field to include collective Bogoliubov excitations was presented by Andrea Calcinari). Daniele Oriti also provided stimulating suggestions for how such quantum gravity ideas might be simulated in laboratory settings.
Ivan Agullo
on behalf of the organizers
Quantum Gravity and Cosmology 2026
The Quantum Gravity and Cosmology 2026 conference (9–13 February 2026) took place in Sala Ulisse (Hall of Odysseus) at the University of Bologna. The meeting is part of a conference series jointly organised since 2021 by several institutions around the world (INFN, Imperial College London, NORDITA, Tokyo Institute of Technology, University of Portsmouth, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, ShanghaiTech University, Universidade da Beira Interior, and other institutions).
The aim of the conference was to foster exchange between different communities working on non-perturbative approaches to gravity, ultraviolet-complete theories of quantum gravity, and their cosmological implications. The main topics included:
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Non-perturbative methods, in application to quantum gravity, such as string theory, amplitudes bootstrap, functional renormalisation group, loop quantum gravity, etc.
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Quantum gravity effects in the early Universe: inflation, cosmological correlators, non-gaussianities, gravitational waves; and
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EFT of gravity in connection with cosmology and Black Holes.
16th century Renaissance frescoes by Pellegrino Tibaldi
Sala di Ulisse, Palazzo Poggi, Bologna
The wide range of scientific talks sparked lively discussions, which continued during the coffee and lunch breaks held in a neighbouring room in the historic Palazzo Poggi in the heart of Bologna. The ceiling of the conference hall itself, located within the Palazzo, is decorated with paintings depicting scenes from the voyage of Odysseus — in some sense a good allegory for research in theoretical physics. Part of the conference was a dinner at a traditional Bolognese restaurant, where participants enjoyed local culinary specialities.
Max Fahn
conference poster
Upcoming Conferences
Below, we list conferences and workshops within the next three months. More details about future conferences and workshops available here.
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Concepts of Quantum and Spacetime, KEK
09–12 March 2026, Tsukuba, Japan
www-conf.kek.jp/CQS2026
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89. Annual Meeting of DPG and DPG-Frühjahrstagung
(DPG Spring Meeting) of the Matter and Cosmos Section (SMuK)
16–20 March 2026, FAU Erlangen, Germany (EU)
www.dpg-physik.de/veranstaltungen/2026/dpg-fruehjahrstagung-erlangen
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Observers and Causality in Quantum Gravity, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
22–24 April 2026, Bratislava, Slovakia (EU)
web.infn.it/BridgeQG/event/observers-and-causality-in-quantum-gravity
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LQG Summer School
11–22 May 2026, Yangzhou, China
indico.global/event/15268
Registration deadline: 31 March 2026
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Loops'26,
25–29 May 2026, Hangzhou, China
indico.global/event/14381
Registration deadline: 31 March 2026
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IASM-BIRS workshop on “Recent Development of Quantum Gravity and Applications to Cosmology and Black Hole Physics”
Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics (IASM)
31 May–5 June 2026, Hangzhou, China
www.iasm.zju.edu.cn/iasm/main.htm
Registration for online participation: forms.gle/VqxpQxzhQBaBpkyS9
Deadline for online participation: 15 April 2026
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WOST School 2026 — Exploring Quantum WithOut SpaceTime,
31 August–11 September, 2026, Les Houches, France
withoutspacetime.org/meetings/les-houches-school
January 2026
The 2026 Bronstein Prize in Loop Quantum Gravity
Call for Nominations
Nominations for the 2026 Bronstein Prize are invited. The nominee should hold a (non-faculty) post-doctoral position at the time of the nomination deadline. The primary criterion will be high quality of scientific results in loop quantum gravity, interpreted in the broadest sense, creativity and originality, and the significance of results to the field as a whole. Previous winners are:
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2024: Dr. Beatriz Elizaga Navascués, currently junior faculty at
Universidad de Castilla - La Mancha, Toledo, Spain.
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2022: Dr. Daniele Pranzetti, currently junior faculty at
Università degli Studi di Udine, Udine, Italy.
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2019: Dr. Wolfgang Wieland, currently DFG Heisenberg Fellow at
FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
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2017: Assoc. Prof. Mercedes Martín Benito, currently faculty member at
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
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2015: Prof. Edward Wilson-Ewing, currently faculty member at
University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada.
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2013: Prof. Eugenio Bianchi, currently faculty member at
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park – PA, USA.
The nomination packet should consist of
(i) an approx. one page nomination letter summarizing the specific achievements to date of the nominee;
(ii) a complete CV and a publication list of the nominee;
(iii) two letters of support from experts emphasizing the broad significance of all research contributions to date of the nominee; and
(iv) a proposed citation. Self-nominations will not be considered.
The entire packet should be bundled into a single PDF file and e-mailed to bronstein@cstq.org. Please use this address also if you need more information. Deadline for sending nominations is end of February.
The prize consisting of a certificate and a monetary reward will be presented during the Loops’26 International Conference on Quantum Gravity, to be held in Hangzhou, China, on 24–29 May 2026.
Historical Background
During the celebration of 25 years of Loop Quantum Gravity at Madrid, a new prize for post-doctoral scholars in loop quantum gravity was created. It is named after Matvei Petrovich Bronstein, who was the first to emphasize that quantum gravity requires a deep revision of classical space-time concepts. He wrote his PhD thesis on Quantization of Gravitational Waves in 1935. He clearly understood the limitation of applying the Bohr-Rosenfeld QED measurement analysis to gravity. He derived the quantum analog of Einstein’s quadrupole formula but emphasized the need to go beyond linearized gravity. For details, see the republication and translation into English of his 1936 paper on the quantum theory of weak gravitational fields [1,2]. He was considered by many as the brightest of the young Soviet physicists in the mid-1930s. He was arrested during the Great Purge on trumped-up charges in 1937 and convicted by a list trial and executed on the same day in 1938. An account appears in the afterword (external link) of ref. [3].
References
[1] Matvei P. Bronstein, “Quantentheorie schwacher Gravitationsfelder”, in Physikalische Zeitschrift der Sowjetunion, Band 9, Heft 2–3, pp. 140–157 (1936); reprinted in: Alexander S. Blum and Dean Rickles, Quantum Gravity in the First Half of the Twentieth Century: A Sourcebook, Berlin: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften, 2018, doi:10.34663/9783945561317-22.
[2] Matvei P. Bronstein, “Quantum theory of weak gravitational fields,” Gen. Rel. Grav. 44 (2012) 267–283, translated from German by M.A. Kurkov, edited by S. Deser, doi:10.1007/s10714-011-1285-4.
[3] Gennady E. Gorelik, Victor Ya. Frenkel, Matvei Petrovich Bronstein and Soviet Theoretical Physics in the Thirties, Birkhäuser Basel,1994, doi:10.1007/978-3-0348-8488-4.
Source: commons.wikimedia.org
News from the Steering Board
The Steering Board (SB) established the International Society on Loop Quantum Gravity (ISLQG) as a registered non-profit organisation under US federal law with 501(c)(3) status in accordance with the Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. § 501(c)3). Concretely, this means that the society has legal personality and will be exempt from most taxation. It can now receive donations with tax benefits for donors within the United States of America. For donors residing outside the USA, potential tax benefits depend on the tax laws of their country of residence.
The Steering Board is very happy to have completed this milestone and would like to express gratitude to Hal Haggard for all his work and all society members for their support throughout the process.
News from the Young Researchers' Working Group
The Young Researchers' Working Group (YRWG) launched an online survey to better understand interests and needs that young researchers in the community have. Junior members that have missed the communication or cannot participate in the survey online can reach out to the members of the working group by e-mail. Contact details can be found here.
The survey gathers feedback on the types of activities young researchers would find most valuable—such as journal clubs, panel discussions, early-career workshops, and similar initiatives. It also asks for young researchers' interest in contributing to the organisation of the working group.
Researchers are invited to contact the members of the working group directly by e-mail. The working group welcomes ideas, suggestions, or comments.
News from the Website Working Group
Careful readers of this website will have noticed subtle changes to structure and design. These updates are the work of the Website Working Group (WWG), which seeks to improve the readability and logical structure of the site. To discuss past updates and future plans, the steering board had a joint meeting with the website working group in early January. The working group presented ideas for future additions to the ISLQG website.
The members of the website working group invite readers for feedback. Contact details can be found here.
ISLQG Members' Blog
Last year, ISLQG launched an internal scientific blog. All members of the society are invited to contribute. The blog is available through the following link
There is now a new addition to the blog. The section New Papers includes automised new blog posts for each new paper from every member of ISLQG. The post will contain the title, list the authors and the abstract available from arXiv. The section New Papers can be viewed by all users of the blog. Users can follow any category to get notified when there is a new post published in that category. The society thanks Waleed Sherif (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg) for integrating this new feature into the blog.
In case you are a member of the society but have not received an invitation to join the internal ISLQG blog yet, please contact Kristina Giesel. Contact details can be found here.
The Year 2025 in Review
Earlier news from late 2024 to December 2025 are summarised here, where we look back at what happened in the community during the past 15 months. We include reports from conferences, workshops and schools. In addition, we report on new faculty positions and the 2025 Blaumann Prize, which was awarded to Ali Akil and Qianhang Ding. Unfortunately, there were also two very sad news to share.
Sami Viollet, a PhD student in quantum gravity at Aix-Marseille University died on 02 February 2025 in a mountain accident. His teachers in Marseille, Alejandro Perez, who supervised Sami Viollet's PhD, and Simone Speziale, speak about a talented young men, who will be remembered for his dedication, passion, and intellect, which left a lasting impact on everyone who was close to him. Their message to the community is available here.
A couple of months earlier, Jerzy (Jurek) Lewandowski died on 08 October 2024. He is credited among the researchers who most contributed to the development of Loop Quantum Gravity. In October 2026, a year after his death, the Banach Center in Warsaw organized a conference in his memory. Tomasz Pawłowski wrote a report about the conference, which is available here. More information about Jerzy Lewandowski can be found here. Personal memories have been collected at www.remembr.com/jerzy.lewandowski.