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SUMMER SCHOOL ANNOUNCEMENT
Quantum Monte Carlo and the CASINO program III
Sun 3rd August - Sun 10th August 2008
The Towler Institute
Vallico Sotto, Tuscany, Italy
POSTER
The third international summer school in the series "Quantum Monte Carlo
and the CASINO program" will take place during August 2008 in the Towler
Institute monastery in the Tuscan Apuan Alps, organized and hosted by
members of Cambridge University physics department's Theory of Condensed
Matter (TCM) Group. The aim of the school is to give students a thorough
introduction to quantum Monte Carlo as a method for performing
high-quality calculations of the electronic structure of real materials.
The course is designed for young scientists who have no previous
experience with this technique, though anyone interested is welcome to
take part.
Describing the complex behaviour of materials at the atomic level requires
a sophisticated description of the correlated motion of the electrons.
Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) is an increasingly popular and explicitly
many-body method with the unusual capability of yielding highly accurate
results whilst also exhibiting a very favourable scaling of computational
cost with system size. Over the last seventeen years, the Cambridge group
have been researching QMC methods and we have created a powerful, general
computer program - CASINO - to carry out the calculations. The school will
focus both on the basic theory of QMC and on more advanced practical
techniques, and will include a thorough introduction to the CASINO
program. A background in density functional theory or similar is normally
thought to be useful.
The monastery is a delightful 16th century building incorporating an
ancient church, and is situated in the isolated but spectacular setting of
the Tuscan mountain village of Vallico Sotto. It is fully equipped with
state of the art presentation and computer technology. All accommodation
is on-site. A general policy imposed for all events at the Institute ensures
that considerable time is set aside for mountain hikes, caving, canyon walking,
swimming, eating in wonderful but cheap local restaurants, visiting
nearby places of historical or artistic interest, and similar activities.
Instructors will include a selection of the main authors of the CASINO
program (Prof. Richard Needs, Dr. Mike Towler, Dr. Neil Drummond, and
Dr. Pablo Lopez Rios) and possibly others.
Participants would normally need to arrange a flight to Pisa airport from
where onward transportation will be arranged.
Interested students should contact Mike Towler (mdt26 at cam.ac.uk) for
registration and further details.
List of registered students:
Abdullah Albarakati (Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia)
Johannes van Baardewijk (Kings College London, U.K)
Nooment Belmechri (Université Paris-Sud, France)
Simon Binnie (University College, London, U.K.)
Nazim Dugan (Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey)
Ignacio Gutiérrez (University of Barcelona, Spain)
Felipe Jornada (University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil)
Martin Krupicka (Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava)
Farah Marsusi (Amirkabir University, Iran)
Cecil Moro (Moi University, Kenya)
Norbert Nemec (Cambridge University, U.K.)
Mariachiara Pastore (University of Ferrara, Italy)
Michael Philpott (IMR, Tohoku University, Japan)
Vitali Podgurski (Tallinn University, Estonia)
Riccardo Rota (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain)
Andrea Salguero (University of Frankfurt, Germany)
Sangwoo Shim (Harvard University, U.S.A.)
Jens Thar (Leipzig University, Poland)
Marites Violanda (Utrecht University, Holland)
Marta Wolak (National University of Singapore)
Doug Wood (University of Houston, U.S.A.)
Nice emails from students attending previous schools in this series
"Just a brief note to thank you again for hosting the QMC summer school. I
had a wonderful time in Tuscany, it was probably the best conference or
school I've attended. The science was excellent, and the location,
obviously, stunning. The Towler Institute is a very impressive place.
Every one of the participants was a pleasure to spend time with, and I've
come away with some friends with whom I intend to keep in contact."
"I am really happy to see that you are preparing a new Casino Summer
School in Vallico Sotto. It remains for me the most profitable workshop I
have ever had, associating the top quality of lectures and the excellent
practical training, making very difficult things to become accessible. It
remains also for me the type of ideal ambience associating work,
scientific discussion and entertainments."
"You bet how wonderful time I had (I believe others students did too) in
this fantastic summer school!! I would like to quote a very popular
Chinese poem to show my personal feeling of the almost ideal life in
Vallico Sotto.
Song No. 5 of 20 by Tao Yuan-ming
I built my hut within where others live,
But there is no noise of carriages and horses.
You ask how this is possible:
When the heart is distant, solitude comes.
I pluck chrysanthemums by the eastern fence
And see the distant southern mountains.
The mountain air is fresh at dusk.
Flying birds return in flocks.
In these things there lies a great truth,
But when I try to express it, I cannot find the words.
This can be recited by almost every Chinese fellow. I am also grateful for
the night of awesome firework, which was like special "time tunnel" to
bring me back to my childhood. Thank you and thank you!! I was in a bit
hurry I didn't bring camera with me, but the whole beautiful scenery has
been deeply impressed in my memory, which is unfadable for sure.."
"I want to say again, 'Thank You for a good time in Tuscany'. All particular facets of school was great, including lectures, practice, place, people, activities, food etc. It was my first summer school (conference) but I think it shall be hard to find something better. Thanks."
"It was a pleasure to be in the summer school last week in Vallico Sotto, to meet you and your team, this "strange foreign people" (including myself), and Sammy and Saska. I liked very much the lectures, learned many things and enjoyed a lot our excursions and dinners. We really had a good time, congratulations on the organization of this fantastic enterprise. Thank you very much!"
"Thank you for hosting the wonderful summer school on earth. I had really enjoyed that :)"
"Thank you for a great week both when it comes to science and adventure. Now I really understand why people return to Tuscany. Hopefully we will too."
"Thanks for the nice time we spent at your place all together! It was very nice time, nice way to socialize and all lectures were extremely interesting!"
"Thank you - you, Neil and Pablo brought us such a fruitful and joyful summer school!!! I have learned so much about the technical parts of QMC as well as the related applied physical problems!! Including learning that QMC can describe the Van der Waale's interaction, description of the e-h phase diagram and the interesting discussion in your talk about the strongly correlated systems!! Not to mention that we got all those different options of activities every day to exercise our bodies after the brain exercises in the morning, besides the interesting monastery we took the lectures, slept in and had meals, tea and coffee!!! Really gratefully to you three for the wonderful time!!"
"I will advice your school to anyone on the earth"
DETAILS AND PHOTOS FROM PREVIOUS SCHOOLS ACCESSIBLE ON TTI WEB PAGE (Click 'PUBLIC EVENTS').
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