A milestone year
When Lorenz Rustandi arrived at UC Irvine this summer for the Logic & Philosophy of Science Summer Development Program, he was still somewhat new to philosophy. The recent West Chester University of Pennsylvania graduate had studied biology, concentrating in ecology and conservation, when a philosophy of science course he took on a whim changed his trajectory.
“To my surprise, I found the topics fascinated me even more than many of my science classes, and I decided to minor in philosophy as I entered my final year,” he says.
He began thinking about graduate school and exploring philosophy of science programs, and discovered that some, like UC Irvine’s highly ranked Department of Logic & Philosophy of Science, offered talent development programs for students like him.
“I had little sense of what philosophy graduate school entailed, and I wanted the opportunity to learn more in an environment where I could interact with faculty at the forefront of their field and with peers who shared my interests,” he says.
Rustandi is one of 70 students who have come through UC Irvine’s LPS Summer Development Program since it launched in 2022. Now in its fifth year, the one-week residential program has brought students from across the U.S. and around the world to campus for graduate-level seminars, mentorship and an inside look at academic life in logic and philosophy of science.
For program founder and director Lauren Ross, Dean’s Professor and Chancellor’s Fellow, providing that access has been central to the program from the start.
“The main goals of this program are to provide under-resourced students with information about graduate school and research in philosophy, logic, and philosophy of science,” Ross says. “The program offers participants details about the the grad school application process, the structure of grad school, mains areas and topics of study, and the importance of philosophical work for scientists, the public, and our everyday lives.”
It was designed to give students who might not otherwise have access to mentorship or coursework in logic and philosophy of science an opportunity to explore the field alongside top-notch UCI faculty and graduate students. Its first cohort of 12 tackled topics including probability and randomness, social groups, dark matter, and causation and explanation in science. The program quickly grew, welcoming 13 participants in 2023 and 17 in 2024. Fifteen students attended in 2025, followed by 13 this summer.
Along the way, the experience has expanded beyond faculty seminars. Graduate student research flash talks, admissions sessions, discussions about academic writing and graduate life, informal lunches, and social activities give participants opportunities to ask questions they may not have the chance to explore at their home institutions.
This summer’s participants came from universities across the country, including schools in New York, Alabama, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Their five days at UCI included seminars on “Foundations of Formal Epistemology,” “Self-Assembling Games,” “Scientific Explanation: Distinguishing Good, Bad, and Better,” and “The Philosophy Behind Dark Matter.”
LPS faculty including professor Kenny Easwaran; Chancellor’s Professors Simon Huttegger, Cailin O’Connor and Jim Weatherall; and Distinguished Professor Brian Skyrms were among those who led discussions. This year also extended the program’s interdisciplinary reach with talks from faculty outside LPS, including cognitive scientist Nadia Chernyak on the development of beliefs about choice and agency and philosopher Kate Ritchie on generalizations in thought and language.
For Rustandi, some of the most valuable moments happened outside the formal seminars.
“The faculty and students were all kind and supportive, often willing to chat over lunch about their day-to-day experiences, offer advice, or recommend resources and relevant literature,” he says. “Furthermore, the social aspect of the cohort was genuinely a blast. Getting to know the other participants, chatting about random philosophical topics late into the night, or simply going out to eat together while discussing the program’s seminars was really memorable.”
He found himself surprised at how much the atmosphere of the LPS department resonated with what he finds so interesting about the philosophy of science.
“Coming primarily from the sciences while also being interested in the philosophical issues felt like occupying an awkward middle ground. During the program, however, I found a community of scholars who were not afraid to embrace having a foot in both academic worlds at once, showing that the sciences can be consonant with philosophy,” he says. “The experience has only strengthened my belief that philosophy of science, and philosophy more generally, is something that scientists and students of science should be exposed to and taken more seriously for the benefit of how science is conducted, understood, and communicated.”
His experience reflects exactly what Ross and her colleagues envisioned when they launched the program half a decade ago.
“We aim to provide students with a fuller picture of types of philosophical research, insights into life as a graduate student, and a better understanding of where they can continue to find information and support as they take next steps in their careers and studies,” she says.
The program’s initial five-year National Science Foundation funding period has now concluded, and Ross is currently seeking and exploring opportunities to continue the program’s reach. To learn more or to get involved with support, visit the program’s website, or email Lauren Ross, rossl@uci.edu.
-Heather Ashbach, UC Irvine School of Social Sciences
-pictured: LPS Summer Development Program participants standing outside Social and Behavioral Sciences Gateway. Courtesy of Luis Fonseca/UC Irvine School of Social Sciences