The 2^nd  XLIC General Meeting  (Gdansk University of Technology, Gdansk, Poland http://xlic2014.mif.pg.gda.pl/home) will host the 1st Young Scientist Forum – a special half-day with talks given by  young researchers (PhD students and post-docs).

The committee of young researchers have selected, on the basis of the submitted abstracts, the following young speakers to give a talk at the YSF. The list is given in  alphabetical order:

• Cedric Bomme, FLASH, Germany
• Michael Capron, Univerty of Rennes, France
• Aurélie Chenel, Université Paris-Sud, France
• Simone De Camilis, Queen’s University Belfast, UK
• Ewa Erdmann, Gdansk University of Technology, Poland
• Tor Kjellsson, Stockholm University, Sweden
• Sylvain Maclot, Université de Caen Basse-Normandie, France
• Ana Martín Sómer, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
• Lihi Musbat, Bar Ilan universityk, Israel
• Geert Reitsma, University of Groningen, Netherlands
• Estefania Rossich Molina, Université Evry Val d’Essonne, France
• Janne Solanpää, Tampere University of Technology, Finland

We would like to remind all the YSF speakers that the format of the talk is 15 minutes + 5 minutes of discussion.

If not selected as speaker, young researchers participating in the XLIC General Meeting will have an opportunity to present their results as a poster. The format of the poster is of the A1 size. During the meeting, two special poster sessions are foreseen in order to exchange views and stimulate discussions on research topics, and to support interdisciplinary communication between the researchers.

First XLIC Training School will take place in Zaragoza, at the premises of Z-CAM (http://www.z-cam.es/). It will be organized in two modules of one week each. Attendees can participate in one or both of them.

• Module 1. March 9-13, 2015
  Molecular Excited States (Download tentative program)
• Module 2. March 16-20, 2015
  New Computational Methods for Attosecond Molecular Processes (Download tentative program)

TRAINING PROGRAM: Contents of the courses and list of trainers can be checked, for each module, in the documents linked above. Nevertheless, interested participants are encouraged to check for updates on each module webpage .

ACCOMMODATION: Local organizers have arranged accommodation  for all registered participants in the same hotels (Apartamentos Los Sitios and Apartamentos Los Girasoles), where apartments (multiple occupancy with individual rooms) with a kitchen area are offered during the duration of the schools (arriving on Sunday and leaving on Friday). Participats attending both modules can also stay in the apartment during the weekend.
If you are interested in this option, please, contact local organisers as soon as possible to confirm booking details. Payment should be done directly by each participant before leaving.

MEALS: Lunches during training days will be covered for all participants. Dinner and breakfast will not be included.

FEES: There are no registration fees.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT: XLIC Action will offer grants to partially cover the participation of young researchers involved in the Action. Each participant will receive a notification with information on the amount granted. of grants and amount will depend on the number of requests for funding.

REGISTRATION is now closed. Participants can check the status of their application at CECAM website (separately for each module), using their CECAM account.

REIMBURSEMENT: Each participant should pay his/her own expenses to the Hotel before leaving. Those participants selected for funding will receive a letter indicating the fixed amount granted. After the event, reimbursement will be done subject to the submission of a payment request form and the effective attendance to the school. No receipts will be asked for.

LOCATION: The activities will take place at the R+D Building (BIFI) in the campus of the University of Zaragoza in the north of the city (ZCAM CONFERENCE BUILDING: Campus Río Ebro – Edificio I+D; C/Mariano Esquillor s/n. 50018 Zaragoza)

HOW TO REACH ZARAGOZA: You can arrive in Zaragoza by plane, train, bus and car. If you come from abroad and you land at either Madrid or Barcelona airports, then the train or the bus are usually the best options for the last part of the trip up to Zaragoza.

• By plane: The airport is situated 9 km from the city. At present, there are regular flights to Frankfurt (weekdays), Rome, London, Milan and Lisbon and domestic flights to Madrid and Barcelona. Connections from the airport to the city are by bus and taxi. You can make a flight search in the web sites of the companies that operate with the Zaragoza airport: Iberia, Air Europa, and Ryanair (low cost company).
• By train: Zaragoza has a new railway station (Estación de Delicias), with a high‐speed connection to Madrid and Barcelona (AVE train). The railway station is at the same place as bus and taxi stops, and car rental services. Zaragoza is also connected by train to other major Spanish cities such as Valencia, Granada, Sevilla and Málaga. Timetable information can be obtained at the Spanish Railway Company web site: Renfe.
• By bus: Zaragoza is connected by bus to the main Spanish cities. You can search the routes and timetables in the web site of the Spanish bus company ALSA.
• By car: Zaragoza has an excellent communication network, and is linked to the North of Spain: through a motor way to Bilbao (A‐68) and Barcelona (A‐2), and the Aragón highway connecting to Madrid (N‐II).

A 10-days Hands-on Tutorial Workshop on Density-functional theory and beyond: First-principles simulations of molecules and materials will be held on July 13 to 23, 2015, at Harnack House Berlin (http://th.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/sitesub/meetings/dft-workshop-2015/)

This ten-day Hands-On Tutorial Workshop introduces the basic and current developments in electronic structure theory for an intended audience of researchers entering the field. Morning lectures on the most important topics will be given by a field of international experts, complemented by afternoon hands-on sessions – practical exercises with computers – to deepen selected topics. For example, we cover:
* Density-functional theory (DFT) and quantum chemical approaches
* The most important numerical implementations
* Advanced functionals (capabilities and limits!)
* Electronic structure theory “beyond traditional Kohn-Sham DFT” (including GW, TDDFT, many-body formalisms)
* Ab initio molecular dynamics and nuclear quantum effects
* Multiscale approaches and statistical learning based on first principles
… and a wide range of other topics.
The application and poster-abstract submission interfaces for the workshop are now open until March 31. For space reasons, the number of participants will be limited to approximately 70. Acceptance decisions will be made within 2 weeks after the deadline (April 15, 2015).

Limited funds for financial support are available.
See the web page for details:
http://th.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/sitesub/meetings/dft-workshop-2015/

The 3rd General Meeting of the COST Action CM1204 “XUV/X-ray light and fast ions for ultrafast chemistry (XLIC)” will be held from 2 to 4 November, 2015 in Debrecen, Hungary. At the end of the first day (around 17 h. ) we will have the 4th XLIC Management Committee meeting, where the main advances of the Action and future directions will be examined.

The conference will consist of 24 lectures given by invited speakers, 12 oral presentations by young  scientists as well as 2 poster sessions. More information can be obtained in the meeting website: http://xlic.unideb.hu/

Registration: There is no registration fee to attend the meeting but participants must register  filling the corresponding form before September 20^th, 2015.

Accomodation: Due to the intended all-under-one-roof format of the meeting, all participants are strongly advised to stay in the Centrum Hotel, where the conference will take place. The package per person offered by the organizers is 265 EUR in single room and 188 EUR in double room.

Abstracts: The deadline for submitting the abstracts is September 15. Abstracts may be submitted in either Latex or MS Word compatible formats. The corresponding templates and other information can be checked here.

Young Scientists Forum: Young scientists willing to participate in the 2nd XLIC YSF should submit their abstract together with a short CV before September 15th, 2015.
See details here: https://xlic.qui.uam.es/?p=2154

Reimbursement: Invited speakers and MC members will be reimbursed for theis travel expenses in accordance to COST rules. Any reduction in the flat rates will be announced soon.

The tutorial will be organized in 4 theoretical and 5 practical sessions, the latter taking place in the computer lab. The theoretical sessions will be of 4.5 hours and practical sessions will last 4 hours. The school will comprise 3 didactic blocks.
The first block will have an introductory character and will offer an overview of the field. The following block will focus on mono- and multi-configurational electronic structure methods for the description of excited states. The last block will cover dynamics methodologies. (see description below). The school will end with a comprehensive overview (2 hours) of state-of-the-art applications, limitations, suitabilities, future perspectives and challenges of the different static and dynamical approaches described in the school.

1st Block (6 hours): Overview of modern electronic and vibrational photochemistry. Born-Oppenheimer approximation. Ground and excited potential energy surfaces topology and light-matter interaction. Building bridges between experiment and theory: theoretical approaches to simulate steady state and transient absorption spectra. Excited state deactivation processes.

2nd Block (18 hours): Quantum Chemical Calculations of Excited States: Mono- and Multiconfigurational Methods. CASSCF and RASSCF methods. Choice of the active space. Single vs. state-average calculations. Basis sets considerations. Introducing dynamical correlation: the CASPT2 method. CASPT2 problems and solutions. DFT. Runge-Gross theorems. Linear response TDDFT. Propagation of the electronic density. Spectra calculation. Approximation of xc-functionals. This block includes 3 practical sessions of 4 hours each, comprising introductions to MOLCAS and OCTOPUS codes, simulation of absorption spectra and exploration of the topography of potential energy surfaces (location of stationary points and surface crossings).

3rd Block (14 hours): Wave Packet propagations and semiclassical dynamics. Time-evolution operator, propagation. Relaxation method, filtering method. Interaction with an electric field. Correlation functions, spectra and eigenfunctions. Pump-probe spectroscopy and control, including an introduction to optimal control theory and local control. Born-Oppenheimer and Ehrenfest dynamics. Nonadiabatic dynamics, Tully’s surface hopping. This block includes 2 practical sessions of 4 hours each, introducing quantum and semiclassical dynamics techniques.

Registration: http://www.cecam.org/workshop-6-1316.html

The tutorial will cover the fundamentals and the practical use of state-of-the-art codes for the calculation of the electronic structure of bulk solids, surfaces, and defects and impurities in solids. This includes applications in thermodynamical properties, phase transitions, temperature and pressure effects, magnetic and spectroscopic properties, and surface properties including reactivity of and at surfaces. The influence of structural vacancies both in bulk and at surfaces will be addressed as an important topic influencing in a significant way the properties of different materials. The chemical reactivity of surfaces will be the subject of one of the lectures of the course, with a full discussion of different aspects of the modelling of the CO oxidation in a Y-doped TiO2 supported gold nanoparticles catalyst. That is, in summary, the content of the main theoretical and practical sessions, grouped into 8 and 4 subjects, respectively.

(Theo-1) Symmetry (Pablo García Fernández)
Summary of basic concepts. Space groups. Tensor quantities. Crystal strain. Bloch theorem. The symmetry of the wavefunction under periodic boundary conditions.

(Theo-2) Electronic structure. (Cristina Díaz)
Cluster and periodic models. Atomistic models. Kohn-Sham equations and DFT methodologies. Electronic structure calculations. Phonons and crystal searching.

(Theo-3) Thermodynamic properties. (Cristina Díaz)
Static models. Equation of state of solids. Phase transitions. Mechanisms and kinetics of phase transitions. Thermal effects.

(Theo-4) Chemical bonding and microscopic approach. (Julia Contreras)
Topologies of scalar fields in crystals. Electron density, electron localization function and reduced density gradient chemical functions. Chemical origin of compresibility. Chemical bonding reconstruction along a phase transition.

(Theo-5) Ab initio simulation of the structure, thermodynamic properties and reactivity in surfaces. (Antonio Márquez)
Computational models in Surface Science. Structure of surfaces: Tasker’s classification of ionic surfaces. Relaxation, rumpling, and reconstruction of surfaces. Surface energies. Surface defects: O vacancies in metal oxides. Adsorption at surfaces. Case studies: organic molecules and transition metal atoms at oxide surfaces. Reactivity at surfaces: organic molecules at simple surfaces. Role of point defects. Case study: CO oxidation on an oxide supported metal catalyst. Case study: highly correlated metal oxides: the case of ceria.

(Theo-6) Ab initio simulation of magnetic and optical properties, and structural instabilities of solids. (Miguel Moreno)
Introduction: Role of impurities in crystalline solids. Impurities in insulators. Localization. What are the calculations useful for? Substitutional Transition Metal Impurities in insulators: Description of states. Study of Model Systems: interatomic distances and colour. The colour of gemstones containing Cr3+. Static Jahn-Teller effect: description. Static Jahn-Teller effect: experimental evidence. Insight into the Jahn-Teller effect. Off centre motion of impurities: evidence and characteristics. Origin of the off centre distortion. Softening around impurities.

(Theo-7) Magnetic interactions in Molecules and Solids: Basic concepts and Spin Hamiltonians (Coen de Graaf)
Spin Hamiltonians. Effective Hamiltonian theory. Magnetism in condensed matter. Spin waves for ferromagnets. Antiferromagnetic lattices. Electron transport. Quantum Chemical approach to solid state magnetism. Four center interactions in cuprates.

(Theo-8) Magnetic anisotropy, Double exchange and spin wave theory (Coen de Graaf)

Registration: http://www.cecam.org/workshop-6-1308.html

The 4th  XLIC General Meeting (COST Action CM1204) will be held in Prague, Czech Republic, on March 14-16, 2017. It will also host the final XLIC Management Committee (March 14) and the 3rd Young Scientist Forum (YSF).

ABSTRACTS:
Deadline for the submission of abstracts is January 31st, 2017. Abstracts should be written in English and uploaded via the online form.

REGISTRATION:
Interested participants must register before February 14th, 2017, by filling the corresponding form.  All meeting participants must pay a conference package (including lunch, dinner and coffee) for the days attending the meeting. To proceed with the payment, please, fill, sign and send to reservation@hotelpyramida.cz the following form.

SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM
The conference will consist of lectures given by invited speakers, Young Scientist Forum and 2 poster sessions.
NEW: The draft full scientific program, including timetable, talks and list of poster contributions can be downloaded here: XLIC_GM_2017-ScientificProgram (the most updated version should be checked in the meeting website: http://www.jh-inst.cas.cz/xlic2017/programme).

3rd YOUNG SCIENTISTS FORUM:
There shall be a special half-day session with talks given by young researchers (PhD students and post-docs) on March 15. It will include 12 lectures, out of which 6 oral contributions will be chosen by YSF committee based on submitted abstracts. The deadline for abstract submission for YSF was 31^st January 2017.
Applicants asking for the talk at YSF are also required to submit a short CV which is to be emailed to xlic2017@jh-inst.cas.cz. Abstracts submitted after the deadline will not be considered for the selection.
For more details see http://www.jh-inst.cas.cz/xlic2017/home and  http://www.xlic.eu. You can also contact A. Domaracka (domaracka@ganil.fr).
Selected YSF speakers can ask for financial support from XLIC COST Action.
NEW: The list of young researchers selected to give a talk has been published here: https://xlic.qui.uam.es/?p=3369

ACCOMMODATION:
Due to all-under-one-roof format of the conference, accommodation is also available: both single and double rooms for the price of 65 EUR/night. To book your room, please, fill, sign and send to reservation@hotelpyramida.cz the following form before February 14th, 2017.
More information can be found in the meeting website: http://www.jh-inst.cas.cz/xlic2017/accommodation

FINANCIAL SUPPORT:
The participation of  XLIC MC members and speakers will be supported with Action budget (with the exception of MC Observers coming from IPC Institutions). COST will also fully reimburse those young researchers selected for oral contributions in the Young Scientist Forum and, depending on the budget, we will try to cover also expenses from other young participants.
Participants entitled for reimbursement will receive an official notification before the meeting. We strongly recommend to check the COST rules for reimbursement before incurring any expense in:

• COST Vademecum, page 20-24, and /or
• the instructions on how to fill the Travel Reimbursement Request Form (TRR)

Accommodation and meal expenses will be reimbursed on the basis of flat rates. A reduction on maximum flat rates allowed for this particular meeting has been agreed by XLIC MC. The applicable rates are 100 EUR for accommodation and 20 EUR for meal expenses. For participants staying in cheaper hotels less money can be claimed  by requesting the reimbursement for a smaller number of nights/meals.
For travel expenses actual costs can be claimed on the basis of the receipts provided (any restriction applying to travel expenses will be notified to each participant entitled for reimbursement).

IMPORTANT:
Participants selected for reimbursement are kindly asked to keep their expenses as low as possible to ensure a wide distribution of the Action budget.
The submission of claims shall be done after the meeting, but, for any non-regular expense or doubt you may have, please, better ask in advance (info@xlic.eu). E.g. fligths departure/arrivals from/to places other than where the eligible participant is working/residing, extra meals, nights, taxi expenses, etc. shall not be reimbursed if permission is not requested before the meeting.
Please note that claims submitted later than 30 days after the meeting shall not be considered.

The International school on “The Frontiers of Attosecond and Ultrafast X-ray Science” will be held from 19th to 28th March 2017 in Erice, Sicily, Italy.

The primary objective of this new school is to educate the next generation of scientists who will impact the future of attosecond and ultrafast x-ray science. We anticipate that the school will meet on a regular basis every two years and become a foundation for the ultrafast community. Consequently, the main topics of the course are the following: (i) attosecond science and technology, devoted to the generation and application of attosecond pulses to the investigation of electronic dynamics in atoms, molecules, nanostructures and condensed phases; (ii) fundamentals, methods and applications of free electron lasers, synchrotron radiation, ion collisions in atomic and molecular science. Lectures will cover current developments in theory and experiments but are also intended to give the basics of the field.

Please note that, PhD students and post-docs willing to attend the school can apply for scholarships (deadline 30 January 2017). For more details see: http://www.erice-attosecond.it/registration

The school co-organised by XLIC COST Action and sponsored by Politecnico di Milano, Italian Ministry of Education and Scientific Research, Sicilian Regional Parliament, ELI-ALPS and Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture.

The organizers,

Louis Di Mauro, Alicja Domaracka, Mauro Nisoli and  Sergio Martellucci

Where: CECAM Headquarters, Lausanne, Switzerland
When: June 12-16, 2017
https://www.cecam.org/workshop-1326.html
Application deadline: February 28, 2017

This is a singular opportunity for students and postdocs. The school will be very similar to the previous one at IPAM last year (http://www.ipam.ucla.edu/programs/summer-schools/putting-the-theory-back-in-density-functional-theory/) with a similar line-up of excellent lecturers. We also provide limited support for student accommodation.

Scientific overview:

Last year, at least 30,000 scientific papers reported the results of DFT calculations. Many workshops and schools teach how to run a specific code. The purpose of this school is to teach the theory behind DFT. Lectures will be pedagogical and range from fundamentals to the latest approximations. The school is primarily targeted at junior researchers (Ph.D. students and postdocs) who are currently running DFT calculations and/or developing DFT or are interested in learning more about DFT. Internationally renowned experts in DFT will provide a thorough training in the fundamental theory through lectures and pedagogical research talks that connect themes of the lectures to the lecturers’ own cutting-edge research.

Confirmed speakers:

Mel Levy (Tulane University), John Perdew (Temple University), Hardy Gross (Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics) Weitao Yang (Duke University) Kieron Burke (University of California, Irvine) Leeor Kronik (Weizmann Institute) Neepa Maitra (Hunter College, CUNY) Adrienn Ruzsinszky (Temple University) Adam Wasserman (Purdue University)

Application:

Fill out the application form on the school web site. Submit one letter of recommendation from your academic advisor (via email to acangi@mpi-halle.mpg.de). Participants are strongly encouraged to present a poster. Applications arriving by February 28, 2017 will receive full consideration.

Organizing Committee:

Attila Cangi (Sandia National Laboratories) Kieron Burke (University of California, Irvine) Hardy Gross (Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics)