NewcastleGateshead has been chosen in preference to the Czech capital city of Prague to host a major academic conference.

The 28th International Colloquium on Group-Theoretical Methods in Physics in 2010 is organised by Maia Angelova, professor of mathematical physics at Northumbria University, and Wojciech Zakrzewski, a professor in the department of mathematical sciences at Durham University. The week-long meeting of about 250 physicists and mathematicians will be held in the new City Campus East buildings of Northumbria University.

NewcastleGateshead Convention Bureau assisted Northumbria University with a successful bid to stage the international conference in 2010. The bureau was commended for its very professional presentation, completeness of financial and programme details and quality of the facilities offered.

"We are absolutely delighted that this international conference will be returning to Britain after a gap of 28 years and that NewcastleGateshead has been chosen as the venue,” said Jessica Roberts, head of business tourism at the NewcastleGateshead Convention Bureau. “This underlines the fact that investment in new hotels, state-of-the-art university facilities and residences pays off."

The last conference was held in New York and the next one will be in Armenia, so a return to Western Europe opens up the opportunity for even more delegates to attend.