KITP

The KITP infrastructure that is used to run scientific programs also easily adapts to support other notable efforts at science communication and education.

Science Communication

• The Talk Archive makes available to scientists worldwide some 10,000 scientific discussions conducted at KITP programs and conferences held over a little more than a decade.
• The Public Lecture Series brings to Kohn Hall exceptional scientists adroitly talking about their areas of expertise in a way that makes their science accessible to the interested public.  Speaker-audience interaction is usually exceptional.  These lectures number almost 40, and are available through the KITP Talk Archive.
• A journalist-in-residence program (supported not by NSF, but private funds) enables communicators of science to come to KITP for insight into what theoretical physicists are thinking and doing.  And the communicators, in turn, typically share with interested scientists tips about communicating science.
  This effort and the Public Lecture Series aim to enhance scientific literacy.

Science Education

• The Scholars Program was inaugurated at KITP to encourage research interests and efforts of physicists based at primarily undergraduate teaching institutions.  Promoting their intellectual vibrancy contributes to the quality of undergraduate education in sciences in the United States.
• The Postdoctoral Fellows Program offers recipients the freedom to pursue research of most interest.  By contrast, the usual postdoctoral position is tied to a particular research group, which restricts the scope of the fellow’s investigations.  KITP fellows have access to the frontiers of research of various physics fields, and even other fields such as theoretical biology and neuroscience.  Their research horizons are expanded, instead of constricted.
• The Graduate Fellows Program brings four exceptional graduate students each semester to KITP (eight a year).  Candidates from all over the country are nominated by their advisors.  Both the breadth and depth of exposure to physics and allied topics afford a rich experience for young scientists.
• An Affiliates Program enables visiting scientists to bring their graduate students to KITP.  Both sets of graduate students (Graduate Fellows and Affiliates) note how welcome the broadening experience of science at KITP is at the later stages of graduate education when specializing is required in order to do the thesis necessary to get the Ph.D. credential.
• The annual spring Secondary School Teachers program brings to KITP teachers from around the United States to participate in talks and discussions on a topic associated with one of the concurrently running scientific programs.  Through this vehicle, and also a systematic effort to deploy its postdocs to talk about science in local Santa Barbara schools, the KITP aims to support science education at the essential pre-college level.