July | 2017 | Psi-k

In 2017, the ETSF Young Researchers’ Meeting made its way to Tarragona, Spain for the first time. Sunny weather, great food, a beautiful old city and the kind hosts at the Catalan Institute for Chemical Research (ICIQ) provided a fantastic setting for a week of science that will stay in our memory.

The Young Researchers’ Meeting (YRM) of the European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility (ETSF) is a workshop organised by young researchers for young researchers. Every year, postdocs, PhD students and Master students gather from all over Europe to discuss problems and recent advances in theoretical and computational methods for the study of the electronic and optical properties of materials. The YRM is where you can present your work in progress, float new ideas, and learn from others at your own level – both scientifically and personally. Talks at the YRM are 25 minutes, which gives you enough time to introduce your topic, what you did and, crucially, how you did it. Each session starts with an introductory keynote that provides an overview of the field, introduces the theoretical framework and points out open questions. Continue reading 14th ETSF Young Researchers’ Meeting (Tarragona) →

18th Total Energy Workshop, ICTP, Trieste (Italy), 12-14 January 2017

Group picture from the 18th Total Energy International Workshop, ICTP, Trieste, January 2017

The “Total Energy” Workshop is held traditionally in Trieste every two years, since 1987. It is devoted to recent advances in computational condensed matter physics and materials science, based on realistic calculations of the electronic structure of complex systems. It has become one of the most popular regular events of the international ab-initio electronic-structure community. The 2017 edition confirmed this tradition, with a large number of participants, lively discussions and, furthermore, with an impressive number of contributed posters. Overview, speakers list, program with the relevant material (Conference Book, abstracts, list of attendees, …) are available on the web page: http://indico.ictp.it/event/7948/overview

Report

The Workshop involved 225 attendees, including Directors, Scientific Committee members, speakers, and selected participants.

Following the tradition of the previous meetings of the series, the Workshop has been structured in thematic sessions with oral presentations by invitation only. The aim was to gather speakers presenting current topics of research of broad interest as well as future research directions for the electronic structure community. The chairpersons introduced each session with a short overview (about 5 min) to set the subject and point out open problems. The introductions were very useful, especially for those people working on other subjects. In addition, large space was devoted to discussion. This format has been greatly appreciated and contributed to create, most noteworthy, a lively atmosphere.

Selected contributions from participants have been solicited as posters. The large number of selected posters (140) has been a testament of the enthusiastic and active participation of the attendees. Consequently, two large poster sessions have been organized.

In Honor of Walter Kohn

The Workshop included one special Lecture and one entire session in honor of Walter Kohn, Continue reading SCIENTIFIC REPORT ON THE “18TH INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS AND MATERIALS SCIENCE: TOTAL ENERGY AND FORCE METHODS” →