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

Registration for the Ultrafast X-Ray Summer School 2016 is now open. UXSS 2016 will take place during June 12-16 at the PULSE institute at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. UXSS 2016 is organized in collaboration with the Center for Free Electron Laser Science (CFEL) at DESY in Hamburg, Germany. The summer school is intended to give a comprehensive introduction to the field of ultrafast x-ray science and free electron lasers. The program, directed towards graduate students and post-docs, is highly interdisciplinary and focuses on the latest developments and opportunities in the field. A limited amount of travel support is available. Students interested to apply are requested to send a brief one-page statement describing their background and research interests. For more information visit:

https://ultrafast.stanford.edu/uxss-2016

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

The scientific workshop: “Massive Computation for Ultrafast Molecular Breaking” (MACUMB 2017) will be held in the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain) on 25th and 26th of May 2017.

The scientific program (http://www.macumb.info/programme.html) includes ten invited talks that will be combined with two 3-hours practical sessions in computer rooms. We aim to bring together developers of the state-of-the-art scientific software in the field of quantum chemistry and molecular physics.

Registration is already open and closes on May 15^th, 2017. The registration for the meeting is free for all participants.

You can find detailed information at http://www.macumb.info/

Organizers:
Alicia Palacios, Sergio Díaz-Tendero and Jesús González-Vázquez
Departamento de Química, Facultad de Ciencias
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

The CECAM workshop Seeking synergy between dynamics and statistics for non-equilibrium quantum processes will be held in Paris in June 6th-9th.

One of the major difficulties in achieving an accurate theoretical descriptions of non-equilibrium processes in quantum mechanical systems is framed by the desire to provide a representation of the system of interest that is as realistic as possible, in a manner that is computationally tractable. The coupling of electronic and nuclear motion involving excited states, the quantum nature of the nuclear degrees of freedom, and the application of time-dependent driving forces, are just few examples of the effects that must be addressed in order to simulate these processes. Each of these effects poses unique challenges to theoretical progress. A number of exact and approximate quantum dynamics techniques are being developed and refined in order to provide algorithms that respond to the demand for a balance between computational efficiency and physical accuracy. Currently available techniques are typically based upon two different, but equivalent, formulations of many-body quantum mechanics, the wave function approach or the density matrix picture.

The proposed workshop aims to bring together the two principal molecular quantum dynamics communities (wave-function methods and density matrix approaches). The scope is threefold, (i) to identify and explore common goals and obstacles, (ii) help in fostering new ideas to connect these approaches, and bridge the apparent gap between approximate dynamical and statistical descriptions, (iii) identify possible routes to extend dynamics approaches to the domain of statistics.

At the workshop, experts are asked to uncover the fundamental details of the methods in pedagogical lectures. These lectures will be followed by extensive discussions, during which contributed speakers and participants are welcome to put forth some of their doubts and problems in the relation between dynamics and statistics.

Further information can be at:          https://www.cecam.org/workshop-1483.html

Preliminary invited speakers are:

Nandini Ananth (Cornell University, USA) Sara Bonella (CECAM, Switzerland) Irene Burghardt (Goethe University, Germany) Eitan Geva (University of Michigan, USA) E. K. U. Gross (Max-Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Germany) Raymond Kapral (University of Toronto, Canada) Dvira Segal (University of Toronto, Canada) Jeremy Richardson (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) Graham Worth (University College London, UK)

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)

The European Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics and the European Quantum Electronics Conference will take place from Sunday 25 June to Thursday 29 June 2017 in Munich (ICM), Germany as part of the World of Photonics Congress and the Laser World of Photonics 2017, the world’s leading laser trade fair.

The Congress will be the largest, most comprehensive and prestigious gathering of optics and photonics scientists and engineers organized in Europe in 2017.

A full list of topics and committees can be viewed on the conference website at http://www.cleoeurope.org/  and we hope you will agree that the high quality of plenary, keynote, tutorial, invited speakers and short courses promises to make this conference unmissable!

The chairs invite you to come to Munich during June 25 – 29, 2017 and participate in Europe’s most exciting photonics and quantum electronics event. The historical and cultural atmosphere of Munich in June also provides a perfect environment for scientific and professional networking and is a tremendous source of scientific inspiration.

Contributed papers can now be sent on line via https://sciconf.org/cee2017/submit.

Please remember the deadline for the submissions: Thursday January 19, 2017, 23:59 CET.

Submissions should consist of a 35-word abstract and a single A4 page summary in pdf format.

Conference topics cover a very wide spectrum of technical areas including laser development, new optical materials, nonlinear optics and nonlinear dynamics, ultrafast phenomena, telecommunications technologies, atom and quantum optics, quantum information, precision metrology, fibre optics, optical sensing, photonic crystals, nanophotonics and metamaterials etc.  A particular highlight of the 2017 programme will be a series of special symposia surveying recent advances in the following emerging areas of:

• Free Electron Lasers and Applications
• Advanced Microscopy and Nanoscopy
• Photonics in Cancer Detection and Therapy
• Optics of Topological Insulators
• Perovskite Optoelectronics

More details can be found at http://www.cleoeurope.org/

The conference is organised by the European Physical Society and its Quantum Electronics and Optics Division (QEOD), in cooperation with the IEEE Photonics Society and the Optical Society (OSA).

The CLEO^®/Europe-EQEC conference series provides a unique European forum, offering informative reviews and discussing recent advances covering a wide spectrum of topics, from fundamental light-matter interactions and new sources of coherent light, to technology development, systems engineering and applications in industry and applied science.

We are looking forward to seeing you in Munich!
Giulio Cerullo, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Valerio Pruneri, ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences & ICREA, Spain

CLEO®/Europe General Chairs

Thorsten Ackemann, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom

Christine Silberhorn, Universität Paderborn, Germany

EQEC General Chairs

Jörg Schreiber, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Garching, Germany CLEO®/Europe-EQEC Local Chair

The two ICPEAC satellite meetings:

• The 25th International Symposium on Ion Atom Collisions (http://atom.curtin.edu.au/isiac)
• International Symposium on (e,2e), Double Photoionization and Related Topics with the 19th International Symposium on Polarization and Correlation in Electronic and Atomic Collisions http://atom.curtin.edu.au/e2epol

still welcome abstract submissions until the end of April. The confirmed invited speakers are available at the respective Scientific Program links.

We look forward to your participation,

Alisher Kadyrov, Chair of ISIAC

Igor Bray, Chair of (e,2e)-pol

The Femtochemistry (FEMTO13) Conference will be dedicated to the Legacy of Professor Ahmed Zewail.

FEMTO13 will take place in Cancun, Mexico, from August 12th to 17th, 2017. At the conference there will be a Mini-Symposium of Zewail Alumi, and there will be a Mini-Symposium where The 6th Ahmed Zewail Prize in Molecular Sciences will be awarded to Professor Michael Grätzel from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland.

The venue will be the Marriott Resort Casamagna Cancun, located on the beach near Cancun city and not too far from the Maya city of Tulum.

We invite you to visit us @ http://femto13.unam.mx/ to explore our list of outstanding invited speakers and exciting scientific program.

Marcos Dantus and Jorge Peon

If you have any questions or you would like to see our first circular email  us directly at femto13@chemistry.msu.edu

The next Joint Iberian Meeting on Atomic and Molecular Physics IBER 2017 will take place in Barcelona, Spain from September 12 to 14, 2017.

IBER is the biannual conference organised jointly by the Atomic and Molecular Physics Specialised Group (GEFAM) of the Spanish Royal Society of Physics and the Portuguese Society of Physics.

The main purpose of this series of IBER conferences is to bring together scientists of Iberian community dedicated to Atomic and Molecular Physics and related areas of to facilitate the interaction and exchange of knowledge between their research groups. Researchers and scientists from all over Europe and the world are invited to attend this conference and share knowledge. The conference will be structured in three days with plenary lectures, invited lectures, oral presentations and a poster session.

For detailed information and registration please visit:

http://iber2017.com

Specific topics of IBER include:

• Quantum Physics and Chemistry
• Experimental Techniques and Applied Physics
• Atomic and Molecular Spectroscopy and Structure
• Biomolecules and Biophysics
• Clusters, Nanoparticles
• Surfaces and Condensed Phases
• Dynamical Studies of Elementary Processes
• Femtochemistry and Laser Control

List of Confirmed Speakers

M. Alcamí, U. Autónoma de Madrid (Spain)
V. Aquilanti, U. de Perugia (Italy)
A. Bergeat, U. de Bordeaux (France)
F. Calegari, U. of Hamburg (Germany)
M.L. Carvalho, U. Nova Lisboa (Portugal)
D. Clary, Oxford University (UK)
B. Costa Cabral, U. Lisboa (Portugal)
L.M. Frutos, U. de Alcalá de Henares (Spain)
P. García Jambrina, U. Complutense de Madrid (Spain)
P. Jönsson, Malmö högskola, Malmö (Sweden)
U. Manthe. Universität Bielfeld (Germany)
T. Martinez, Stanford University (USA)
B. Maté, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Spain)
E. Narevicius, Weizmann Institute (Israel)
J. A. Paixão, U. de Coimbra, (Portugal)
M. J. Ramos, U. de Porto (Portugal)
O. Roncero, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Spain)
D. Shalashilin, U. of Leeds (UK)
S. Willitchs, U. Basel (Switzerland)

Registration is now open. The deadline for early-bird registration is July 6th while abstract submission will be open until June 9th. Please  mark your calendars.
Approximately 10-12 contributions will be selected for oral communications. The participation of young researchers and students is particularly welcome.

We looking forward to welcoming in Barcelona!

With best regards

The Organising Committee at Universitat de Barcelona,
Antonio Aguilar Navarro (Chairman)
Margarita Albertí Wirsing
Miguel González Pérez
Fermín Huarte-Larrañaga (Secretary)
Estefanía López Marne
Josep Maria Lucas

Departament de Ciència de Materials i Química Física
Secció de Química Física
Institut de Química Teòrica i Computacional de la UB (IQTCUB)
Universitat de Barcelona