SUMMER SCHOOL ANNOUNCEMENT
QUANTUM MONTE CARLO AND THE CASINO PROGRAM IV
Sun 2nd August - Sun 9th August 2009
The Towler Institute
Vallico Sotto, Tuscany, Italy
POSTER
The fourth international summer school in the series "Quantum Monte Carlo
and the CASINO program" will take place during August 2009 at the TTI
monastery in the Tuscan Apuan Alps in Italy, organized and hosted by members
of Cambridge University physics department's Theory of Condensed Matter
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 atoms, molecules, and
materials. The course is designed for young quantum chemists or
theoretical physicists who have no previous experience with this
technique, though anyone interested is welcome to take part.
The monastery is a unique venue where the community spirit and magnificent
location have inspired memorable workshops in the past. It 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. We are fully equipped with relevant presentation and computer
technology, and all accommodation is on-site. As with all events at the
Institute, formal lectures are restricted to the mornings, and
participants are given the freedom and space to think and to contemplate
and discuss the issues at hand. In addition to hands-on exercises, a
programme of healthy recreational activities will be organized in the
afternoons, and it is hoped that by following this strict regime, together
with breathing clean mountain air and by preparing and sampling fine
Tuscan cuisine, the participant will be able to return home mentally and
physically refreshed as well as better informed.
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 eighteen 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.
Instructors will include the main authors of the CASINO program (Dr. Mike
Towler, Dr. Neil Drummond and Dr. Pablo Lopez Rios) and possibly others.
Participants would normally need to book a flight to Pisa airport from
where onward transportation will be arranged (though other destinations
are possible). Details of previous schools - including photographs - are
available under the PUBLIC EVENTS link on the TTI web site.
Interested students should email Mike Towler (mdt26 at cam.ac.uk) for
registration and further details.
List of registered students:
Ariunbayasgalan Alyeksyei (Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Mongolia)
Mohaddeseh Abbasnejad (University of Tehran, Iran)
Grigor Aslanyan (University of California, San Diego, U.S.A.)
Alexandre Carvalho (University of Oporto, Portugal)
David Dell'Angelo (University of Rennes, France)
Andrea Droghetti (Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland)
Tim Green (University of Cambridge, U.K.)
Duck Young Kim (University of Uppsala, Sweden)
Peter Larsson (University of Uppsala, Sweden)
Pablo Maldonado (University of Cordoba, Spain)
José Mira McWilliams (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain)
Miroslawa Nedyalkova (University of Sofia, Bulgaria)
Johan Pohl (University of Darmstadt, Germany)
José Roberto dos Santos Politi (University of Brasilia, Brazil)
Hannah Price (University of Cambridge, U.K.)
Narendra Revanuri (University of Goa, India)
Sergio Santos (University of Aveiro, Portugal)
Priyanka Seth (University of Cambridge, U.K.)
Santosh KC (Tribhuban University, Kathmandu, Nepal)
Vinit Sharma (Agrawal College, Jaipur, India)
James Shepherd (University of Cambridge, U.K.)
Stefano Spezia (University of Palermo, Italy)
Maria Velinova (University of Sofia, Bulgaria)
Márton Vörös (Budapest University, Hungary)
Arkadius Wojs (University of Cambridge, U.K.)
Emails from students attending previous schools in this series
"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."
"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."
"Thank you for organizing a great work shop.
My wife was pleased to get me back but since I had such a great time has
already agreed for me to make a return visit!"
"I wanted to thank you a lot for the opportunity you gave me, i had a very
nice time in Vallico sotto, it actually opened a lot my mind... It was
very nice to met you and your nice family, and to know that there are such
a nice people with such a vision of physics and life, i hope i could see
you guys again."
"Thank you for all. It has been a really nice summer school, and a pleasure to have such lovely days with you, your family, Pablo and Neil. You have made a really good job organizing everything, and making sure that everybody enjoyed this summer school. I am in a debt of gratitude with you."
"In the flight back from Italy to Germany i read the material you gave me
about the cave, and specially i liked the story about the fat boy filter,
i couldn't help laughing hard in the flight, i couldn't stop!, i'm very
curious about that place and the another one the Palace of Ismeno,
hopefully someday i could go there again and try to go into it, actually
the school and its activities awoke on me a kind of desire of climbing,
hopefully i find the time for it...."
"It has been fun & work - intellectually challenging to learn new 'stuff'. I wish you & Samantha great success in the endeavours connected to TTI, and hope to see you both soon."
"Thank you, Neil and Pablo for organizing this wunderful, refreshing
sommerschool. I enjoyed it a lot (thought the scoreline somewhat less), and
have learned some interesting aspects of QMC."
"Thank you very much indeed for the wonderful stay at your monastery/institute."
"Thanks for the wonderful week! You are an amazing host, and TTI is fantastic!"
"Thanks a lot for the opportunity you have given, at least my eyes have opened to a new world of research. I have to thank you for this."
"One more time thanks for one week pleasure."
"They were very nice days in Tuscany with learning many new subjects
and also nice excursions."
"The school was a great blessing to me. Thank you for giving
me the opportunity to meet new brains and make new friends."
"Big 'thank you!' for this Summer School. Your organisation skills are
impresive.
It was a wonderful time, and I am starting to save up the euros to
settle down in the Apuan Alps one day.
Thanks also for setting up the website, I find it very useful and
lots of fun."
"I would like to thank you for this great summer school.
I really enjoyed the time I spent there."
"Thanks for everything. I will never forget this great week!"
"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').
|
