KITP

The process for devising KITP programming is designed to maximize the probability of quality research outcomes through stimulation of interaction and collaboration among participants.

At KITP the in-house group consists of a handful of excellent physicists--"permanent members"--whose research interests are typically very different from each other’s, ranging from astrophysics, particle physics, string theory, hard-condensed matter, to biophysics.  Also in-house are a distinguished group of postdoctoral fellows (newly degreed scientists with exceptional promise as researchers) whose interests are as diverse as those of the permanent members.  That in-house cadre of physicists provides guidance for the process whereby programs are formulated, selected and run.

The real distinctiveness of the KITP model lies with the process whereby the programming is devised.   The process is characterized by a twofold purpose: (1) to encourage the broadest possible input for program proposals from the whole of the physics research community in order to generate a superb list of competing ideas; and then (2) to constitute a selection process among the competing ideas that enables the best possible programming.

Central to the process of program design is the role of the KITP Advisory Board, a group of very distinguished scientists whose research interests (like those of the permanent members) differ widely and are therefore representative of the physics community.  Members serve three-year terms so that the process of rotating membership itself ensures a steady stream of new perspectives on KITP programming choices.

Each year some 6,000 scientists, mostly physicists, are solicited to make suggestions for upcoming KITP programming that will run in a year or two.  Members of the Advisory Board then scrutinize the suggestions and winnow their number to the most promising, which may in fact represent a reformulation by an Advisory Board member or combination of two or more suggestions.

Once a year the 18 Advisory Board members meet at the KITP to engage in an arduous review process of the most promising proposals from which the programming choices are then made for the next one to two years.  Along with choice of programs is the choice of program organizers—the scientists who take responsibility for running the program, devising its component sessions, and soliciting and selecting the best possible complement of participants.

In addition, one of the principal roles of the KITP Director is to solicit ideas that might not otherwise be submitted for programming from new communities that have yet to be represented at the KITP, such as the 2008 "Physics of Climate Change" program.