The goal of this virtual school is to train graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty members, and research scientists in modern approaches to the physics of electron-phonon interactions, from the point of view of predictive ab initio calculations for real materials. This is the second event of a series that started in 2018 with the First International School on Electron-Phonon Physics from First Principles, which was held at the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste.
The interaction between electrons and phonons is responsible for the temperature dependence of many electronic and optical properties of solids, and plays a central role in technologically important phenomena, from charge and heat transport to superconductivity and light-driven phase transitions. As research programs in materials design and data-driven materials discovery continue to expand in size and scope, there is a growing need for more advanced ab initio computational methods and software to describe complex functional properties with predictive accuracy. In this context, expertise in calculations of electron-phonon interactions and related materials properties is acquiring increasing importance, and specialized doctoral-level training in this area is in high demand.
This school will introduce participants to advanced ab initio calculations of electron-phonon physics and related materials properties, including lectures on many-body quantum theory, software implementations, and hands-on training sessions. The school will be based on the EPW code, which is a core module of the Quantum ESPRESSO package, and the training sessions will be held on the supercomputers of the Texas Advanced Computing Center.
A tentative list of topics that will be covered during the school can be found here. The last day of the school will host a virtual poster session.
Accepted participants will be asked to pay a nominal registration fee of $10, which will be used to sponsor three $250 prizes for best poster. Participants from low-income countries can request a fee waiver in the application form.
2021 Poster Winners:
Sabine Körbel
Simone Di Cataldo
Jan Berges
Applicants who are PhD students will be asked to upload a brief reference letter from their PhD advisor in the application form.
The school is sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Materials Research (DMR) and Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC), under award 2007638, and by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences (BES) under Award DE-SC0020129. Support from the Texas Advanced Computing Center (reservation of Frontera nodes & technical assistance) is gratefully acknowledged.
