2026 RHIC & AGS Annual Users' Meeting & RHIC Science Symposium

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Registration is now closed. Please contact the event coordinator to see if you can still register.

RHIC Science Symposium

The RHIC Symposium will be on Thursday, May 14 and Friday, May 15 with special speakers and programming to commemorate the end of RHIC operations, to celebrate the 25+ years of discovery science accomplished, and to kick-off the transition to the Electron Ion Collider Era as we look forward to decades more discovery science.

Keynote Speakers

David J. Gross

Thursday, May 14th, 11:55 am
Prof. David Gross, Chancellor’s Chair Professor of Theoretical Physics UCSB - Presenting: "Reflections on RHIC"

David Gross is the Chancellor’s Chair Professor of Theoretical Physics and former Director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP), University of California, Santa Barbara. He received his Ph.D. in 1966 at UC Berkeley and was previously Thomas Jones Professor of Mathematical Physics at Princeton University. He has been a central figure in particle physics and string theory. BIO/CV

Barbara Jacak

Thursday, May 14th, 5pm
Prof. Barbara Jacak, Distinguished professor in the Department of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley, Presenting the 2026 Brookhaven Science Associates Distinguished Lecture: "Little Bangs at RHIC and the Big Bang at the Beginning"

Barbara Jacak is a distinguished professor in the Department of Physics at the University of California (UC), Berkeley. Her research focuses on experimental study of the “quark-gluon plasma” formed in relativistic heavy ion collisions. She is using fast quark and gluon probes of the plasma, following the fate of energy they lose as they traverse the plasma, in experiments at both RHIC and the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. BIO/CV

Motivation

The Annual RHIC & AGS Users' Meeting will be held on May 11–15, 2026. The meeting will highlight the latest results from the PHENIX, STAR and sPHENIX experiments and provide an outlook with the future programs at RHIC and the EIC. Workshops that will be held on Monday, May 11, and Tuesday, May 12, will enable more in-depth discussions of the following topics:

Jets & Hard Probes (morning)
Fixed-target@EIC (full day)
AI/ML (full day)
Baryon Junction & Stopping (full day)

NASA Space Radiation Labortory (morning)
Ultraperipheral & Electromagnetic Processes (morning)

There will be an in-person poster session on Tuesday, May 12, Plenary sessions will be held on Tuesday, May 12 (afternoon), and Wednesday, May 13. There will be a RHIC Symposium on Thursday, May 14 and Friday, May 15. Reports on operation status from the sPHENIX and STAR experiments and highlights from PHENIX, sPHENIX and STAR experiments, EIC detectors, a report from the Department of Energy and award ceremonies will be held during the plenary sessions.

This 2026 Annual Users' Meeting is open to the public and we plan to record some of the proceedings. To be eligible to attend, all participants must register online by May 6, 2026. For questions or assistance with registering, please contact the meeting coordinator.

Parallel Workshop Topics

All in-person workshops will be held in the Science and User Support Center (Bldg. 101) - Directions.

Monday, May 11
Tuesday, May 12

Workshops are Hybrid and Full Day

Jets & Hard Probes (morning)
Fixed-target@EIC (full day)
AI/ML (full day)
Baryon Junction & Stopping (full day)

Full Agenda

Workshops are Hybrid

NASA Space Radiation Labortory (morning)
Ultraperipheral & Electromagnetic Processes (morning)

Full Agenda

Poster Sessions, Plenary, and RHIC Symposium

Plenary sessions will be held at the Science and User Support Center (Bldg. 101).

Poster Session (Tuesday, May 12)
Plenary Session I (Tuesday, May 12) - Afternoon
Plenary Session II (Wednesday, May 13) - Full day
RHIC Symposium I (Thursday, May 14) - Full day
RHIC Symposium II (Friday, May 15) - Full day

Awards

RHIC/AGS Users' Executive Committee

Daniel Brandenburg, Chair- Elect (Ohio State University)
Abhay Deshpande, Associate Laboratory Director, Nuclear and Particle Physics & EIC Science Director (Brookhaven Lab)
Anders Knospe, Past Chair (Lehigh University)
Peter Steinberg, Chair (Brookhaven Lab)

Join Remotely

The connection information will be provided only to registrants in their welcome or confirmation email. Please do not share this connection information. It is only for registered attendees. Contact the meeting coordinator if you have questions or are having connection issues.

Special Events

Registered participants are invited to attend the social event, optional dinner, and an end-of-meeting luncheon.

Social Event - There will be a social event on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, 5:00 p.m. in the Science and User Support Center (Bldg. 101), compliments of Brookhaven Science Associates (BSA). Directions

Evening Dinner - Join us for dinner to celebrate the 25+ years of RHIC operations at Science and User Support Center (Bldg. 101) on Thursday, May 14, 2026, 6:15 pm. The general dinner fee is $65 US/pp. Guests are welcome. Dinner will be discounted to $30 US for the first 30 student/postdocs who register.

Payment must be received by Wednesday, May 6, 2026 to reserve a dinner ticket. We apologize, but no reservations can be taken during the meeting. Note, there will be no refunds for cancellations. Dinner Details

End-of-Meeting Luncheon - Registered in-person symposium participants are invited to attend the optional luncheon on Friday, May 15, at no cost. Time to be determined.

Important Dates

April 7, 2026	Registration opens
May 6, 2026	Registration closes

Meeting Information

Past Events

View information from previous events.

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Note: This meeting falls under Exemption E. Meetings such as Advisory Committee and Federal Advisory Committee meetings. Solicitation/Funding Opportunity Announcement Review Board meetings, peer review/objective review panel meetings, evaluation panel/board meetings, and program kick-off and review meetings (including those for grants and contracts) are open to the public.