Computational Physics for Nanotechnology

ESF European Research Conference

Il Ciocco, Tuscany

19-24 September 1998

This page answers several important questions you may have about the conference:

• What is it about?
• What is the scientific background?
• What is the conference programme?
• Where is it, and how can I get there?
• What about the organization and registration?
• What financial support is there to help me attend?

What is the meeting for?

The meeting will focus on applications of the techniques of modern computational physics to problems in the rapidly developing interdisciplinary field of nanotechnology. Topics will include:

• Electrical and mechanical properties of nanostructures and the relation between them;
• Interaction of nanostructures with scanning probe microscopies and other experimental probes;
• Developments in computational techniques to study nanostructures and their excitations;
• Molecular electronics;
• Electronic and atomic processes relevant to nanostructures, including processes in aqueous environments.

Participants will include theoretical and computational physicists and chemists, experimentalists and industrial scientists in the field of nanotechnology.

What is the background to the meeting?

The science and of matter at the nanometer length scale is becoming more and more important and seems set to dominate much leading-edge technological development in the 21st century. Experimental developments in this subject are giving more and more information about the structural and electronic properties of nanoscale matter, and suggesting many ways in which nanoscale devices may be assembled.

At the same time, the ability of computational physicists and chemists to calculate the properties of nanoscale systems from quantum mechanics is developing rapidly. This is leading to rapid advances in the subject as theory and experiment work together to understand and exploit the properties of nanoscale systems.

The programme

The invited speakers will include the following:

• F. Buda (INFM, Pisa)
• G. Brocks (University of Twente)
• E.K.U. Gross (University of Würzburg)
• K. W. Jacobsen (Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby)
• C. Joachim (CNRS, Toulouse)*
• J.-L. Martins (University of Lisbon)
• W. Schmickler (University of Ulm)
• S. Stafström (University of Linköping)
• I. Stich (Slovak University of Technology)
• T.N. Todorov* (University of Oxford)
• J. Ulstrup (Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby)
• E. Wimmer* (MSI, Paris, France)

(Asterisks denote speakers subject to confirmation.)

Invited talks will last for 40 minutes, and will be followed by a 20-minute discussion period. In the tradition of European Research Conferences, informal discussion and participation by younger scientists are strongly encouraged. The afternoons will be kept free for informal discussions among the participants.

There will be a poster session, to which all participants are encouraged to contribute. Poster authors will be given the opportunity to make a very short oral presentation to the entire meeting.

The location

The meeting will take place at the conference centre at Il Ciocco, in Tuscany. There is a picture at the top of this file; here is another one.

The conference centre has excellent accommodation and sports facilities, set amidst a delightful valley in northern Tuscany.

Travelling to the meeting

Il Ciocco is 60km from Pisa.

• Pisa Airport is served by direct flights from many major European cities (such as London, Paris and Frankfurt) and from other Italian destinations.
• Pisa is also on the Tirrenia railway line connecting Turin and Milan with Rome.
• To drive from Rome or Bologna: take the A/11 motorway (Florenze-mare) to the exit for Lucca.
• To drive from Genoa: take the A/12 to Viareggio and then the A/11 to the Lucca exit.
• To drive from Milan: take the A/15 to Viareggio and then the A/11 to the Lucca exit.

Conference organization and registration

The conference chairman and scientific organizer (to be contacted for scientific or programme enquiries only) is:

For all practical matters relating to conference applications, attendance and grants, please contact the following person at the European Research Conferences office:

Click here for on-line application to this conference via EURESCO.

Financial support

Support is available for young scientists from Europe to attend the conference. Further details are available from the European Science Foundation. In addition, the British Institute of Physics has agreed to fund bursaries for graduate students from the UK who are member's of the Institute's Thin Films and Surfaces Group to attend the meeting. This support will be administered by the EURESCO office, alongside the applications process. Please contact them at the address above if you have any enquiries.

Click here to go to the ESF EURESCO Home page.

This page is maintained by Andrew Fisher (andrew.fisher@ucl.ac.uk).