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Follow us for the latest job and events announcements, workshop reports and updates about Psi-k and it’s activities, including funding calls and community meetings.
Tag us in your announcements relating to Psi-k or the Psi-k community – @Psik_Network. If you are organizing a Psi-k funded workshop, conference or school tag us in your tweets and announcements for retweets and wider coverage.
A full list of Psi-k funded workshops taking place in 2021 can now be found on the website. This list includes workshops that have been re-arranged from 2020 or moved online due to the current pandemic
You can download a copy of the 2021 workshops poster from here. Please print and display in you institutions, or circulate to your mailing lists.
The Volker Heine Young Investigator Award recognizes individuals for their outstanding computational work in the areas covered by the Psi-k mission statement (“…to develop fundamental theory, algorithms, and computer codes in order to understand, predict, and design materials properties and functions”). There will be one award of 2’500€ and four runner-up prizes of 500€ each.
Young researchers are invited to put themselves forward for the Volker Heine Young Investigator Award. Details of how to apply plus a description of the selection process can be found on the award website. The deadline for applications is 15 April 2021.
Under normal circumstances the selected finalists would have presented their work during the Psi-k Conference. However, with the postponement of the Conference to 2022 the finalists will now present at a special Volker Heine Award Ceremony online seminar on 9 September 2021.
We look forward to receiving your applications for this prestigious award.
| APPLY FOR THE VOLKER HEINE AWARD |
Dear Psi-k Community,
Happy New Year!
As I begin my term as Chair of Psi-k I would like to thank my predecessor Nicola Marzari for his tireless efforts on behalf of us all over the last three years, as well as his continuing contribution as a trustee and Chair of the 2022 Conference in Lausanne.
Psi-k has always been a grass-roots organisation that relies on the active participation of its members in proposing and delivering the activities we support. If you are not sure how to get involved then I strongly recommend watching the recording of our first community webinar, delivered on 27 November 2020 and now available here…
The ‘People’ section of our website also lists key contacts: the trustees and members of our Scientific Advisory Committee and Working Groups.
While our programme of activities for 2021 will look different from normal, I do hope that the increase in online events will provide an opportunity for wider participation, especially this year’s highlight, the Volker Heine Young Investigator Award.
Best wishes,
Peter Haynes
Did you miss the first annual Psi-k Community Meeting held on 27 November 2020? The meeting provided information about the history, organization and activities of Psi-k.
The slides are now available for download here.
Saturday 19 September 2020 will mark the 90th birthday of Volker Heine, one of the founders of Psi-k and considered a pioneer of theoretical and computational studies of the electronic structure of solids and liquids and the determination of physical properties derived from it.
Best wishes Volker from everyone at Psi-k. We hope that you have a great birthday and, despite current circumstances, can celebrate this milestone in style!
The deadline for submitting pre-proposals for 2021-22 Psi-k activities funding is next Friday – 31 July. Don’t miss out… submit your pre-proposal online now. All information is included in the announcement below.
Psi-k is a worldwide network of researchers working on the advancement of first-principles computational materials science. Its mission is to develop fundamental theory, algorithms, and computer codes in order to understand, predict, and design materials properties and functions. Key activities of Psi-k are the organization of conferences, workshops, tutorials and training schools as well as the dissemination of scientific thinking in society [Excerpt from the mission statement at https://psi-k.net/].
In normal years Psi-k typically funds schools (1-2 weeks), workshops (2-3 days), international conferences (2-5 days), and codes/methods tutorials (3 days-1 week), with a focus on electronic-structure methods, developments, and applications. Funding is of the order of 4,000/8,000/12,000 €, depending on size and duration (as a guideline, 30 €/expected participant/day); Psi-k funds around 25-35 activities for every call (see here https://psi-k.net/workshops/ for the 2020-21 activities).
For this call, while we plan to support some of these more traditional activities, we also call for a renewed focus on, attention to and ingenious development of novel models in research sharing, dissemination, teaching, and discussion – the freedom of our Charity allows us to consider less conventional proposals with funding devoted to digital or remote approaches.
We have a two-step application process to simplify and streamline applications, elicit more original proposals, improve planning, and avoid duplication of efforts. The present call for pre-proposals is for events that will take place between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022.
Please note: for this year only events that take place in August and September 2021 will NOT be considered for funding to avoid a clash with the rescheduled Psi-k Conference that will take place in Lausanne, 23-26 August 2021.
Pre-proposals should be submitted online by Friday 31 July 2020 (midnight UK time), describing the planned event (download a draft of the form here). Psi-k Working Groups (https://psi-k.net/groups) and Trustees (https://psi-k.net/admin/) will either approve this pre-proposal for full submission, reject it, or suggest a merger between different activities – you are very welcome to contact the relevant Working Group leaders or members beforehand.
Feedback will be provided the week of Monday 21 September 2020. Pre-proposals that have been approved or mergers that have been successfully negotiated will then be invited to submit a full proposal by Friday 30 October 2020. These proposals will then be evaluated and approved – with full or partial funding – or declined at the meeting of the Trustees, Scientific Advisory Committee (https://psi-k.net/scientific-advisory-committee/) and Working Group leaders on Friday 27 November 2020.
The evaluation of the pre-proposals and full proposals will be based on:
Click here to read a brief, personal and unofficial account of the first 25 years of the Psi-k Network, written by members of the Band Theory Group at STFC Daresbury Laboratory. This is a record of the authors own recollections, particularly of events in the early days, and of the subsequent evolution of the Network as the scientific field itself evolved technically and intellectually. It is important to note that this is a record of how the authors saw things; it is in no way intended to be an “authorized history” of Psi-k.
Psi-k is a worldwide network of researchers working on the advancement of first-principles computational materials science. Its mission is to develop fundamental theory, algorithms, and computer codes in order to understand, predict, and design materials properties and functions. Key activities of Psi-k are the organization of conferences, workshops, tutorials and training schools as well as the dissemination of scientific thinking in society [Excerpt from the mission statement at https://psi-k.net/].
In normal years Psi-k typically funds schools (1-2 weeks), workshops (2-3 days), international conferences (2-5 days), and codes/methods tutorials (3 days-1 week), with a focus on electronic-structure methods, developments, and applications. Funding is of the order of 4,000/8,000/12,000 €, depending on size and duration (as a guideline, 30 €/expected participant/day); Psi-k funds around 25-35 activities for every call (see here https://psi-k.net/workshops/ for the 2020-21 activities).
For this call, while we plan to support some of these more traditional activities, we also call for a renewed focus on, attention to and ingenious development of novel models in research sharing, dissemination, teaching, and discussion – the freedom of our Charity allows us to consider less conventional proposals with funding devoted to digital or remote approaches.
We have a two-step application process to simplify and streamline applications, elicit more original proposals, improve planning, and avoid duplication of efforts. The present call for pre-proposals is for events that will take place between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022.
Please note: for this year only events that take place in August and September 2021 will NOT be considered for funding to avoid a clash with the rescheduled Psi-k Conference that will take place in Lausanne, 23-27 August 2021.
Pre-proposals should be submitted online by Friday 31 July 2020 (midnight UK time), describing the planned event (download a draft of the form here). Psi-k Working Groups (https://psi-k.net/groups) and Trustees (https://psi-k.net/admin/) will either approve this pre-proposal for full submission, reject it, or suggest a merger between different activities – you are very welcome to contact the relevant Working Group leaders or members beforehand.
Feedback will be provided the week of Monday 21 September 2020. Pre-proposals that have been approved or mergers that have been successfully negotiated will then be invited to submit a full proposal by Friday 30 October 2020. These proposals will then be evaluated and approved – with full or partial funding – or declined at the meeting of the Trustees, Scientific Advisory Committee (https://psi-k.net/scientific-advisory-committee/) and Working Group leaders on Friday 27 November 2020.
The evaluation of the pre-proposals and full proposals will be based on:
Dear Psi-k’ers,
As mentioned earlier, the COVID-19 created much uncertainty regarding whether the Psi-k conference could be held this year. It has now been decided by the Board of Trustees that it is indeed not possible to ensure that the conference can take place this September. The conference is therefore postponed to next year, and it will be held on August 23-26, 2021, preserving the same format, plenary and invited speakers, and symposia.
The registration platform will be reopened later this year – we will contact you directly in the coming days in case you had already registered for this year.
We are in the process of reconfirming the participation of the speakers.
Thank you for your understanding and we look forward to meeting you next year!
Best regards,
Nicola Marzari
Psi-k conference organization