DU college students plan 5 years to bring International Conference of Physics Students to India

“Five years of planning went into bringing the conference to India. From the day I joined, it was a goal,” said Anant Singh, a Rajdhani College, University of Delhi (DU) graduate who helped bring the International Conference of Physics Students (ICPS) to Delhi for its 2028 edition.

In 2026, Singh was elected vice-president of the International Association of Physics Students (IAPS), a global organisation connecting physics students and student associations across countries. His election also makes him the first Indian to hold the position.

He later presented India’s bid to host ICPS 2028 at the IAPS general assembly in Morocco, following years of organising student events, building a national network and training volunteers across India.

Organised annually since 1986, the one-week ICPS will be held in Delhi for the first time in 2028. The conference will feature physics lectures, workshops, academic sessions and networking, alongside the IAPS annual general meeting. India will become only the second Asian country to host the conference after the Philippines, with organisers seeking greater participation from students in South Asia and Africa.

For Singh, who began his IAPS journey as a student at DU, bringing the conference to Delhi marks another step in his journey from organising college events to working with physics students globally.

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Rajdhani College, DU

Singh’s involvement with IAPS began at Rajdhani College, where he started exploring how international student organisations worked.

“When I joined college, I wanted to understand how organisations work at an international level. I went through IAPS’ charter and documents and also studied Indian student associations to understand how they were structured and functioned. This helped me understand how these organisations work and how to work with people from different colleges,” he said.

In 2022, he organised the first IAPS School Day in Delhi, bringing together students from Rajdhani College, Miranda House and Hansraj College. The event, held around the ‘International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development’, gave him his first experience of building a team across colleges.

“It helped me learn how to form a team, work with people across colleges and lead a team,” he said.

Singh later worked on building the Indian Network of Physics Students (INPS), developing positions, working groups, student training and outreach activities. According to him, the network now has around 500 student members, up from about 200 last year, with participants from Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern states, he said.

The network is also in talks with the Indian Association of Physics Teachers (IAPT) to reach students in tier-2, tier-3 and tier-4 cities. “We want to build the Indian Network of Physics Students so that students from more parts of the country are connected,” Singh said.

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IAPS: Increasing participation from Asia, Africa

Singh’s academic and student leadership journey took him to international opportunities, including an IUPAP grant in 2024 to attend the IAPS conference in Georgia and a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) at California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

He is currently pursuing a master’s degree at Universite Paris Cite as a SMARTS-UP scholar. After moving to Paris, he continued working with IAPS as an outreach manager before being elected vice-president.

He had also served as national president and later as vice-chair of the AC5 Council, which works on coordination between IAPS and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP).

Singh was also involved in organising ICPS in Morocco, where he worked between the IAPS committee and the local organising team. Morocco was the first African host of the conference. “I helped with coordination, logistics and accommodation and worked to connect the IAPS committee with the local organisers,” he said.

For the Delhi edition, Singh said the organisers want to increase participation from countries that have had less representation in IAPS.

“The main voting power in IAPS is still concentrated in Europe. We are trying to help students from Africa and South Asia form their own committees and participate in the organisation,” he said.

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Physics Conference: Europe to India

Keshav Sharma, a fourth-year BSc Physics (honours) student at Rajdhani College, said hosting ICPS in Delhi would give Indian students greater exposure to international student organisations.

“ICPS has mostly been organised in Europe. We were competing with bids from countries such as Italy and Spain, where IAPS has a strong presence, so bringing the conference to Delhi is significant for Indian physics students,” Sharma said.

According to Sharma, the conference could also give students opportunities to take on responsibilities and understand physics beyond those generally available through college societies.

“College societies and clubs do provide opportunities, but international student organisations give students a wider range of experiences. Through these networks, students can get hands-on experience in outreach, sponsorship, event management and networking,” he said.

Preparations will involve developing the scientific programme, bringing in international participants, building partnerships and securing funding. Sharma said the organisers were working with IAPT to involve professors from different fields and were looking at government support, sponsorships and other sources of funding.

He said the organisers were estimating a budget of around Rs 3-4 crore, with funding expected to come from grants, registration fees and sponsorships.

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ICPS 2028: Academic approach beyond textbooks

“When I was at Caltech and now in Europe, I saw that universities also focus on explaining research to the public. Research is funded through public money, so people should understand where that money is going. I think Indian institutions also need to develop this approach,” Singh said.

Singh also encourages students to take part in activities outside academics. During his first year, he was involved with the economics society, debating club, physics society, research society and environmental committee.

“I tell my juniors to explore the opportunities available in their colleges. Join clubs and societies and take part in activities outside academics. These experiences teach you things that textbooks cannot,” he said.