The Charter

Aim and Means of the John Bell Institute

The aim of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics (hereafter “JBI”) is to promote high quality work on foundational questions of physics by individuals and to create an interacting global community of those investigating foundational questions, irrespective of home discipline. The central means for pursuing this aim are threefold: holding Summer Schools for students of the field; hosting Workshops in the field; and providing a home for individual scholars to do their work and consult with each other.

Institutional Structure

The JBI shall consist in these parts: a Director, two Co-Directors, a Board of Governors, a Faculty, Honorary Fellows, Bell Fellows, and Fellows.

The Board of Governors shall be composed of six Governors, two each from the fields of Physics, Mathematics, and Philosophy. An individual shall count as being from a field just in case she or he either holds an advanced degree in the field or holds or has held a primary appointment in a corresponding department, with History and Philosophy of Science counting as Philosophy. The Board of Governors may decide, by a unanimous-but-one (e.g. 5 of 6) vote, to regard any individual as being from any of the three fields. The Director shall be appointed from the Faculty or the Co-Directors, and shall be a member of the Board of Governors ex officio. The Board may, by a unanimous vote, appoint a Director who does not meet the condition just mentioned. Except where otherwise explicitly noted in this Charter, decisions of the Board of Governors, including decisions to amend the Charter, shall be by unanimous-but-one vote. Amending a clause in the Charter that mentions a unanimous vote requires a unanimous vote.

The Charter Members of the Board of Governors of the JBI are:

Tim Maudlin, Director, from Philosophy (ex officio)
Carl Hoefer, from Philosophy
Nino Zanghì, from Physics
Daniel Sudarsky, from Physics
Sheldon Goldstein, from Mathematics
Detlef Dürr, from Mathematics

The Faculty shall be composed of no more than 26 individuals. The maximum number of Faculty members may only be changed by a unanimous vote of the Board of Governors. Every member of the Board of Governors is a member of the Faculty ex officio.

The Board of Governors shall consider annually whether to appoint any new Faculty members should any available position exist. Election of Faculty members, Honorary Fellows and Fellows shall be done as follows: First, each Governor shall, as much as possible without mutual consultation, formulate a list of candidates for Faculty, Honorary Fellows, and Fellows, and provide that list to the Director. The Director shall merge these into a single master list and supply it to the other Governors. Each Governor shall then mark each candidate with one of the following notations: X, 0, H, F, X?, H?, and F?. These connote as follows: ‘X’ means “I vote for this candidate as a member of the Faculty”, ‘0’ means “I do not know enough about this candidate to make an informed judgment”, ‘H’ means “I vote for this candidate as an Honorary Fellow”, ‘F’ means “I vote for this candidate as a Fellow”, ‘X?’ means “I have reservations about this candidate as a member of the Faculty”, ‘H?’ means “I have reservations about this candidate as an Honorary Fellow”, ‘F?’ means “I have reservations about this candidate as a Fellow”. A candidate shall be elected as a member of the Faculty if and only if she or he receives at least 5 votes of X and none with a question mark. If a candidate receives 5 votes of X and one with a question mark, the Board shall enter into discussions to see if the vote with a question mark might be changed. Only if it is changed to either an X or to an abstention shall the candidate shall be elected. A candidate elected to the Faculty can decline and request instead to be an Honorary Fellow.

The Charter Members of the Faculty of the JBI are:

Nino Zanghì, ex officio
Christian Wüthrich
Howard M. Wiseman
Roderich Tumulka
Stefan Teufel
Daniel Sudarsky, ex officio
Ward Struyve
Franjo Sokolić
Travis Norsen
Wayne Myrvold
Tim Maudlin, ex officio
Federico Laudisa
Michael Kiessling
Carl Hoefer, ex officio
Sheldon Goldstein, ex officio
Michael Esfeld
Detlef Dürr, ex officio
Fay Dowker
Craig Callender
Jean Bricmont
Angelo Bassi
David Z. Albert

The main function of the Faculty is to organize Summer Schools and Workshops, as described in the next section.

The class of Honorary Fellows is not limited. Honorary Fellows shall hold only the Right of Residence, as described in next section, but the Faculty shall be encouraged to draw faculty for Summer Schools and members of Workshops from the lists of Honorary Fellows, Bell Fellows and Fellows. Honorary Fellows are elected for life. An elected Honorary Fellow may decline the position. An individual shall be elected as an Honorary Fellow just in case, following the procedure described above, she or he gets at least 4 votes of X or H and no votes with a question mark. If a candidate receives least 4 votes of X or H and any votes of H? or F?, the Board of Governors shall enter into discussions of the candidate. The candidate shall be elected only if every vote of H? and/or F? is withdrawn or changed to a positive vote.

The Charter Honorary Fellows of the JBI are:

Lev Vaidman
Daniel Tausk
Gerard ‘t Hooft
Rafael Sorkin
Lawrence Sklar
Laura Ruetsche
Carlo Rovelli
Philip Pearle
John D. Norton
Priya Natarajan
Errol Morris
Olimpia Lombardi
Barry Loewer
Joel Lebowitz
Franck Laloë
Adrian Kent
Jenann Ismael
Nick Huggett
Lucien Hardy
Edward J. Hall
Domenico Giulini
Robert P. Geroch
Jürg Fröhlich
George F. R. Ellis
John Earman
Mauro Dorato
Lajos Diósi
Catalina Curceanu
Sean M. Carroll
Jeremy Butterfield
Jeffrey Bub
Harvey R. Brown
Gordon Belot
Adam Becker
Jeffrey Barrett
Julian Barbour
Stephen L. Adler
Scott Aaronson

The set of Fellows is not limited. Fellows shall hold only the Right of Residence, as described in the next section, but the Faculty shall be encouraged to draw faculty for Summer Schools and members of Workshops from the lists of Honorary Fellows, Bell Fellows and Fellows. Fellows are elected for a period of three years, and may have their Fellowship renewed. Upon the second renewal, a Fellow shall automatically become a Bell Fellow. An elected Fellow may decline the position. An individual shall be elected as a Fellow just in case, following the procedure described above, she or he gets a majority of non-0 positive votes and no votes with a question mark. If a candidate receives a majority of non-0 votes but also some votes with a question mark, the Board of Governors shall enter into discussions of the candidate. The candidate shall be elected only if every vote with a question mark is withdrawn or changed to a positive vote.

The Charter Fellows of the JBI are:

Hans Westman
Izumi Tsutsui
Antoine Tilloy
James Taylor
Albert Solé
Sally Shrapnel
Charles T. Sebens
Paula Reichert
Alejandro Perez
Andrea Oldofredi
Elias Okon
George Musser
Elizabeth Miller
George Matsas
Matthias Lienert
Dustin Lazarovici
Vincent Lam
Michael Lacanilao
Tim Koslowski
Jim Holt
Alison Fernandes
Laura Felline
Maaneli Derakhshani
Kevin J. Coffey
Eddy Keming Chen
Luke Barnes
Valia Allori

The set of Bell Fellows is not limited. Bell Fellows shall hold only the Right of Residence, as described in next section, but the Faculty shall be encouraged to draw faculty for Summer Schools and members of Workshops from the lists of Honorary Fellows, Bell Fellows and Fellows. Bell Fellowship does not expire (until the Bell Fellow does, of course). Co-Directors are automatically Bell Fellows, as are twice renewed Fellows, as described above. Anyone who opts to resign from the Faculty shall be offered a Bell Fellowship. Otherwise, Bell Fellows shall be appointed at the sole discretion of the Director.

The Charter Bell Fellows of the JBI are:

Dakin Sloss
Jerry Rife, JBI Artist
Peter Finger
Mario Hubert, ex officio
Ivan Carić

There are two Co-Directors. The Co-Directors, like the Director, take care of the campus(es), oversee the scheduling of Summer Schools and Workshops, and generally look after the health of the JBI. The Co-Directors shall be appointed by the Board of Governors by a unanimous-but-one vote.

The Charter Co-Directors of the JBI are:

Ward Struyve
Mario Hubert

Scheduling

The primary means by which the JBI shall pursue its aims is by holding Summer Schools for students of the field. The Faculty is tasked with proposing Summer Schools by choosing a topic and faculty of the Summer School, as well as possible dates and (if more than one exists) campuses. Scheduling of the Summer Schools is then up to the Director, in consultation with the Co-Directors. Proposals by Governors shall be given precedence over those of other Faculty if such a conflict should arise. Apart from that, the Director shall try to maximize the number of Summer Schools presented, also taking account of Faculty whose earlier proposals have not been scheduled, and trying to accommodate them.

The secondary means by which the JBI shall pursue its aims is by hosting Workshops on topics in the foundations of physics. The Faculty is tasked with proposing Workshops by choosing a topic and participants, as well as possible dates and (if more than one exists) campuses. Once the Summer Schools are set, scheduling of the Workshops is up to the Director, in consultation with the Co-Directors. Proposals by Governors shall be given precedence over those of other Faculty if such a conflict should arise. Apart from that, the Director shall try to maximize the number of Workshops presented, also taking account of Faculty whose earlier proposals have not been scheduled, and trying to accommodate them.

The Faculty shall be given a date by which proposals for Summer Schools shall be due, and another date, possibly later, by which proposals for Workshops shall be due. Summer Schools and Workshops submitted on time shall be scheduled. Consideration and scheduling of late submissions is at the discretion of the Director.

The Right of Residence

Once the Summer Schools and Workshops are scheduled, any remaining unclaimed times and rooms are made available to all the Faculty, Honorary Fellows, Bell Fellows and Fellows who would like to reside on a campus. The schedule of available times and rooms shall be provided to all the concerned parties, who shall then have until a specified date to request residence. The requests may include whatever information the requester thinks may be relevant, e.g. the nature of a project being worked on, number of consecutive days of residence sought, other individuals with whom concurrent residence is sought, etc. The Director shall try to accommodate as many requests as possible, and shall formulate specific rules for making decisions if that becomes desirable. No Faculty, Summer School student, Workshop attendee or Fellow of any type shall be charged more than $50 per night for residence.

Only Faculty and the various sorts of Fellows can have the Right of Residence at a campus of the JBI. The Director shall take up requests that unoccupied rooms be made available to anyone else with the Board of Governors. If such rooms are made available in such a case, payment beyond $50 or some other form of compensation may be sought. Under no circumstances shall use of an entire campus be made available to any group beside the JBI.

Faculty Meeting

The Faculty shall meet annually to discuss possible topics for Summer Schools and Workshops and generally discuss whatever issues concerning the JBI that might arise. Faculty meetings shall alternate between being held in Europe and in North America. Absent some justification to make a change, the meetings in North America shall be held at the Mirror Lake Inn in Lake Placid, NY, and meetings in Europe at the Esplanade in Zagreb, Croatia.

Outreach

One other way that the JBI shall promote clear and well-informed discussions of foundational issues in physics is via outreach: the JBI shall try to make available Faculty members and Fellows of the various sorts to any group that is interested in foundational issues. For this purpose, the Director shall request and compile a list of topics that the Faculty and various types of Fellows feel competent to speak on, including the technical level required to understand the presentation. If any group should contact the JBI seeking a speaker, the Director and Co-Directors shall try to match the group with an appropriate speaker. If possible, the JBI shall provide resources (including paying for travel costs and, if appropriate, honoraria for the speakers) in order to encourage these talks.

Financing and Compensation

The Board of Governors shall be empowered, by a unanimous-but-one vote, to issue bonds for the purpose of financing purchase and construction of the campus(es), pay salaries of the Co-Directors and Director, and otherwise fund the activities of the JBI. The fee for residence shall be reduced by $1/night for every $10,000 of JBI bonds purchased by anyone with the Right of Residence.

The Director and each Co-Director shall have sole use of one room on each campus. They shall also have the right to use one room for guests if such a room has not been requested by anyone with the Right to Residence.

Compensation for the Director and each Co-Director shall be the same, and not be less than 2/9 of the highest salary received by any member of the Board of Directors. The level of compensation shall be set by the Board of Governors on a unanimous-but-one vote. If the Director or a Co-Director has no other employment that provides health and social security benefits, then they shall be provided by the JBI.

The Director and each Co-Director shall have available a travel budget of $15,000/annum. This can be used however the person prefers, including paying for accompanying family members or to pay Business or First Class, so long as the travel is required for fulfilling obligations to the JBI. Every other member of the Board of Governors shall receive $10,000/annum for the same purpose. Every other Faculty member and all Bell Fellows shall receive $5,000/annum for travel to and from the Faculty meeting and any campus. Fellows shall receive $2,500/annum for travel to and from any JBI event or campus.