Category Archives: Announcements

Announcements

Psi-k 2020 conference postponed to next year (August 2021)

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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

Announcements

Psi-k Administration Update

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Dear Psi-k Community

This is just a quick update from Psi-k administration.

Firstly, I hope that you are all doing OK and that you are managing to adapt to this new and strange situation we all find ourselves in? The last few weeks have certainly been challenging for everyone.

I am now fully set-up for home working and will be answering all of the emails received over the last few weeks in the next day or two. Thank you for your patience. As you can imagine there were certain parts of my day-to-day job that needed to be prioritised in order to ensure that things could go on as normally as possible. Everything is now in order and I can start to catch up on emails and actions that had to be put to one side.

I hope that you all continue to stay safe and that we can return to normal quickly.

Best Regards

Damian

Announcements

Registration for Psi-k 2020 is now open!!!

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SwissTech Convention Centre, Lausanne, Switzerland
Monday 14 – Thursday 17 September 2020

 

IMPORTANT NOTICE

With the current COVID-19 situation causing the cancellation of major events and conferences around the world, there is now significant uncertainty regarding Psi-k 2020 as well. Although we are still hoping that the conference can take place as planned, we are following the evolution of the situation closely and expect to have a clearer idea in the next few weeks regarding whether to maintain the event, or whether to postpone it to next year.

In order to avoid incurring any potential cancellation costs, we recommend that you refrain from making any travel plans for the time being.

The registration system has been suspended until a final decision is made — if the conference is maintained this year, all registration deadlines will be extended. Participants who had already registered will be contacted once a final decision is made.

Thank you for your patience in these exceptional time, and stay safe!

This is the largest event worldwide in first-principles simulations; it is held every 5 years (the last two editions, in Berlin in 2010 and in San Sebastian in 2015, had more than 1000 participants each), and with 7 plenary talks, 140 invited talks, and 170 contributed talks it promises to be the most exciting, defining event in the field.

Early-bird deadline is May 1, 2020 – one can register right away, and submit an abstract later (by May 1, 2020, to be considered for a contributed talk, or by Aug. 1, 2020, for a poster). All information – including registration, program, accommodation, and childcare – is available at https://www.psik2020.net. Continue reading Registration for Psi-k 2020 is now open!!! →

Announcements

Volker Heine on Wikipedia

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How much do you know about one of the founders of Psi-k Volker Heine, who is 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?

Psi-k awards the Volker Heine Prize for young researchers during the Psi-k Get Together at the Spring DPG Meetings in Germany – the last was awarded in Berlin in 2018 – but who is Volker Heine?

Have a look at Volker’s Wikipedia page and read more about his life, research and achievements.

Announcements

Psi-k Workshop Funding 2020 – only 2 days left to submit!

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*** FINAL CALL*** There are only 2 days remaining to submit your funding pre-proposals for workshops between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021. The deadline for pre-proposals is this Friday, 30 August!

Herewith we solicit for proposals for activities in the field of electronic-structure theory and calculations to be held between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021, to be funded (in full/partially) by the Psi-k Network and Charity.

Please note: for this year only events that take place between mid-August and mid-October 2020 will NOT be considered for funding to avoid a clash with the Psi-k Conference that will take place in Lausanne, September 2020.

Psi-k has introduced a two-step application process, to improve planning and avoid duplication of efforts.

First, a pre-proposal should be submitted by Friday 30 August 2019 (midnight CEST), describing the planned event. The working groups (https://psi-k.net/groups/) 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 working group leaders or members beforehand. Continue reading Psi-k Workshop Funding 2020 – only 2 days left to submit! →

Announcements, Events

Psi-k 2020 Conference – First Announcement

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As many of you know, every five years Psi-k organizes a general conference in its field; the next one will be held at EPFL in Lausanne, on Sep 14-17 2020. It’s the sixth in the series, after San Sebastian (2015), Berlin (2010) and Schwaebisch-Gmuend (2005, 2000, 1996). The last two events had more 1000+ participants each, making this the largest event worldwide in first-principles simulations, theory, and applications.

The conference will take place over 3.5 days, starting in the afternoon of Mon Sep 14, 2020, and will see 7 plenary speakers and more than 120 invited and 240 talks, organized around 42 symposia (and, of course, a MAD evening to shake it all off). All up-to-date information can be found at https://www.psik2020.net; registration will open in November 2019, so for the moment hold this date. Hotels listed are already ready to take bookings at the negotiated rates.

In conjunction with this announcement, we are also issuing a worldwide call to suggest thematic symposia for the conference – each symposium will last between 2 and 3 hours, and cover between 2 and 4 invited presentations (30 min each), and between 2 and 6 contributed presentations (15 min each), that will be chosen by the symposium organizers themselves among the abstracts submitted (deadline for all abstract submissions will be May 1, 2020).

In order to make a suggestion for a symposium, you need to have a group of up to 4 organizers, as broad and as diverse as possible, identify a symposium theme (keeping in mind that 16 symposia will be broadly dedicated to the core activities of the 16 Psi-k working groups, https://psi-k.net/groups/) and suggest between 2 to 4 invited speakers. Organizers of approved symposia will also be in charge, in May 2020, of selecting contributed talks (2 to 6) among all the abstracts submitted to the symposium by Psi-k 2020 participants.

The Psi-k 2020 Program Committee will evaluate in October 2019 all the submitted suggestions – the criteria will be

  1. scientific merit, timeliness, and interest of the topic
  2. intellectual diversity and inclusiveness of the speakers
  3. scientific merit of the organizers
  4. responding to the Psi-k mission statement (https://psi-k.net/)

You can find the symposium suggestion form at the bottom right of https://www.psik2020.net/program, or directly here: https://forms.gle/Q4QaVxPZgYuANQwWA

Deadline for suggestions is Sep 8 2019, midnight CEST (central european summer time).

Looking very much forward to a successful Psi-k 2020, and to seeing you all in Lausanne.

Nicola Marzari
Chair, Psi-k

Announcements

2020-21 Psi-k Event Application

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Herewith we solicit for proposals for activities in the field of electronic-structure theory and calculations to be held between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021, to be funded (in full/partially) by the Psi-k Network and Charity.

Please note: for this year only events that take place between mid-August and mid-October 2020 will NOT be considered for funding to avoid a clash with the Psi-k Conference that will take place in Lausanne, September 2020

Psi-k has introduced a two-step application process, to improve planning and avoid duplication of efforts.

First, a pre-proposal should be submitted by Friday 30 August 2019 (midnight CEST), describing the planned event. The working groups (https://psi-k.net/groups/) 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 working group leaders or members beforehand.

Feedback will be provided the week commencing Monday 30 September 2019. Pre-proposals that have been approved, or mergers that have been successfully negotiated, will then have to submit a full proposal by Friday 1 November 2019. These proposals will be evaluated and approved with full or partial funding, or declined, at the Psi-k meeting of the Scientific Advisory Committee (https://psi-k.net/scientific-advisory-committee/) and working group leaders, on Friday 29 November 2019.

Psi-k typically funds schools (1-2 weeks), workshops (2-3 days), international conferences (2-5 days), and code/method tutorials (3 days-1 week), with a focus on electronic- structure methods, developments, and applications. Its mission statement is available at https://psi-k.net/. Typical 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 2019-20 activities).

The evaluation of the pre-proposals and full proposals will be based on:

  1. the scientific quality of the proposal,
  2. its intellectual diversity and inclusiveness,
  3. the scientific merit of the organizers, and
  4. appropriateness of budget, while of course
  5. responding to the Psi-k mission statement.

This form (as one single PDF document) should be uploaded by the deadline of Friday 30 August 2019 (midnight CEST) at https://www.dropbox.com/request/B79bboXnda0inodP0uoN.

Please name your file as follows:
Surname_Event_MonthYear.doc/pdf
(example: Jones_Fundamentals_of_QM_April2020.pdf).

Pre-proposal WORD document
Pre-proposal PDF document

Reporting: The organizers of successful proposals must deliver a report of the event, and preferably provide access to the presentation materials through the Psi-k website.

With best regards,

Nicola Marzari
Psi-k Chairman

Peter Dederichs
Psi-k Financial Officer

Announcements

2020-21 CECAM-Psi-k Research Conference

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2020-21 CECAM-Psi-k  Research Conference
CECAM and Psi-k launch every year a call to organize a high-profile common research conference on an outstanding subject in the broad area of computational molecular and materials science; topics can range from applications in solid-state materials, soft matter, or biomolecules, to theoretical, methodological, and algorithmic advances. We particularly encourage proposals that promote interdisciplinary exchange across the areas indicated above and focus on exceptional scientific challenges that go beyond current boundaries and foster the discussion of new developments.

The conference should typically last between 3.5 and 5 days, and target a max of 100 participants, with a structure and format dedicated to foster plentiful discussions and informal interactions among the participants, proactively engaged by conference organizers and discussion leaders.

Proposals must be submitted online at https://www.cecam.org/submit-psi-k/.  All conference proposals will be peer reviewed, discussed, and ranked by a scientific panel composed by 3 members proposed by CECAM, and by 3 trustees of Psi-k.

In the proposal, emphasis should be placed on outlining the challenging scientific issues, which will be the focus of the event, and in establishing the proposed list of speakers and participants. Active participation of scientists at different stages of their career, and especially early states, is very encouraged, as is diversity in the speakers and leaders.

The proposal should include information on the venue (anywhere in the EU, UK, and associated countries – Iceland, Norway, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, Israel, Moldova, Switzerland, Faroe Islands, Ukraine, Tunisia, Georgia, Armenia), and a tentative budget. Organizers can be based at institutions worldwide. CECAM and Psi-k are committed to support the event with up to 30,000 euro. Conference fees may be charged only to cover costs.

The call will be open until June 15th 2019 and the final outcome will be communicated at the end of July 2019. Proposals that are not selected will be considered also for regular CECAM and Psi-k activities, if the organizers activate this option in the submission. The conference must take place between Apr 2020 and Mar 2021, avoiding for this year overlaps with Psi-k 2020, that will be held in September 2020.

For further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Ignacio Pagonabarraga
CECAM Director
[email protected]		 Nicola Marzari
Psi-k Chairman
[email protected]