This Pan-American Advanced Studies Institutes (PASI) award on quantum gravity, jointly supported by the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering and the Division of Physics, will take place June 23rd through July 3rd, 2010 at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Morelia, Mexico. Organized by Dr. Donald Marolf of the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), the PASI will address active approaches to developing theories of quantum gravity, including String Theory, Loop Quantum Gravity, and the relatively new Causal Dynamical Triangulations. The PASI will feature interactions with 12 distinguished leaders in the field and 40 junior researchers and advanced graduate students from the United States and Latin America. In addition, the activity is scheduled just prior to the 19th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation (GR19), to be held July 5-9th, 2010, in Mexico City. Participants to the PASI will be encouraged to attend the GR19 conference, a leading international conference on gravitational physics, where they can build on their PASI experience as well.
Expected outcomes of this PASI include the opportunity to establish and solidify Pan-American ties in the field of quantum gravity. Furthermore, the PASI also aims to develop human resources and build international/intercultural connections between participants and lecturers. The results of the PASI will be disseminated through an electronic medium, a PASI website to be constructed at the UCSB to serve as the permanent repository of sound and video recordings of the lectures. The lectures will also be placed in searchable video archives and made available through the internet in visual and audio format.