School dates:

September 12 - September 19 (Travel to Benasque on September 11st)

Workshop dates:

September 20 - September 23

We call for participants for the School and Workshop on Time-Dependent Density-Functional Theory (TDDFT), to be held in the beautiful town of Benasque (Huesca, Spain), at the Benasque Center for Science.

Preliminary list of workshop invited speakers

Kieron Burke
David Strubbe
Ivano Tavernelli
Ilya Tokatly
Robert van Leeuwen
Dieter Bauer
Shih-I Chu
Paolar Gori-Giorgi
Emmanuel Fromager
Kazuhiro Yabana
Sangeeta Sharma
Sivan Refaely-Abramson
Carsten Ullrich
Heiko Appel
Federica Agostini
Shaul Mukamel
Umberto de Giovannini

List of School teachers

E. K. U. Gross
Neepa Maitra
Fernando Nogueira
Alberto Castro
David Strubbe
Ivano Tavernelli
Ilya Tokatly
Robert van Leeuwen
Joaquim Jornet Somoza
Carsten Ullrich
Umberto de Giovannini
Xavier Andrade

School participants:

As we have a very limited number of places for the school, 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, gender. Research experience (number of years)
- 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 the 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, very important, explain why. We will not offer grants to unjustified requests.

Applications/Support:

All persons who wish to participate should fill out the application form at Registration

In the comments section, please indicate if you wish to participate in the School or in the Workshop (or in both). If you wish to contribute to the Workshop with an oral contribution or a poster, please upload an abstract after you have completed the registration (see below, Call for contributions).

Application deadline:

The deadline for applications is the 1st of June.

Call for contributions:

We have a limited number of slots for contributed talks, and we will also hold a poster session. If you are interested in present a poster or oral contribution, please upload your abstract HERE

* You have to be registered before abstract submission

For applicants coming from the USA:

For participants coming from the USA, please check this address for support (NSF) (make clear your are applying for this activity and that it is supported by CECAM)

History

The School and Workshop on Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory was first 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 were envisaging a project for which TDDFT would be the tool of choice. The outstanding success of this school led to the organization of a second, third, fourth fifth, sixth events, held once more in Benasque, in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014.

Scientific Motivation

Time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) is an extension of density functional theory (DFT) to time-dependent problems, and can be viewed as an alternative formulation of time-dependent quantum mechanics. As in DFT, the wave-function no longer has the leading role: the basic variable of TDDFT is the one-body electron density, n(r,t). The advantages are clear: a complex function in 3N-dimensional space (where N is the number of electrons in the system) - the many-body wave-function - is replaced by a real function that depends solely on the 3-dimensional vector r - the density. Usually n(r,t) is obtained using an auxiliary system of non-interacting electrons that feel an effective time-dependent potential, the time-dependent Kohn-Sham potential. Its exact form is, however, unknown, and has to be approximated.

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...).

Despite the rising interest in the calculation of excited state properties of quantum systems, the techniques being used have usually been just one of the topics covered in international meetings, schools and workshops. This means that scientists new to the field face difficulties in grasping its many aspects that could be alleviated if they could attend a school on time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) or Many-Body Techniques (MBT). We also believe that a school on these techniques is extremely helpful for young graduate students, post-docs and even older scientists that are envisaging a project for which TDDFT/MBT would be the tool of choice. For this reason we decided to organize a set of schools and workshops on these techniques, covering its theoretical, practical, and numerical aspects. The first one was done in Benasque in 2004 (see history above).

Following our previous experience, we are convinced that 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 eases the learning of the techniques and provides the students with the practical knowledge of the numerical aspects and difficulties, at the same time 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 is followed by an international workshop, where the new developments of TDDFT and Many-Body Techniques for the calculation of excitations are discussed. Students attending the school are 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, quantum chemists, and biophysicists. This allows the exchange of ideas between the different fields and the creation of links between the traditionally separated communities.

School and workshop supported by:

		;