An African School series on Electronic Structure Methods and Applications is planned on a biennial basis from 2010 to 2020. This follows on the very successful School by the same name that was held at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in Muizenberg, South Africa in July 2008.
The IUPAP Commission on Physics for Development (C13) has been approached as the primary sponsor in collaboration with the IUPAP Commission on Computational Physics (C20), and with the endorsements of the IUPAP Commissions on Physics Education (C14) and Structure and Dynamics of Condensed Matter (C10). Further sponsors and potential sponsors include the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), the International Centre for Materials Research (ICMR), the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Democratis, the National Institute of Theoretical Physics (NITheP), the National Research Foundation (NRF), the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC), the Centre of Excellence in Strong Materials (CoESM) as well as a number of other international organizations.
The plan is for the workshops to be hosted every two years by successive African countries. The format will include pedagogical presentations of the theoretical underpinnings of density functional theory and associated algorithms as well as general solid state physics - and especially current challenges in solid state physics - followed by hands-on computational sessions.
The workshop series is designed to ensure continuity over the next ten years, to build critical mass and to create a legacy of computational materials science in Africa. A major objective of this workshop series is to enhance scientific collaboration and networking in Africa. We will make a special effort to seek African women participants.
The workshop series will be managed by an International Advisory Panel chaired by Prof Richard Martin (Univ. Illinois) and whose members are listed below. The first workshop will be held in 2010 in South Africa, and will be organized by the Local Organising Committee chaired by Prof Daniel Joubert (Univ. Witwatersrand) and whose members are also listed below.
Workshop Programme
The workshop shall be held over two weeks, and each workshop will be focused on a particular theme, e.g. hard materials, optical properties, defects, surfaces, etc. The first four days will usually involve basic lectures, including tutorial work, on topics in physics and computational physics that are relevant to the workshop theme. International experts will be invited to lead discussions on current challenges in solid state physics. Thereafter, for the following ten days, the workshop will be focused on hands-on computational work. For these purposes, the hosting institution will need to provide a networked computer laboratory comprising 40 computers running linux with technical support. The workshop programme is open to different computational packages, and particular lecturers are free to advance their own computational methods. However, in the African context, freeware in encouraged. The workshop is open to lecturers from the many different communities within the electronic structure world. The workshop will cater for approximately 40 students, drawn from young faculty and graduate students from across Africa.
The workshop series is focused on applied physics in the following two key respects:
(1) Computational physics - participants will learn aspects related to hands-on computing within an open source environment. The skills acquired are transferable to other disciplines and in areas of activity outside academia, and in the mainstream economy.
(2) Material science - The applications of the computational methods are to topics in material science, which impacts on the fundamental understanding of materials, and which has the potential of adding economic value to the vast reserves of minerals and materials mined in Africa.
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