We’re very happy to announce our two prize winners of the 2016-17 essay prize – we make the papers available on the philsci archive when they are ready.

• Suddhasattwa Brahma (Fudan): Emergence of time in Loop Quantum Gravity

• Sebastian De Haro (Amsterdam/Cambridge): Spacetime and Physical Equivalence

Congratulations to the winners, and thanks and commiserations to those who submitted excellent papers that did not win. The first talk was given and recorded at our summer meeting, and will be available online with the other talks soon. The second we expect to be given in Spring 2018, so keep posted. They will also appear in the volumes that we are putting together (more information above).

Submission for the 2016 contest is now closed – please check back for the 2017 contest

2016 Prize competition for essays on SPACE AND TIME AFTER QUANTUM GRAVITY

Run by the University of Geneva-University of Illinois at Chicago ‘Space and Time After Quantum Gravity’ project

The investigation of quantum gravity has been central to theoretical physics for at least two decades, but philosophy has only begun to systematically engage with this field in the past few years. The purpose of this competition is to promote new work in the field, and especially engage directly with philosophy and philosophers thus-far outside of quantum gravity.

We solicit papers on any topic concerning the philosophical foundations of quantum gravity. We are particularly (but not exclusively) interested in work that addresses the foci of the ‘Space and Time After Quantum Gravity’ project: Does quantum gravity eliminate spacetime as fundamental structure? How does quantum gravity explain the appearance of spacetime? What are the broader implications of quantum gravity or of the emergence of spacetime for metaphysical (and other) accounts of the world?

We anticipate awarding up to three prizes, of $1000 each. Winners must agree to visit one of the project centers, either in Chicago or Geneva (travel expenses of up to $500 will be provided) to present their work. Moreover, winning papers are to be published in one of two volumes produced by the project: the first containing more technical papers for specialists and physicists, the second aimed for a more general philosophical audience. Papers of both kinds are encouraged. Papers should be anonymized for blind refereeing. Papers under 9,000 words will be preferred. ABD graduate students or recent PhDs are particularly invited to submit abstracts, as are women and underrepresented minorities.

Deadline: October 30, 2016 (we aim to communicate the decisions by the end of January 2017)

Papers should be sent to beyondspacetimeseminar@gmail.com, where all correspondence should be directed.

The Organizing Committee will select the successful submissions based on expert refereeing by the Review Committee.

Organizing Committee: Nick Huggett, Baptiste Le Bihan, Keizo Matsubara, Christian Wuthrich.

This competition is funded by the John Templeton Foundation.