Travel Award Program
Updated 10/30/2016
Overview
This award program ended September 30, 2016. From 2003 - 2011, the Travel Award Program was part of the Materials Computation Center (NSF DMR 03-25939), then part of the World Materials Network (NSF Award 11-07472) from 2011-2016. Professor David Ceperley was the Principal Investigator.
The motivation for this program is to maximize the strengths of US and European research initiatives. While the US is strong in innovative techniques and high-performance computing, the European strength lies in applications of existing methodology; a larger number of researchers there develop computer codes and perform materials simulations. The Travel Program has partnered with two European/UK research groups, CECAM and Psi-K, who hold workshops and schools on topics in materials research, such as molecular and electronic simulation, condensed matter physics, materials chemistry, polymers, nanostructures, and electronic materials.
From 2011-2016, the program has funded 156 trips for young scientists from 136 different U.S. institutions, to participate in 83 workshops.
Sending young, U.S.-based scientists to these international workshops enhances scientific partnerships in a immediate, productive way. Specific benefits awardees have described are:
- hearing feedback on their research from experts they may otherwise not meet
- helping to build resources for the community, such as software code libraries
- learning new methods in hands-on sessions, to share with their research groups at home
- cross-pollinating ideas among related disciplines and approaches, such as computation vs. experiments
- speaking opportunities and potential job placements which build careers
- receiving encouragement to pursue this work
- enhanced impact abroad of research activities based in the US.
Summary of workshops attended 2004-2016
Awardees participated in workshops in 15 countries and regions: Austria, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Spain, and Switzerland.
2016
- Autumn School on Correlated Electrons: Quantum Materials: Experiments and Theory, Juelich, Germany
- 7th School on Time-Dependent Density- Functional Theory: Prospects and Applications, Zaragoza, Spain
- Controlling Food Protein Folding and Aggregation: Challenges and Perspectives in Industry, Experiments and Simulation., Dublin, Ireland
- 2016 CAMD Summer School on Electronic Structure Theory and Materials Design, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Hermes Summer School 2016, Windsor, UK
- Electronic Structure Theory with Numeric Atom-Centered Basis Functions, Muenich, Germany
- Tailor-Made 2D-Materials and Functional Devices, Bremen, Germany
- Path Integral Quantum Mechanics: Theory, Simulation and Application, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Towards reality in modelling of molecular electronics, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain
- Exploring Chemical Space with Machine Learning and Quantum Mechanics, Zurich, Switzerland
2015
- Open Quantum Systems Computational Methods, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
- Understanding function of proteins in membrane by atomistic and multiscale simulations, Lugano, Switzerland
- Development of next generation accurate approximate DFT/B methods: Flagship workshop and tutorial, CECAM-DE-MM1P, Germany
- From trajectories to reaction coordinates: making sense of molecular simulation data, Vienna, Austria
- Molecular and chemical kinetics, Berlin, Germany
- School in Computational Condensed Matter Physics: From Atomistic Simulations to Universal Model Hamiltonians, Trieste, Italy
- 2015 Psi-k Conference - ab initio Calculations (from the Electronic Structure) of Processes in Materials, San Sebastian, Spain
- Chemical and Structural Transformations in Materials under Mechanical Load, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Topological phases in Condensed Matter and Cold Atoms systems, Ménasina, France
- 4th CP2K Tutorial, Zurich, Switzerland
- 28th International Conference on Defects in Semiconductors, Helsinki, Finland
- Hands-On Workshop Density-Functional Theory and Beyond: First-Principles Simulations of Molecules and Materials, Berlin, Germany
- Summer School on Atomistic Simulation Techniques for Material Science, Nanotechnology, and Biophysics, Trieste, Italy
- Modeling metal-based nanoparticles: toward realistic environments, Toulouse, France
- The Physics of Protein Self-Assembly, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Atomistic simulations in Earth Sciences, Paris, France
- Molecular Quantum Dynamics Methods: Benchmarks and state-of-art, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Electronic Structure Library coding workshop: utilities toolbox, Lausanne, Switzerland
- JUJOLS VIII : An European Workshop on Theoretical approaches of Molecular Magnetism, Bages, France
- Electron-vibration coupling : theoretical and numerical challenges, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Collective dynamics in physics, biology and social sciences, Dublin, Ireland
- Simulation of systems under thermodynamic-like gradients, Zaragosa, Spain
- 5th Les Houches School in computational physics: Multiscale modeling of materials, Les Houches, France
- From Many-Body Hamiltonians to Machine Learning and Back, CECAM-DE-MM1P, Germany
- Molecular hydrodynamics meets fluctuating hydrodynamics, Zaragosa, Spain
- Green's function methods: the next generation II, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Stochastic Wavefunction Methods in Quantum Chemistry, Electronic Structure Theory and Condensed Matter Physics, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Free Energy Workshop '15: Computing Free Energy Across Disciplines: From Method Development to Applications, Muenster, Germany
- 17th International Workshop on Computational Physics and Materials Science: Total Energy and Force Methods, Treiste, Italy
2014
- Physics of colloidal particles with heterogeneously patterned surfaces, Vienna, Austria
- juDFT: Hands-on DFT codes from Juelich, Juelich, Germany
- Modelling ionic liquids at electrochemical interfaces, Paris, France
- Addressing Challenges for First-Principles Based Modeling of Molecular Materials, Lausanne, Switzerland
- HoW exciting! Hands-on Workshop on Excitations in Solids 2014, Berlin
- 4th Les Houches School in Computational Physics: From Quantum Gases to Strongly Correlated Systems, Les Houches, France
- Nanostructured Zinc Oxide and related materials, Bremen, Germany
- Enhancing molecular simulations with PLUMED, Belfast, United Kingdom
- Multiscale modeling of materials with atomic scale resolution using phase-field-crystal methods (MULTIMAT), Lausanne, Switzerland
- LMF/QSGW Hands-On Course, Warrington, UK
- 6th Time-Dependent Density-Functional Theory: Prospects and Applications, Benasque, Spain
2013
- DNA-based self-assembly: theory, simulations and experiments, Vienna, Austria
- Structure-property relationships of molecular precursors to organic electronics, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Simulating Soft Matter with ESPResSo, Stuttgart, Germany
- Innovative Approaches to Computational Drug Discovery, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Coupling between protein, water, and lipid dynamics in complex biological systems: Theory and Experiments, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Autumn School on Correlated Electrons: Emergent Phenomena in Correlated Matter, Forschungszentrum Juelich, Germany
- 2013 JSAP-MRS Joint Symposia, Kyoto, Japan
- Psi-k/CECAM/CCP9 Biennial Graduate School in Electronic-Structure Methods, Oxford, UK
- CECAM/Psi-k Research Conference on Multi-scale Modeling from First-Principles, Cap Roig de Platja d'Aro, Spain
- Intrinsically Disordered Proteins: Connecting Computation, Physics and Biology, Zurich, Switzerland
- Density-functional theory and beyond: Computational materials science for real materials, Trieste, Italy
- Basic Concepts and First-Principles Computations for Surface Science: Applications in Chemical Energy Conversion and Storage, Norderney, Germany
- Electronic structure at the cutting edge with Elk, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Theory, Simulation and Modelling of SiGe Nanostructures: from Nanoelectronics to Renewable Energy, Lausanne, Switzerland
- 3rd Les Houches School in computational physics: DNA, from molecules to evolution., Les Houches, France
- ETSF Young Researchers' Meeting 2013, Budapest, Hungary
- Self-assembly: from fundamental principles to design rules for experiment, Lausanne, Switzerland
- 16th International Workshop on Computational Physics and Materials Science: Total Energy and Force Methods, Trieste, Italy
2012
- Towards First-Principles Description of van der Waals Interactions in Complex Materials, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Future challenges in CO2 reduction, Bremen, Germany
- Exploring Protein Interactions through Theory and Experiments, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Summer School on Bandstructure meets Many Body Theory, Vienna, Austria
- Density Functional Theory and Beyond with Numeric Atom-Centered Orbitals, Berlin, Germany
- The 2012 CAMD Summer School on Electronic Structure Theory and Materials Design, Lyngby, Denmark
- THEORETICAL CHALLENGES IN ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE OF CLUSTERS AND NANOPARTICLES, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Computational Physics Methods for Cancer, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Computation of transition trajectories and rare events in non-equilibrium systems, ENS Lyon, France
- Spring School on Path Integrals Molecular Dynamics Simulations, Toulouse, France
- Anchoring simulations to experiments: challenges for understanding and treating Alzheimer's disease, Paris, France
- New Challenges in Electrostatics of Soft and Disordered Matter, Toulouse, France
- Quantum Monte Carlo methods at work for novel phases of matter, Trieste, Italy
- Topological Insulators and Non-Perturbative Spin-Orbit Coupling, Lausanne, Switzerland
- 5th Time-Dependent Density-Functional Theory: Prospects and Applications 2012, Benasque, Spain
2011
- Combining experimental and computational techniques to study protein behavior, Lugano, Switzerland
- Continuum Quantum Monte Carlo Methods, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Perspectives and Challenges of Many-Particle Methods: Efficient Strategies and Tools for the Description of Complex Systems, Bremen, Germany
- Dynamics of Protein-Nucleic Acid Interactions: Integrating Simulations with Experiments, Zurich, Switzerland
- CPMD2011: Extending the limits of Ab initio Molecular Dynamics Simulations for Materials Science and Biophysics
- Strong Correlation from First Principles, Kloster Seeon, Germany
- Hands-on Tutorial Workshop 2011 on Ab Initio Molecular Simulations: Toward a First-Principles Understanding of Materials Properties and Functions
- Hands-On Tutorial: Density Functional Theory and Beyond, Concepts and Applications, Berlin, Germany
- Psi-k/CECAM/CCP9 Biennial Graduate School in Electronic-Structure Methods, Oxford, UK
- X-ray spectroscopy : recent advances in modelling and new challenges, Zurich, Switzerland
- Coarse-Graining strategies and methodologies for polymeric and bio-molecular assemblies--Launching event of the CFCAM-RA Node, Lyon, France
- MultiScale Modelling of Amorphous Materials: from Structure to Mechanical Properties, Dublin, Ireland
- Liquid/Solid interfaces: Structure and Dynamics from Spectroscopy and Simulations, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Spectroscopy and quantum phenomena in large molecular aggregates, Germany, Germany
- Microscopic-scale view of CO2 sequestration, Lausanne, Switzerland
- How to speed up progress and reduce empiricism in density functional theory, Dublin, Switzerland
- Thermal and electronic transport at the nanoscale, Lugano, Switzerland
- First Les Houches School in Computational Physics - Soft Matter, Les Houches, France
- Vibrational Spectroscopy of Complex Systems, Paris, France
- Grand Challenges in Understanding Interfaces Between Hard and Soft Matter, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Modeling protein interactions with solid surfaces and nanoparticles, Lausanne, Switzerland
- New challenges for the simulation of electrokinetic phenomena, Paris, France
- Charge and Spin Transport in Chemically Modified Graphene based Materials, Zaragoza, Spain
- 2nd CP2K Tutorial: Enabling the Power of Imagination in MD Simulations, Zurich, Switzerland
- 15th International Workshop on Computational Physics and Materials Science: Total Energy and Force Methods, Trieste, Italy
2010
- Simulating strongly correlated systems, Zurich, Switzerland
- 2010 Psi-K Conference , Berlin, Germany
- Computational Carbon Capture, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Crystallisation: from colloids to pharmaceuticals, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Mesoscale methods for colloidal hydrodynamics, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Ab Initio Electrochemistry, Lausanne, Switzerland
- van der Waals forces in DFT, RPA, and Beyond, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Transport Phenomena in Molecular Nanostructures, Zurich, Switzerland
- Empirical methods in semiconductor nano-structures design and modelling, Dublin, Ireland
- Quantum Monte Carlo meets Quantum Chemistry: new approaches for electron correlation, Lugano, Switzerland
- Theory of Magnetoelectrics: Fundamentals and Applications, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Spring College on Computational Nanoscience, Trieste, Italy
- Quantum transport and dynamics in materials and biosystems: From molecular mechanisms to mesoscopic functionality, Dublin, Ireland
- Trends in computational hemodynamics, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Electronic Structure of Fe-based Superconductors, , Germany
- Theoretical, Computational, and Experimental Challenges to Exploring Coherent Quantum Dynamics in Complex Many-Body Systems, Dublin, Ireland
- Molecular Simulation of Clathrate Hydrates, Dublin, Ireland
- 4th Time-Dependent Density-Functional Theory: Prospects and Applications, Benasque, Spain
2009
- Ab-initio Modeling of Cold Gases, Zurich, Switzerland
- Classical Density Functional Theory Methods in Soft and Hard Matter, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Computational Physics and Chemistry of Graphene, Lausanne, Switzerland
- 11th International Conference on Advanced Materials, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Full Potential Linear Muffin Tin Orbital Method and the RSPt, Sulmona, L'Aquila, Italy
- Thermoelectric Transport: Progress in First Principles and Other Approaches, and the Interplay with Experiment, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Structural Transitions in Solids: Theory, Simulations, Experiments and Visualization Techniques, Lugano, Switzerland
- Dopants and Impurities in Semiconducting Nanowires, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Density Functional Theory and Beyond: Concepts and Applications, Berlin, Germany
- Orbital Magnetization in Condensed Matter, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Which Electronic Structure Method for the Study of Defects?, Lausanne, Switzerland
2008
- International Symposium for Research Scholars on Metallurgy, Materials Science and Engineering, Chennai, India
- Mineral spectroscopy by theory and experiment, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Membrane Protein Assembly: Theory and Experiment, Lausanne, Switzerland
- 2nd European School on Multiferroics (ESMF-2), Girona, Italy
- Time-Dependent Density-Functional Theory: Prospects and Applications , Benasque, Spain
- Computational approaches to semiconductor, carbon and magnetic nanostructures, Lyon, France
- Structural, electronic and transport properties of quantum wires, Lyon, France
- Modern Concepts for Creating and Analyzing Surfaces and Nanoscale Materials, Costa Brava, Spain
- Exact-exchange and hybrid functionals meet quasiparticle energy calculations, Berlin, Germany
- Advanced School on Quantum Monte Carlo Methods in Physics and Chemistry, Trieste, Italy
2007
- High performance density functional theory: wavelets, order(N) scaling, parallelism, Lyon, France
- Energy flow dynamics in biomaterial systems, Paris, France
- Ionic Transport: from Nanopores to Biological Channels, Lyon, France
- Linear-scaling ab initio calculations: applications and future directions, Lyon, France
- Advances in continuum quantum Monte Carlo methods, Lyon, France
- Theoretical and Experimental Studies of Quantum Dynamics in Condensed Phase Chemical Systems, Lyon, France
- Modelling the Interaction of Biomolecules with Inorganic Surfaces, Lyon, France
- Summer School: Ab-initio Many-Body Theory, San Sebastian, Spain
- Simulation, design and crystal engineering of metal-organic frameworks, Lyon, France
- Maximally Localized Wannier Functions: Concepts, Applications, and Beyond, Lyon, France
- Ab-initio approaches to electron-phonon coupling and superconductivity, San Sebastian-Donostia, Spain
- XIII International Workshop on Computational Physics and Materials Science: Total Energy and Force Methods, Trieste, Italy
2006
- Inelastic effects in transport at the atomic scale: from realistic current simulations to chemical detection at the atomic scale via IET spectroscopy, Lyon, France
- Joint MolSimu-Psi-k Tutorial "Quantum Simulation of Liquids and Solids", Lyon, France
- Multiscale modeling of soft and biological matter, Lyon, France
- Heat transfer simulation at the atomic scale : new challenges for the futur, Lyon, France
- Computational aspects of building blocks, nucleation, and synthesis of porous materials, Lyon, France
- Psi-k/NANOQUANTA SCHOOL + WORKSHOP on Time-Dependent Density-Functional Theory: Prospects and Applications, Benasque, Spain
- Patchy Colloids, Proteins and Network Forming Liquids: Analogies and new insights from computer simulations, Lyon, France
- Protein Aggregation, Lyon, France
- New developments for first principles molecular dynamics simulations in condensed matter and molecular physics, Lyon, France
2004-2005
- Psi-k 2005 Conference, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany
- Simulation of rare events: The reaction coordinate problem in complex systems, Lyon, France
- CECAM Workshop on Novel Approaches to Efficient Simulation of Soft Matter Systems, Lyon, France
List of Institutions 2004-2016
Awardees have come from about 120 institutions, including:
- Arkansas State University
- Binghamton University, SUNY
- Boston University
- California Institute of Technology
- California State University Northridge
- Carnegie Institution of Washington
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Case Western Reserve University
- Central Michigan University
- College of William and Mary
- Colorado School of Mines
- Columbia University
- Cornell University
- Department of Physics
- Duke University
- Florida State University
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- Harvard University
- Howard University
- Hunter College, CUNY
- Iowa State University
- Jackson State University
- Johns Hopkins University
- Kent State University
- Lehigh University
- Louisiana State University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- Michigan State University
- Michigan Technological University
- Mississippi State University
- Missouri University of Science and Technology
- Montana State University
- New Mexico State University
- New York University
- North Carolina State University
- North Dakota State University
- Northeastern University
- Northwestern University
- Pennsylvania State University
- Prairie View A&M University
- Princeton University
- Purdue university
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- Rice University
- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
- Sate University of New York at Buffalo
- Simpson College
- Sloan Kettering Institute
- Southern University, Baton Rouge
- Stanford University
- Stevens Institute of Technology
- Stony Brook University
- Syracuse University
- Temple University
- Texas A&M University
- Texas Tech University
- the Ohio State University
- Tulane University
- University at Buffalo, SUNY
- University of Albany, SUNY
- University of Arkansas
- University of California at Berkeley
- University of California at Davis
- University of California at Irvine
- University of California at Los Angeles
- University of California at San Diego
- University of California at San Francisco
- University of California at Santa Barbara
- University of California at Santa Cruz
- University of California Santa Barbara
- University of Central Florida
- University of Chicago
- University of Colorado, Boulder
- University of Connecticut
- University of Delaware
- University of Florida
- University of Georgia
- University of Houston
- University of Illinois at Chicago
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- University of Iowa
- University of Kentucky
- University of Louisville
- University of Maryland, Baltimore County
- University of Maryland, College Park
- University of Michigan
- University of Minnesota
- University of Missouri
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- University of North Florida
- University of North Texas
- University of Notre Dame
- University of Oregon
- University of Pennsylvania
- University of Pittsburgh
- University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras
- University of Rochester
- University of South Florida
- University of Southern California
- University of Texas at Arlington
- University of Texas at Austin
- University of Texas at San Antonio
- University of Utah
- University of Virginia
- University of Washington, Seattle
- Vanderbilt University
- Virginia Tech
- Wake Forest University
- Washington State University
- Washington University in Saint Louis
- Wesleyan University
- West Virginia University
- Western Washington University
- Yale University