SECOND: Psi-k/NANOQUANTA SCHOOL + WORKSHOP PROPOSAL

    Time-Dependent Density-Functional Theory: Prospects and Applications

                      August 27th to September 11th 2006

                    Benasque Center for Physics, Spain

            http://benasque.ecm.ub.es/2006tddft/2006tddft.htm


Organizers:

*) E. K. U. Gross
   Institut fuer Theoretische Physik, 
   Freie Universitaet Berlin
   Arnimallee 14, D-14195 Berlin, Germany
   
*) Miguel A. L. Marques and Fernando Nogueira
   Dep. de Fsica, Faculdade de Cincias e Tecnologia,
   Universidade de Coimbra and Centro de Fsica Computacional
   Rua Larga, 3004-516 Coimbra, Portugal

*) Angel Rubio
   Dpto. Fisica de Materiales, Facultad de Quimicas U. Pais Vasco, 
   20018 San Sebastian/Donostia, Spain

History and Scientific motivation:
---------------------------------

The first School and workshop was hosted by the Benasque Center for 
Science, Spain from August 28th to September 12th, 2004.  The aim of the 
school was to introduce theoretical, practical, and numerical aspects 
of time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) to young graduate 
students, post-docs and even older scientists that are envisaging 
a project for which TDDFT would be the tool of choice.

The use of TDDFT is increasing, and it is fast becoming one of the tools 
of choice to get accurate and reliable predictions for excited-state 
properties in solid state physics, chemistry and biophysics, both in 
the linear and non-linear regimes. This interest has been motivated 
by the recent developments of TDDFT (and time-dependent current 
functional theory) and include the description of photo-absorption 
cross section of molecules and nanostructures, electron-ion dynamics 
in the excited state triggered by either a small or high intense 
laser fields, van der Waals interactions, development of new 
functionals coping with memory and non-locality effects, applications 
to biological systems (chromophores), transport phenomena, optical 
spectra of solids and low-dimensional structures (as nanotubes, 
polymers, surfaces...).

Following our previous experience, the most efficient scheme for 
training of young researchers in these techniques is to have a school
where the basic theory is taught followed by a workshop that introduces 
them to the forefront research in the field.  The school should have 
an equal share of theoretical and practical classes. This would ease 
the learning of the techniques and would provide the students with 
the practical knowledge of the numerical aspects and difficulties, 
while also introducing them to well-established open source numerical 
codes. At the end of the school, students should have sufficient working 
knowledge to pursue their projects at their home institution.

The school will be followed by an international workshop, where the new
developments of TDDFT and Many-Body Techniques for the calculation of
excitations will be discussed. Students attending the school will be 
encouraged to attend the workshop, so they can get in contact with 
state of the art research in the field. The purpose of the workshop 
is to bring together leading experts in all these fields with different 
backgrounds, like density functional, many-body, nuclear physics and 
quantum chemists. This will allow the exchange of ideas between the 
different fields and the creation of links between the traditionally 
separated communities.  We believe that the intense and informal
discussion which is possible in this kind of workshops can contribute 
to the formation of a strong community in the field of TDDFT.


Location/Timing
---------------

We plan to organize this event at the ``Benasque Center for Science'', 
Benasque, Spain, from August 27, 2006 to September 10, 2006. Benasque 
is a beautiful town in the heart of the Pyrenees. The school will take 
place from August 27 (Day 0 - arrival of students for the school) to 
September 6, and the workshop will start September 6 (arrival of 
participants to the workshop) and finish on September 11 (departure 
of all participants).  See http://benasque.ecm.ub.es/ .


Participants
------------

The call for participation will be mainly directed to students and 
scientists specialized on computational physics, quantum chemistry 
and biophysics. We will limit the number of students to the school 
to 35 and participants to the workshop to less than 100, in order 
to ensure a maximum interaction between all the scientists participating. 
Attendance of graduate students and postdocs will be strongly 
encouraged through the inclusion of short contributed talks 
and a poster session.  Furthermore, we will award to PhD students 
who present an outstanding poster short oral presentations.


Applications/Support:
--------------------

School/Workshop:
All persons who wish to participate should fill out the application form
at

         http://benasque.ecm.ub.es/2006tddft/2006tddft.htm

In the comments section, please indicate if you wish to participate in
the Summer Summer School or in the Workshop (or in both).

School only:
As we have a very limited number of places for the school (35), students
will be selected from among an open pool of applicants who have
demonstrated a strong interest in computational sciences, applied to
chemistry, physics, materials science and biology. Therefore, in order
that we can make a reasonable selection, we ask that *all* candidates
include in the comments section the following information:

   *) Date of birth
   *) Sex
   *) Motivation/Why they want to come (just a couple of lines is 
      enough)
   *) What is their current and previous positions (if PhD or Post-
      doc state your supervisor).


We will *not* accept applications that do not include this information.
Furthermore, we will give priority to students willing to participate in
both the Summer School and the Workshop.

We also have a certain number of grants available that cover traveling
and part of the stay in Benasque. If you want to apply for a grant,
please indicate explicitly that you wish to be supported in the comments
section, and explain why (just a couple of lines is enough).

For participants coming from the USA, please check the following address
for support:
           http://www.mcc.uiuc.edu/travel/

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