An international conference
Les Houches (France), January 18-23, 2026
Hosted by École de physique des Houches
Organizing Committee
Danijela Marković (CNRS-Thales & École Polytechnique)
Florian Marquardt (Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light)
Peter McMahon (Cornell University)
Steering Committee
Conference description
There has been an explosion of interest in unconventional approaches to computing with physical systems (some reviews: [MMQG20], [WOG+2020], [MMB2022], [SM2023], [M23], [MRS+25]). This has been driven by multiple factors, including (1) the realization that there is the potential to build vastly more energy-efficient or faster computers if we rethink how we harness physical processes for computing – giving up some of the abstractions computers have relied on for 50+ years in exchange for being able to operate closer to the fundamental limits that physics allows, and (2) the growth of machine learning – which provides both a strong motivator for more efficient machines to be built, as well as a wealth of methods that can be used to reimagine how computers work. This conference will bring together both theorists and experimentalists across a broad range of disciplines – including soft condensed matter, biological physics, neuroscience, machine learning, hard condensed matter, optics, fluid dynamics, and quantum information science – who typically do not have the opportunity to interact but who are all exploring various aspects of computing in different physical systems. Topics will include:
- Information processing and dynamics in classical and quantum systems, including (but not limited to) electronic, spintronic, optical, mechanical, fluidic, biological, and chemical systems.
- Devices, architectures, and algorithms for constructing physical machines that can learn without electronic processors.
- Fundamental limits to computing: time, energy, precision.
- Integrated sensing, computation, and actuation.
Invited speakers
Arvind Murugan (U. Chicago)
Clara Wanjura (Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light)
Feng Guo (Indiana U.)
Hakan Türeci (Princeton U.)
Jack Gartside (Imperial College London)
Julie Grollier (CNRS-Thales)
Logan Wright (Yale U.)
Marc Miskin (U. Pennsylvania)
Martin van Hecke (AMOLF)
Maxence Ernoult (Google DeepMind)
Mihai Petrovici (U. Bern)
Natalia Berloff (Cambridge U.)
Romain Fleury (EPFL)
Sara Achour (Stanford U.)
Serge Massar (U. Bruxelles)
Susanne Yelin (Harvard U.)
Thomas Miconi (Astera)
Wolfram Pernice (U. Heidelberg)
Zoë Holmes (EPFL)
The website for the first edition of the conference, held in Aspen (Colorado, USA) in 2024, is available.
How to apply to participate
You can apply by submitting a registration form and a title/abstract at Sciencesconf no later than 30 October 2025. Late applications will unfortunately not be considered. Every accepted participant will present a poster or a talk (or both).
The registration form asks for, in addition to your contact details, the dates when you would be able to arrive and depart if your application were to be accepted. It also asks about what subsidy need to might have (application decisions will not take into account the answer to this prompt).
Applicants will be notified by email if their application has been accepted. Applicants whose submissions have been selected for contributed talks will also be informed at this stage. Applicants will then be invited to pay the conference fee.
Please apply only if you would be able to attend at least 3 full days out of the 4.5 days (the final day will be a half-day), and ideally all 5 (preference will be given to applicants who can stay for the full duration). Based on our experience with the first edition of this conference in Aspen in 2024, there will be more interest than there are available places, so the ability to fully participate will be an important consideration. There are many other shorter meetings on this topic that would be appropriate for people who cannot commit to spending a week away.
Important dates
- Deadline to submit an abstract: 30 October 2025
- Notification if your application has been accepted or waitlisted or rejected: 15 November 2025
- Deadline to pay the conference registration fee: 1 December 2025
- Notification if your application was waitlisted but has now been upgraded to accepted: 2 December - 31 December 2025
- Day to arrive: Sunday 18 January 2026 (from 3 pm onwards)
- Day to depart: Friday 23 January 2026 (lunchtime)
Les Houches is a village located in Chamonix valley, in the French Alps. Established in 1951, the Physics School is situated at 1150 m above sea level in natural surroundings, with breathtaking views of the Mont Blanc mountain range. Les Houches Physics School is UAR 2002 run by Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA). The five School Partners are UGA, the Institut National Polytechnique (Grenoble-INP), the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA), and the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon (ENS Lyon).Ecole de Physique des Houches, 149 Chemin de la Côte, F-74310 Les Houches, France. https://houches-school-physics.com