ICP Themes
17-23 October 2027 | Indaba Hotel & Conference Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa
IUPAP International Conference on Physics, Physics for Sustainable Development: Equitable wellbeing on a healthy, lively planet.
Themes
Physics Focus: The roles that physics is playing, and should be playing, in the present climate crisis of our planet.
- Physics in Climate Science
- Physics in Sustainable Development for Equitable Wellbeing:
- Mitigation and Adaptation (general)
- Energy
- Physics in the green economy
- Physics in human and environmental health
- Physics in Disaster Risk Reduction
- Physics in Science Diplomacy and Communication
- Physics Education and Skills Development in Climate Physics and Sustainability
“Humankind faces major challenges that endanger our future and civilization as we know it. Global challenges for humanity include sustainable development and global warming, energy, natural resources, pollution, clean water and the uncontrolled development of artificial intelligence. Solving these problems requires scientific researchers, politicians and decision makers to talk and to listen to each other, and needs scientists to raise public awareness.
“It also requires scientists to learn how to clearly explain their science in a way that can be understood by non-experts. We live in an interconnected world where complex problems can only be solved in interdisciplinary collaborations and addressing these problems from very different angles. Scientists should therefore learn to think out of their own narrow field and interact with other communities. IUPAP has an enormous potential to play a leading role in such an enterprise. Its diversity from biophysics to nuclear and astrophysics covers all major branches of physics. Run by the physics community itself, it is independent and free. Each community might not have much impact. But if all branches get together and speak with one voice, it could make a major difference.”
Pietro Ubertini, Vice President of COSPAR [https://cosparhq.cnes.fr/], former Chair IUPAP Commission C19
1. Physics in Climate Science
including physics-powered solutions in climate science and observation; Earth Systems Models, fundamental physics needed in models; validation; the science of attribution, data integrity; evidence in terms of Earth Observation, oceanography, atmospheric physics and meteorology, geophysics, polar science and ice mechanics; the nature of evidence and of uncertainty; sensors, satellites, platforms and system integration (physics associated with buoys, gliders, autonomous underwater vehicles, shipboard observations, ground stations, mobile land platforms); satellites and systems, space science and planetary science; the fundamental natures of stochastic forcing in complex systems, fundamental physics shedding light on climate; chaos theory, non-linear dynamics, turbulence; novel modelling, monitoring, observations; machine learning & AI, data science
Specialty research areas: Complex systems, chaos theory, non-linear dynamics, turbulence, thermodynamics of large-scale systems, information theory, machine learning & AI, systems integration, predictive analytics
Linked SDGs: 7, 9, 13.
2. Physics in Sustainable Development for Equitable Wellbeing:
2.1 Mitigation & Adaptation
including emissions reduction, carbon sequestration, water purification
Specialty research areas: Solid state physics, materials science & engineering, regional planning.
Linked SDGs: 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13
2.2 Energy
Including physics in energy systems for a low carbon future; energy efficiency, energy saving in favour of lean buildings and lean transportation systems; renewable energy generation and storage, solar, wind, tidal, hydroelectric, geothermal and generation systems, sustainable practice, local adaptation, low cost systems and physics for development; fusion energy, major facilities and start-ups; superconductivity; nuclear energy, microreactors, new physics, sustainability considerations; transmission networks, stability and dynamics
Specialty research areas: Solid state physics, materials science & engineering, nuclear physics, predictive analytics,
Linked SDGs: 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13
2.3 Physics in the green economy
Materials for the future, condensed matter physics and materials science; sustainable manufacturing, lasers in industry; natural lighting and daylighting, sustainable ventilation and cooling, building systems and materials, low-cost materials, urban hotspots, rural protection, coastal protection, novel recycling; nanotechnologies for energy conversion; sustainability in High Energy Physics, physics labs, computing, and data management
Specialty research areas: Solid state physics, materials science & engineering, predictive analytics, urban and regional planning (engineering & sociology).
Linked SDGs: 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13
2.4 Physics in human and environmental health
Including medical physics, radiology, novel image processing; physics for health, solutions for heat-health impacts; lasers, optical physics and photonics; diagnostics: quantum sensors, microfluidics, accessible low-cost medical care and diagnostics in the field; vaccines and treatments, vector control – biophysics, bioinformatics, electronic structure methods, synchrotrons, nanoscience; physics applied to the Food-Water-Energy nexus: clean water (water purification), energy provision, applications to pests and diseases in agriculture and pastoralism, metagenomics, soil science, resilient crops; fish stock monitoring, physics in the economy of the ocean; toxin sensors in foods, innovative support of subsistence farmers and fisheries, onsite refrigeration; adaptation to harsh environments, shade and cooling hubs, dust protection, precision farming; the biosphere, observation and modelling, regenerative science
Specialty research areas: Medical physics, biophysics, materials science and engineering, predictive models, large scale data analytics, cross-disciplinary and transdisciplinary topics on how life on earth can adapt to harsh environments, adaptive agriculture.
Linked SDGs: 2, 3, 6, 10.
2.5 Physics in Disaster Risk Reduction
Including the nature of severe events: storms, flooding, drought, heat stress; effective Early Warning Systems and community inclusion, very low-cost weather and climate station support, fire sensors, soil sensors, rescue support, novel personal protective equipment; disaster recovery and systems; resilient infrastructure for the future; rescue systems, wearable beacons; hospital and clinic support and systems
Specialty research areas: materials science and engineering, predictive models, large scale data analytics, urban and regional planning, communications.
Linked SDGs: 3, 6, 10, 11
3. Physics in Science Diplomacy and Communication
Specialty research areas: Modelling of big data, predictive analysis across multiple size scales, philosophy of science, ethics in science, theories and methods of communication, international relations in context of national, regional and global collaboration, especially for developing nations
Linked SDGs: 9, 17
4. Physics Education and Skills Development in Climate Physics and Sustainability
Specialty research areas: Science education, physics education methods, curriculum development, psychology of career advice, integrated societal development
Linked SDGs: 4, 5, 8.