Division of Computational Physics

Letter from the PAST Chair

Dear Colleagues, The Newsletter provides the traditional vehicle for Outgoing Chair to comment on the previous year of activities for the Division of Computational Physics. Several important events and initiatives come to mind. First, we began the year (March 2005–March 2006) having just completed a highly successful joint DCOMP-CCP international conference in conjunction with the regular March Meeting, which included an all-day plenary session on Sunday combined with specially-tailored invited symposia and focus sessions. The DCOMP Executive Committee at its Baltimore meeting agreed to organize another such DCOMP-CCP collaboration for the 2008 March Meeting, scheduled for New Orleans. Although this date appears distant, planning will soon commence so that comments on the 2005 conference and suggestions for 2008 should be sent to the new Officers. Second, DCOMP plans an educational initiative for this year to coincide with similar efforts across APS. Some ideas floated this past year, all associated in some degree with the March Meeting, included a special session along the lines of the DCOMP-CCP plenary session but aimed at students, an interactive session on Summer 2006 computational methods in the vein of an expanded tutorial, and In this Issue: a “conference experience for students” with some initial back- I) letter from THE ground sessions that would guide the students through a selected past Chair set of invited and focus sessions. Upper-level undergraduates and II) offiCERS and beginning graduate students might form the main target group. Committees More information will come in future broadcasts, but the floor III) felloWS/PRIZES has opened for comments and suggestions ([email protected]). We neW BUSINESS: must act quickly, probably no later than the end of this summer, eDucation initiatives to secure grants from relevant funding agencies. IV) events Third, we had a very successful March Meeting in Baltimore with special thanks to Giulia Galli and the Program Committee for arranging such an eclectic and stimulating set of sessions. Attendance was very good by all accounts with many sessions overflowing. This mirrors previous years and continues to dem- onstrate the interest in and importance of computational physics. Finally, I enjoyed very much serving DCOMP and leave the Chair in the very capable hands of Giulia Galli. Lee Collins [email protected]

Newsletter of the Division of Computational Physics • American Physical Society • www.aps.org/units/dcomp • Summer 2006 Officers & Committees

2006 Election results • Vice Chair: Mei-Yin Chou • Secretary/treasurer: Vin Crespi • EXCOMM: Rubin Landau & Cyrus Umrigar

Officers, Executive Committee and contacts Program Committee Information Committee Giulia Galli (UC-Davis, DCOMP Chair) Lee Collins (interim) Anne Chaka (NIST, DCOMP Chair-Elect, Program Peter Reynolds (ARO) Chair) Amy Young (Illinois) Mei-Yin Chou (Georgia Tech, DCOMP Vice Chair) International Liason Vin Crespi (Penn State, DCOMP Sec-Tres.) Rubin Landau (Oregon State) New Members (one-year term) Estella Blaisten-Barojas (George Mason) John Mintmire (OSU) Jerry Bernholc (North Carolina State) Sam Trickey (Florida) Rahman Prize Jon Arons (UC-Berkeley) Herb Levine (UC-SD) Chair: Barry Schneider (NSF) Stephane Mazevet (CEA/France) Sharon Glotzer (Michigan) David Ceperley (Illinois) Nomination Committee Beverly Berger (NSF, Vice Chair) Chair: Jim Gubernatis (LANL) (2006-2008) Uzi Landman (Georgia Tech, ‘05 Recipient) Susan McKay (Maine) (2006-2008) Metropolis Prize Gerhard Hummer (NIH) (2005-2007) Klaus Bartschat (Drake) (2005-2007) Chair: Ann Orel (UC-Davis: 2008) APS appointment Jorge Jose (Buffalo, vice chair, 2009) Estella Blaisten-Barojas (George Mason: past chair, 2007) Fellowship Committee (one-year term) Saul Teukolsky (Cornell 2007) Chair: Lee Collins (LANL) Phillip Marcus (2008) Janine Shertzer (Holy Cross) David Landau (Georgia State) Claudio Rebbi (Boston U.) Charlotte Elster (Ohio)

Newsletter of the Division of Computational Physics • American Physical Society • www.aps.org/units/dcomp • Summer 2006 • Page Newsletter of the Division of Computational Physics • American Physical Society • www.aps.org/units/dcomp • Summer 2006 • Page Officers & Committees FELLOWS/PRIZES

Fellows Rahman Prize • Wanda Andreoni, IBM Zurich Research Laboratory David Vanderbilt • Vasily Bulatov, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory • Hai-Ping Cheng, University of Florida Metropolis • Stephen Fahy, University College Cork • Joseph Feldman, Naval Research Lab Prize • Guang-Yu Guo, National Taiwan University Joseph Barranco • Henri Jansen, Oregon State University • John Moriarty, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory • Jorge Piekarewicz, Florida State University • Cyrus Umrigar, Cornell University • Jian-Sheng Wang, National University of Singapore

New Business: Education Initiatives At its annual meeting in Baltimore, the Executive Committee decided to explore possible educational programs for the next March Meeting in particular and the Division in general. A student program at MM07 will require proposals to the funding agencies for travel and other support by late summer or early fall. Therefore, DCOMP needs to select a format and begin planning very soon. The Committee asked that I coordinate this initiative. I would greatly appreciate suggestions and help with this project from the membership. Last year, the idea of an undergraduate session at the MM had considerable support. Some members expressed interest in a Sunday plenary session in the style of the CCP-DCOMP meeting in Los Angeles or a Conference Experience for Undergraduates in a style similar to DAMOP and DNP, which would coordinate student activities over the whole DCOMP MM program. Contact: Lee Collins, [email protected], (505) 667-2100.

June 18–23, 2006 July 31–August 11, 2006 September 19–22, 2006 2006 Gordon Research Conference 2006 Summer School on Computa- 11th Nanoquanta Workshop on on Correlated Electron Systems tional Materials Science: Ab Initio Electronic Excitations: a decade of Molecular Dynamics Simulation applications of the Bethe–Salpeter June 19–23, 2006 Methods in Chemistry Equation Mineral Physics with Computation Protein folding and misfolding: August 6–19, 2006 and Experiment Bringing theory close to experiment Summer School on Advanced Ther- and vice versa June 23–25, 2006 mostructural Materials September 26–29, 2006 18th Annual Workshop on Recent August 13–26, 2006 Developments in Electronic Structure Theory of single molecule force Methods Summer School on Techniques of experiments and simulations Surface Sciences and Catalysis June 26–28, 2006 October 2–4, 2006 August 20–25, 2006 Patchy Colloids, Proteins and Net- Conference on Computational Mag- work Forming Liquids: Analogies International Symposium on Materi- netism and Spintronics and new insights from computer als Issues in Hydrogen Production simulations and Storage October 4–6, 2006 Symposium on Materials Issues in Polymer Surfaces And Interfaces July 9–14, 2006 Hydrogen Production and Storage at M2S–HTSC VIII–8th International UCSB October 8–10, 2006 Conference on Materials and Mecha- 53rd Midwest Solid State Conference nisms of Superconductivity High August 27–September 11, Temperature Superconductors 2006 October 18–20, 2006 Psi–k/NANOQUANTA School and Multiscale modeling of soft and bio- July 10–22, 2006 Workshop on Time–Dependent Den- logical matter Bangalore Summer School on sity–Functional Theory: Prospects Electronic Structure Methods and and Applications October 25–28, 2006 their Applications in conjunction Simulations of novel carbon materials with Conference on Computational August 27–September 8, 2006 Materials Theory School on Electronic Structure Calcu- November 13–17, 2006 lations and Correlated Materials Simulating matter at the nano–scale July 10–13, 2006 using density–functional theory, pseu- Hybrid Atomistic Methods for Mate- August 29–31, 2006 dopotentials and plane waves rials and Biological Systems Computational aspects of building blocks, nucleation, and synthesis of December 18–20, 2006 July 12–14, 2006 porous materials Inelastic effects in transport at the Dynamics Days Asia Pacific 4 atomic scale (DDAP4): 4th International Confer- September 11–15, 2006 Catalysis from First Principles ence on Nonlinear Science Promote your event: July 18–21, 2006 September 14–16, 2006 The Materials Computation Center (UIUC) maintains a web listing of Heat transfer simulation at the atomic Models and Theory for Molecular events at http://www.mcc.uiuc.edu/ scale: new challenges for the future Magnetism news/events/, with instructions on July 30–August 12, 2006 how to submit your event’s details. Summer School on Porous Materials

Newsletter of the Division of Computational Physics • American Physical Society • www.aps.org/units/dcomp • Summer 2006 • Page