Conference: Loops '24 Conference

This award supports the organization of the Loops '24 conference. The Loops series of conferences is the main international series devoted to the field of Loop Quantum Gravity and other background-independent approaches to Quantum Gravity. It takes place approximately every two years, each time hosted by a different academic institution. In 2024, the hosting institution will be Florida Atlantic University (FAU). The Loops '24 conference brings the best researchers in the world working on background-independent quantum gravity together to dialogue and share knowledge on the most pressing open issues in the field, stimulating new ideas to solve them. The conference has the potential to clarify issues regarding quantum black holes, their endstates, the physics at the Big Bang and what came before, the quantum nature of space-time, and the implications of quantum gravity for quantum foundations, among many other questions of fundamental interest. It also has the potential to clarify corresponding observational consequences, to be compared with results from current and future NASA and ESA missions as well as other experiments. The conference also offers students and postdocs the forum to showcase their work and ideas, providing a unique opportunity to enhance their presentation skills and increase their professional networks. Conferences such as Loops '24 are essential to the training of the next generation of STEM professionals in the field. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.