Jumpstart Postdoc Qiaoyin Pan, Ph.D., Invited Lecturer at Internationally Acclaimed Les Houches Summer School

Photo credit: Sean Tobin

Qiaoyin Pan, Ph.D., a Jumpstart Postdoctoral Program research fellow in the Department of Physics, received a rare invitation to lecture this summer at the prestigious Les Houches School of Physics in France. 

For more than 70 years, the “Les Houches” has welcomed young physicists from all over the world who come to acquire and perfect their scientific knowledge in a magnificent setting at the foot of the Mont Blanc mountain range. The school’s esteemed lecturers and attendees have included some of the biggest names in modern physics, including 50 Nobel and Fields laureates, contributing to its international reputation.  

“It was a tremendous honor to present at Les Houches this summer,” shared Pan. “The invitation signaled that my work is seen as a meaningful step forward in loop quantum gravity and worth sharing with the next generation of researchers in the field.” 

To be asked to be a lecturer is an exceptionally rare honor, but it is also a privilege to be invited to attend. Schmidt College of Science alumnus Rafael Guolo Dias, who earned his Ph.D. in physics in 2024, along with two fortunate physics graduate students, Sean Tobin and Ibai AsensioI, were also part of the Les Houches summer program. 

Photo credits: Sean Tobin	Photo credits: Sean Tobin

 

“Les Houches has a deep history as a gravity and quantum mechanics school, and it felt like being a part of the history of physics while I was there,” stated Tobin. “It was an amazing opportunity to learn from the leading researchers in the field, but also from the people who pioneered the field itself. It was a great honor to be surrounded by history and a great community while doing cutting-edge physics.” 

Over the course of the two-week session, which ran from Sept. 1 to 12, Pan spoke mainly to Ph.D. students, some advanced master students, as well as postdoctoral and junior permanent researchers. She discussed the Chern-Simons theory and Spinfoam model with cosmological constant—a highly advanced topic in loop quantum gravity.  

“In loop quantum gravity, the spinfoam model without a cosmological constant suffers from a divergence problem. This issue is resolved in a recently developed version of the model that includes a cosmological constant—the subject of my lecture,” Pan explained. “This model is closely connected to the quantum Chern–Simons theory, which is rich in mathematical structure and has applications in other areas of theoretical physics. Together, these ideas open new avenues for exploring quantum gravity phenomena.” 

Located above the Chamonix Valley in the French Alps, Les Houches was founded in 1951 by Cécile DeWitt-Morette to rebuild European physics after World War II. Proceedings and notes from Les Houches have become standard references across subfields and are published as widely used volumes. Beyond being a place for the transmission of knowledge, the idyllic setting of Les Houches serves as a hub of scientific discussions at the origin of great new ideas. 

“I appreciated that lecturers and students live together on a secluded alpine campus for the entire program,” noted Pan. “The chalets and shared spaces create an environment where ideas can develop quickly and collaborations form naturally.” 

Within the Jumpstart Postdoctoral Program, Pan is performing research along with her supervisors in the Schmidt College of Science, Muxin Han, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Physics, and Yang Li, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics. 

“I am fascinated by the search for a fundamental theory that explains how the universe works,” said Pan. “I enjoy expressing physical laws in precise mathematical form, and I am driven to tackle the unsolved problems in quantum gravity.” 

To learn more about the college’s Jumpstart Postdoctoral Program, visit: fau.edu/science/postdoc-program/. 

Alumnus Rafael Guolo Dias ‘25, Sean Tobin and Ibai AsensioI Photo credits: Sean Tobin	Photo credits: Sean Tobin