Universality in Physics: Non-equilibrium Phenomena

Erice, Sicily
May 8-12, 2026
Organizers: Victor Galitski (Joint Quantum Institute, University of Maryland) and Ivan Corwin (Columbia University)

Many very different physical systems, from electrons in solids and spins in quantum magnets to light in optical cavities and particles in noisy environments, display the same large-scale patterns of motion.

This workshop explores the idea that integrable many-body systems and strong conservation laws can govern universal behavior even when microscopic dynamics is chaotic. The program focuses on transport, fluctuations, hydrodynamics, scaling, and random-matrix phenomena across classical, quantum, and stochastic systems.

Universality in the Kardar-Parisi­-Zhang class and random matrix theory

ICMS, Bayes Centre, Edinburgh
June 1-5, 2026
Organizers: Ofer Busani (University of Edinburgh), Theo Assiotis (University of Edinburgh), Ivan Corwin (Columbia University)

The workshop aim is to bring together researchers from the communities of the KPZ universality class and random matrix theory in the hopes of cultivating collaborations and developing new ideas. The KPZ and RMT fields have long history of cross fertilisation, where techniques developed in one field are often found useful in the other. Recently, the fields have seen important breakthroughs and development in the question of universality via line ensembles. We hope the workshop will facilitate better understanding of this promising program and will push it forward.

4th Simons Math Summer Workshop: Algebraic Methods in Probability

Stonybrook, Long Island
July 6-24, 2026 Organizers: Alexei Borodin (MIT), Ivan Corwin (Columbia), Evita Nestoridi (Stony Brook)

Much of probability theory is concerned with understanding phenomena and structure that emerges in large, complex systems driven by disorder. This understanding is often first established for special example systems that are analyzable due to hidden connections to algebra. This summer workshop will focus on these hidden connections. Through a combination of mini-courses, lectures, and extensive time for discussion and collaboration, the workshop will bring together communities that are often concerned with different questions or probabilistic models, and focus them on the common ground within their methods. Examples of the types of hidden structures and related probabilistic models include:

• Representation theory in Markov chain mixing and card shuffling.
• Quantum integrable systems and symmetric function theory in stochastic vertex models, random matrix theory, interacting particle systems and the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class.
• Lax matrices in integrable systems driven by randomness or random initial data.

YITP long-term workshop “Hydrodynamics and fluctuations in non-equilibrium interacting systems”

Kyoto, Japan
Auguest 23-September 24, 2027 Organizers: Tomohiro Sasamoto (Institute of Science Tokyo), et al.