Wide backgrounds enrich school experience

1. Summer School on Computational Materials ScienceProviding education on frontier research techniques The two-week Summer School series offers lectures by innovative scientists and provides hands-on computer lab experience with specialized software, often led by the software developers themselves. WHY IT MATTERS: The Summer Schools are a centralized place for learning new methods, speaking one-on-one with experts, and identifying potential collaborators. By distributing knowledge from large institutions to others, our School supplements the educational experience at smaller institutions and keeps a larger number of young researchers competitive. On a follow-up survey, 90% of respondents said they expect to have science-related discussions with another participant or instructor in the future.

2. Wide backgrounds enrich school experience • Participants are selected to achieve variety and balance between: • Students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty • Small and large schools, and national research labs • Domestic and international applicants • Primary area of study (geology and physics) • Within the framework of choosing appropriate and diverse participants, the admission committee offers additional support to 1) students and faculty at smaller state institutions, and 2) women and under-represented minorites.

3. Benefits of the summer school series are not limited to local participants. The schools have a broader impact through 1) web archives and 2) remote participation. Scientists who cannot attend due to timing or space constraints can access the website’s presentation slides, input/output files, and video lectures. Web archives Each year, the school generates ~30 hours of video and 500+ pages of lecture notes, computer executable files and software tutorials. The web archives are available within a few weeks after the school, compared with up to two years for printed conference proceedings. Remote participation The on-site computer labs are at maximum capacity, but more students can participate via the Access Grid, an international network of 200 audio-video enabled meeting rooms and computer labs. Remote participation offers a two-way dialogue.

4. 2007 Summer School on Computational Materials ScienceQuantum Monte Carlo: From Minerals and Materials to MoleculesUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign • July 9–19, 2007 SUMMARY This school brings together scientists from the fields of geophysics, physics, chemistry, as well as materials science, to learn about Quantum Monte Carlo methods and their applications to geophysical materials. Videorecordings of lectures, handouts, and computer input files are available at: http://www.mcc.uiuc.edu/summerschool/2007/qmc/ SPONSORS • National Science Foundation • Materials Computation Center, UIUC •  Carnegie Institution of Washington • National Center for Supercomputing Applications, UIUC • Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, UIUC • Computational Science and Engineering Program, UIUC Sponsoring awards: NSF-EAR 05-30643, NSF-EAR 05-30282, and NSF-DMR 03-25939 INSTRUCTORS • Dario Alfe, University College London • Michele Casula, University of Illinois • David Ceperley, University of Illinois* • Ronald Cohen, Carnegie Institution of Washington* • Neil Drummond, University of Cambridge • Ken Esler, Carnegie Institution of Washington • Claudia Filippi, Universiteit Leiden • Nigel Goldenfeld, University of Illinois • Richard Hennig, Cornell University • Susan Kieffer, University of Illinois • Jeongnim Kim, University of Illinois* • Pablo Lopez Rios, University of Cambridge • Nancy Makri, University of Illinois • Burkhard Militzer, Carnegie Institution of Washington* • Lubos Mitas, North Carolina State University • Rob Pennington, University of Illinois • Lars Stixrude, University of Michigan • Cyrus Umrigar, Cornell University • Shiwei Zhang, College of William and Mary * Organizing committee