This South African series of Summer Schools in Theoretical Physics had been conceived in the late 1970’s and brought to fruition by the late Prof Chris  Engelbrecht (photo left), after whom the series is now named.

Funding for the schools has been provided through the NRF and its predecessor organizations, firstly on an ad hoc basis and of late as part of the open research program. The present team of grant holders is:

  HB Geyer (University of Stellenbosch), principal grant holder
  WD Heiss (University of Stellenbosch)
  FG Scholtz (University of Stellenbosch)
   
The first school on “Quantum Optics” was held in 1981 at Cathedral Peak in the Drakensberg and the most recent school have been:

Field theory, topology and condensed matter physics
Tsitsikamma (1994)
Proceedings published in Springer Lecture Notes in Physics, Vol 456 (Ed HB Geyer)

Density functionals: theory and applications
Meerensee (1997)
Proceedings published in Springer Lecture Notes in Physics, Vol 500 (Ed D Joubert)

Hadrons in dense matter and hadrosynthesis
Cape Town (1998)
Proceedings published in Springer Lecture Notes in Physics, Vol 516 (Eds J Cleymans, HB Geyer and FG Scholtz)

Sandpiles, random systems and random walks: analytic methods and simulation
Devon Valley, Stellenbosch, South Africa (1999)
http://www.sun.ac.za/summerschool/1999.html

Quantum computing, communication and decoherence
Devon Valley, Stellenbosch, South Africa (2001)
http://www.sun.ac.za/summerschool/2001.html

Quantum gravity, String Theory and Cosmology
Devon Valley, Stellenbosch, South Africa (2002)
http://www.sun.ac.za/summerschool/2002.html

Nanoscale Physics
Alpine Heath Resort, Drakensberg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (2004)
http://www.sun.ac.za/summerschool/2004.html

Advanced Scientific Computing
Alpine Heath Resort, Drakensberg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (2005)
http://www.sun.ac.za/summerschool/2005.html

The Dark Side of the Universe
Testing the Concordance Model of Cosmology
Compact Objects
Gravitational Waves
Alpine Heath Resort, Drakensberg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (2006)
http://www.sun.ac.za/summerschool/2006.html

Theoretical Foundations of Quantum Information Processing and Communication
Salt Rock Hotel, Dolphin Coast, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (2007)
http://quantum.ukzn.ac.za/research/hosted-events/summer-school-2007-1/summer-school-2007

Soft Condensed Matter and Physics of Biological Systems
Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) under the auspices of the National Institute for Theoretical Physics at STIAS (2008)
http://academic.sun.ac.za/summerschool/2008.html

Nuclei and Nucleonic Systems - Exotic nuclei, halos, nuclear synthesis and more
Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) under the auspices of the National Institute for Theoretical Physics at STIAS (2009)
http://academic.sun.ac.za/summerschool/2009.html