About CTP
National Taiwan University received a donation from Professor Emeritus of Physics Shin Nan Yang and his family in 2018, to advance theoretical physics research. It was then decided to reorganize the Center for Theoretical Sciences (NTU-CTP), founded in 2006, and renamed it to the Center for Theoretical Physics at National Taiwan University (NTU-CTP) to focus only on theoretical physics. The donation provides funds for Chair Professorships and Outstanding Young Fellows.
The aim of the NTU-CTP is threefold:
(a) to become a world-leading center in frontier research on fundamental physics,
(b) to provide an intellectually stimulating environment for students and young scientists and
(c) to facilitate interdisciplinary interactions, and to promote international collaboration.
Currently the Center has 21 faculty members from the Department of Physics. Many of the members are already leading experts in their respective research fields. Research interests of the Center members include: Cosmology, Astrophysics, Computational astrophysics, Particle and Nuclear Physics, Quantum field theory, String Theory, Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, Condensed Matter Physics, Computational Materials Physics, Quantum Information, Non-linear Physics, Soft Matter Physics, Chemical Physics, and Computational Physics.
The space of the NTU-CTP is located on the 4th floor of the Chee-Chun Leung Cosmology Hall, NTU and designed for academic communication. We have a lecture hall with 100 seats that could become a useful venue for holding academic workshops or teaching and training events such as the summer schools or international workshops we held last year. Office amenities in the NTU-CTP such as pantry room, and discussion room with coffee machine and printer, and Wi-Fi service are suitable for visiting scholars. Also, we have 9 research rooms and 3 discussion spaces with whiteboards/blackboards which make discussion much easier and comfortable at the NTU-CTP. Considering the popularity of mobile vehicles and benefit/cost of cross-border cooperation, we will purchase Video Codec for synchronous conference to improve two-way video communications in the future.
The Center gives a high priority to education. In hence, the Center offers student fellowships to encourage graduate students to study theoretical physics, and to award them for their outstanding research works. The NTU-CTP just awarded 3 scholarships to the winning students this year.
We believe that the progress and creativity of science always arise from basic research. The NTU-CTP constantly advocates activing exchanges of prospective academic idea and promotes academic cooperation. Under such spirit, the Center has close collaborations with Department of Physics, Institute of Astrophysics, Center for Condensed Matter Sciences of NTU, Institute of Physics, Institute of Astronomy, Institute for Atomic and Molecular Sciences of Academia Sinica, and National Center for Theoretical Sciences in organizing activities and sharing resources to have a coherent effort to bring research to world class excellence.
2018 年，因本校物理系楊信男名譽教授及家人，為紀念父親楊金豹先生發展教育學術促進國家社會進步之心志，捐款成立永續基金，用以加強理論物理研究 。爰此乃將原於 2006 年成立之「臺大理論科學研究中心」（NTU-CTS) 於 2018 年 1 月 1 日起改組為「臺大 理論物理研究中心」，並設置中心講座教授及傑出年輕學者，以臻世界先進之林。本中心有三個具體目標：
a) 成為一流前沿理論物理研究中心。
b) 提供學生及年輕研究人員優質的學術環境。
c) 提供不同專業領域間學術交流及合作平台並且致力於促進國際合作。
本中心的成員為21名主要來自物理系的教授。很多成員都有相當的研究經驗且是各自領域的專家。中心成員主要研究方向包含：宇宙學、天體物理學、天文動態模擬、粒子與核子物理、量子場論、弦論、原子分子與光物理、凝聚態物理、計算材料物理、量子資訊、非線性物理學、軟性物質物理學、化學物理已及計算物理等。
本中心位於臺大次震宇宙館4樓，空間配置以學術研究交流的需求設計，擁有可容納百人的演講廳供學術會議或教學活動使用，像是近期的國際研討會及暑期課程；除了休憩室、茶水間、咖啡機、印表機、無線網路等訪問學者交誼空間外，有9間研究室(約30個研究辦公空間)及3處公共討論空間均備黑、白板，中心內隨處可見大面積書寫版面供學者進行學術討論交流。考量到行動載具的普及風潮以及著眼跨國合作的成本與效益，將來預計引入視訊主機，為學者提供遠距同步視訊會議服務。
為支持本校學生在理論物理研究領域注入活水，教育是本中心的重點之一。中心已設置獎學金以鼓勵優秀學生從事理論科學的研究，並獎勵學生完成優質科研論文，如每年設置的理論物理獎學金與最佳理論論文獎，今年中心即發出3份獎學金獎勵得獎學生。
我們相信讓科學進步的創造力能量始終起源於基礎研究，秉持著活絡學術交流、促成學術合作的宗旨，本中心和臺大物理系，天文物理所，凝態科學中心，中研院物理所，中研院天文所，中研院原分所以及國家理論科學中心有著密切互動，共同舉辦活動，共用資源，期許能一起為提升至世界一流研究水準共同努力。