The CAP Lecture Tour is an influential and energizing event for undergraduate students in physics departments across Canada. The Tour features presentations that span a wide range of current topics in physics.
This year, the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) Undergraduate Lectures will be offered from January to April. Following a selection process based on input from undergraduate students from CAP member departments, several physicists from across the country will be chosen to present their lecture at at least one host institution within each of the six CAP regions, and up to four other satellite institutions.
Organization
Each speaker will present to undergraduates at a host institution, with their talk recorded and later uploaded to the CAP YouTube channel so they are available to all undergraduate students across Canada. Nearby universities can arrange for speakers to visit through their regional coordinator.
A call for speaker nominations will be issued September 10th; nominations will close at midnight on September 24th.
A list of speakers will be developed by the Lecture Tour Committee, following which undergraduates within each member department across Canada will be invited to identify their top three choices. The final list of speakers will be chosen using the input received. Once the speakers are confirmed, the lecture dates and locations will be finalized and posted on the CAP website. Department and institutional members are requested to promote the lecture to their students.
To meet the tour’s objective of enhancing the visibility of the CAP and of promoting student memberships, it is essential that all speakers be willing to act as ambassadors for the association. A brief set of slides introducing the CAP and the Lecture Tour sponsors will be provided to the host institution’s CAP Rep or the lecture tour regional coordinator for presentation during the introduction to the lecture speaker.
The planning milestones for the 2026 CAP Lecture Tour are as follows:
2025
- September 10: Call to CAP members, department members, corporate members, and institutional partners for speaker nominations using this form.
- September 24: Deadline for submission of speaker nominations.
- Mid-September: Call to Heads and Chairs of CAP member departments to consider hosting their regional CAP lecture tour speaker.
- Early October: List of potential speakers and abstracts available on the Web. Invitation to CAP undergraduate affiliates to review the speaker list and identify their top three choices. These are then submitted to the National Coordinator via a poll link accessible to each affiliate.
- Late October: National organizing committee meets to identify lecture tour schedule, make final selection of speakers as well as the host departments for each regional talk. Regional coordinators contact selected speakers and host institutions.
- Early November (Date TBD): Deadline for selected speakers and host institutions to confirm their participation.
- Mid-November: National Coordinator finalizes tour schedule (speaker, location, dates) and notifies speakers and host institutions.
- Early December: Lecture tour schedule is posted on the website and a NewsFlash is issued to all members.
2026
- January – March: The CAP Lecture Tour takes place at host and satellite departments. Recordings are made and posted on the CAP YouTube channel once available.
- May 31: Deadline for speakers to submit all expense claims to the CAP office.