Stimulating new projects and collaborations through a shared interest and commitment to theoretical physics was the goal of the second annual “Holography, QCD, and the EIC Physics Conference,” organized and hosted on June 10-11, 2025, by the faculty teaching in SUNY Old Westbury’s B.S. in Physics program.
The conference brought together experts on the Electron-Ion Collider, being built at Brookhaven National Laboratory, with experts on Quantum Field Theory, Quantum Chromodynamics, and applied holography.
“This is a theoretical physics conference talking about cutting-edge subjects that will bring everyone up to speed, including some of our physics students, on new results, ideas and techniques, and will hopefully stimulate new projects and collaborations,” said Andrew O’Bannon, assistant professor of Chemistry & Physics and one of the organizers of the conference.
Along with SUNY Old Westbury researchers, the two-day gathering featured academics from local institutions, including Brookhaven National Laboratory, City University of New York and Stony Brook University. International and national scholars also participated, including those representing Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts; The University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Ben Gurion University of Negev, Israel, and the University of Ghent, Belgium.
“Our physics students in attendance got a taste of what physics research is all about, what kinds of open questions are being investigated, what a professional research meeting looks like, and the opportunity to make connections with physicists from other institutions,” said O’Bannon.
Topics discusses during the conference included "Thermalization from quantum entanglement in high-energy collisions," "Quantum entanglement meets symmetries and defects," "EFT for electrodynamics in general media and Chiral anomalous MHD," and "2D Orbifold CFTs and Covering Surfaces."
“We were very happy to host colleagues from around the block and around the world,” said Matthew Lippert, associate professor of Chemistry and Physics, and also a co-organizer of the event. “Our goal is to integrate our physics research and instruction with the very active research community in the New York Metro area and around the globe.”
The conference was funded by a Faculty Development Grant and a Department of Energy RENEW grant (LEAP-UP), awarded to principal investigator John Estes, assistant professor of Chemistry and Physics.