Helpful links and resources I wish I had starting grad school.

Suggested reads:

• “Inverse Occam’s razor” – 3-page easy cautionary read by Prof. Igor Mazin on how the academic community tends to favor exotic and complex explanations over simpler, more straightforward ones
• “More is Different” – 4-page classic paper and easy read by P. W. Anderson on emergent physics in correlated systems, partly written in the context of the debate over funding priorities in physics at the time
• Journal Club for Condensed Matter Physics – a monthly selection of interesting papers in condensed matter physics, accompanied by expert commentary

Some blogs:

• https://nanoscale.blogspot.com/ – a blog by Prof. Douglas Natelson
• https://spinsandelectrons.com/ – a blog by Prof. Leon Balents
• https://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/ – a blog by lecturer Peter Woit
• https://physurls.com/ – physics news aggregator from popular physics websites

A list of recurring winter and summer schools (primarily in USA) for condensed matter physics students:

• Maglab Theory Winter School in Tallahassee, FL
• Princeton Summer School on Condensed Matter Physics in Princeton, NJ
• Boulder School for Condensed Matter and Materials Physics in Boulder, CO
• Condensed Matter Physics in the City organized annually by Hubbard Theory Consortium in London, UK
• GRC conference on correlated electron systems (and joint GRS seminar for students and postdoscs only), typically held in South Hadley, MA
• GRC conference on superconductivity (and joint GRS seminar for students and postdoscs only), typically held in Les Diablerets, Switzerland
• William I. Fine Theoretical Physics Institute schools and workshops at University in Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
• ICTP schools on condensed matter and statistical physics held in Trieste, Italy
• École de Physique des Houches schools and workshops held in Les Houches, France
• Institut d’Études Scientifiques summer schools and workshops held in Cargèse, France
• Extreme Quantum Materials Alliance schools and workshops at Rice University, Houston, TX

Specialized schools and workshops:

• School on Neutron and X-ray Scattering organized and held jointly at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, IL, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, TN
• PSQM workshop on advances in using pressure and strain on quantum materials at Iowa State University, Ames, IA