IOP Groups
Group News
2006
Recent Past Events
10th Physics by the Lake Summer School
St Martin's College, Ambleside, Cumbria 3-15 September 2006.
Applications are now being invited for the 10th EPSRC/Theory of Condensed Matter Summer School "Physics by the Lake", which is organised by the TCM group. Numbers are limited so register promptly. Details and registration form are available at the school web site.
CMMP 2006
Exeter, 20-21 April 2006
The group oversaw the organisation of a number of symposia at the conference, including:
Biophysics (organiser: Martin Howard, Imperial)
Soft matter physics (Suzanne Fielding, Manchester)
Statistical physics and non-equilibrium phenomena (Mike Swift, Nottingham)
Theory and simulation of biological and nanoscale systems (Ian Morrison, Salford)
School on Counting Statistics/International Conference Nanoelectronics
Lancaster University, 8-11 January 2006
Organisers: H Schomerus, V Cheianov (both Lancaster), G Bauer (Delft), CWJ Beenakker (Leiden)
Both activities were held at the Conference Centre, Lancaster University and were attended by 108 registered participants from more than 30 nations.
The scientific program comprised 8 lectures, 47 oral presentations and 36 posters, and covered a large range of exciting scientific advances in a variety of subfields of condensed-matter physics, including: quantum dynamics and transport, counting statistics, noise and mesoscopic quantum-optics, spin-dependent transport and hybrid SF structures, edge states and quantum-Hall systems, and ultra-thin graphitic films.
A detailed description of the scientific program is contained in the conference booklet, which also includes the abstracts of all presentations. The booklet and further documentation can be found on a dedicated web page.
Group sponsorship was used for room hire and towards the expenses of some international speakers.
2005
Annual Group Meeting, 2005
University of Warwick, Monday 19 December 2005
The Annual Scientific meeting was attended by approximately 80 members, who heard talks by:
John Cardy (Oxford) - The fractal geometry of 2d critical phenomena
Tom Mcleish (Leeds) - Brownian motion as an information channel within protein molecules
Patrick Bruno (Halle) - Geometric and topological phases in anisotropic spin systems
Andrew Green (St Andrews) - Non-linear response close to a quantum critical point
There was also a poster session. The student poster prize was won by Mahrous Ahmed (Sheffield).
The meeting incorporated the TCM group AGM, which included elections to the committee. William Barford (Sheffield) and Fabian Essler (Oxford) were both elected unanimously onto the committee. They replace Julia Yeomans (Oxford) and Andrea Ferrante (Unilever), whose periods of office had both ended. Contact details for all committee members are available on the committee page.
More details available at http://theory.warwick.ac.uk/events/iop2005/
9th Physics by the Lake Summer School
St Martin's College, Ambleside, Cumbria 4-16 September 2005
The 9th EPSRC/IOP Theory of Condensed Matter Summer School "Physics by the Lake", organised by Dr Chris Hooley (St Andrews) and Dr Richard Blythe (Edinburgh) was attended by around 50 students. Our thanks to all those who contributed to the success of the school:
Lecturers:
Dr James Annett - superconductivity and superfluidity
Dr Mike Swift - statistical physics
Prof Peter King - industrial applications of statistical physics
Dr Ian Morrison- electronic structure
Prof Angus MacKinnon- mesoscopics and quantum transport
Prof. Philip Russell - photonics
Prof John Chalker - strongly correlated systems
Dr Mike Evans - soft matter and complex fluids
Dr Graeme Ackland -computer simulation
Seminar speakers:
Chris Hooley (St Andrews): The Kondo effect: ancient and modern
Martin Howard (Imperial): Statistical mechanics of cell division
Richard Blythe (Edinburgh): Stochastic dynamics and phase transitions
Jim Hague (Loughborough): Electron-phonon Interactions: An Alternate View of Strong Correlation
Martin Greenall (Edinburgh): Mode-Coupling Theory of the Liquid-Glass Transition
Ian Ford (UCL): Good and Bad Aerosols and Where They Come From
Simon Benjamin (Oxford): Quantum Computing: Narrowing the Gap Between Theory and Experiment
Tutors
Richard Blythe, Chris Hooley, Jim Hague, Martin Howard
http://www.physicsbythelake.org/
2004
Field Theory of Quantum Coherence, Correlations and Mesoscopics
Windsor Great Park, 9-22 August, 2004
The Group co-sponsored this School. Details are available at http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/esqn/windsor04/
Annual Group Meeting, 2004
University of Warwick, 17 December 2004
The Annual Scientific meeting and AGM was held in Warwick on 17 December.
The speakers were:
Fabian Essler (Oxford): Weakly coupled 1D Mott insulators
Jean-Francois Joanny (Paris): Active gels: physics of cell motion
James Annett (Bristol): Dynamical mean fields and dynamical clusters for strocngly interacting Fermi systems
Boris Mouzykantskii (Warwick): Non-equilibrium Fermi gas as a Riemann-Hilbert problem
There was also a poster session, and the TCM student poster prize was won by David Hardwick (Nottingham) for his poster "Effect of stochastic webs on the electron transport and charge domain structure of superlattices"
CCP9 Conference
Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington, 29-30 November 2004
Organisers: James Annett, Walter Temmermann
The TCM group co-sponsored this meeting, at which Matthias Scheffler was presented the Max Born Prize Lecture.
8th Physics by the Lake Summer School
St Martin's College, Ambleside, Cumbria, 29 August-10 September 2004.
The 8th EPSRC/IOP Theory of Condensed Matter Summer School "Physics by the Lake", organised by Dr Simon Crampin (Bath), was attended by 52 students, coming from most UK physics departments as well as students from Australia and Sweden. Our thanks to all those who contributed to the success of the school:
Lecturers:
Dr James Annett - superconductivity
Dr Martin Evans - statistical physics
Prof Peter King - applications of statistical physics
Dr Ian Morrison - electronic structure
Prof Angus MacKinnon - mesoscopics
Prof Philip Russell - photonics
Dr Nick d'Ambrumenil - strongly correlated systems
Prof Julia Yeomans - soft condensed matter
Dr Graeme Ackland - computational modelling
Seminar speakers:
Chris Hooley (Birmingham) Renaissance of the Kondo effect
Richard Blythe (Manchester) Equilibrium and non-equilibrium phase transitions
Ed McCann (Lancaster) Simple model of carbon nanotubes
Guilia Iori (Kings College London) Beyond Robinson Crusoe economics: some ideas from statistical mechanics
Mike Evans (Leeds) The many faces of non-equilibrium liquids
Vickram Tripati (Cambridge) Magnetic impurities in almost magnetic metals
Jorge Quintanilla (Birmingham) Optical lattices: "crystals of light"?
Tutors
Richard Blythe, Ed McCann, Chris Hooley, Jim Hague
The Ambleside college once lived up to its excellent reputation, and the Lake District weather got its worst over on the first night, giving students opportunity in the free time to enjoy the great natural beauty of the area. http://www.bath.ac.uk/physics/summer/
Field Theory of Quantum Coherence, Correlations and Mesoscopics
Windsor Great Park, 9-22 August, 2004
The Group co-sponsored this School. Details are available at http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/esqn/windsor04/
CMMP 2004
University of Warwick, 4-7 April 2004
The group played an active role in this conference. We oversaw the organisation of four symposia:
Electronic structure (organiser: Dr Simon Crampin, Bath)
Mesoscopic systems (Prof Volodya Falko, Lancaster)
Statistical physics and soft condensed matter (Prof Alan Bray, Manchester)
Strongly correlated electron systems (Prof James Annett, Bristol)
As well as sponsoring the visit of Prof Aleiner (Columbia University, USA) to the UK during which he spoke at the Quantum Transport symposium coorganised by Volodya Falko.
Further details at http://www.cmmp04.org
2003
Annual Group Meeting
University of Warwick, 17 December 2003
This was an opportunity for members and non-members interested in Condensed Matter Theory to meet and hear talks from four distinguished invited speakers. Poster presentations were also made.
Prof Gabriel Aeppli (UCL), Entanglement in simple magnets and how to measure it
Prof John Chalker (Oxford), Bosonic excitations in random media
Dr Martin Howard (Imperial), Statistical mechanics of accurate cell division in bacteria
Prof Nic Harrison (Daresbury), The thermodynamics of the gas surface interface from firsy principles
The TCM Poster Prize was won by Chistopher Jones (Warwick). Well done!
The following were elected to serve on the group committee:
Prof Andy Schofield (Birmingham)
Dr Martin Evans (Edinburgh)
Dr Derek Lee (Imperial)
They replace the following, who stand down from the committee:
Prof Mark Warner (Cambridge)
Dr Nic d'Ambrumenil (Warwick)
Dr Martin Long (Birmingham)
7th Physics by the Lake Summer School
St Martin's College, Ambleside, Cumbria 31 August -12 September 2003.
The 7th EPSRC/IOP Theory of Condensed Matter Summer School "Physics by the Lake", organised by Dr Martin Evans (Edinburgh), was once again a great success. The postgraduate school was attended by 52 theorists and 15 experimentalists; 51 EPSRC-funded students, 13 UK-based non EPSRC students and 2 overseas students and 1 other. Attendees came from most UK physics departments. The Ambleside location was once again a popular location due to its great natural beauty, whilst St Martin's College acted as excellent hosts. On behalf of the Group, many thanks to Martin and all those concerned.
Lecturers:
Dr James Annett - superconductivity
Dr Martin Evans - statistical physics
Prof Peter King - applications of statistical physics
Dr Ian Morrison- electronic structure
Prof Angus MacKinnon- mesoscopics
Prof Philip Russell - photonics
Prof John Chalker - correlated quantum systems
Prof Julia Yeomans - soft condensed matter
Dr Graeme Ackland - computational modelling
Seminar speakers:
Richard Blythe (Manchester) Equilibrium and non-equilibrium phase transitions
Ed McCann (Lancaster) Simple model of carbon nanotubes
Geoff Rogers (Brunel) The WWW as a complex network
Elham Kashefi (Oxford) Quantum Computation
Patrick Warren (Unilever) Systems biology from a physicist's perspective
Chris Hooley (Birmingham) Renaissance of the Kondo effect
Tutors:
Richard Blythe, Ed McCann, Chris Hooley, Andrew Green, Yong Mao
Hidden Symmetries in Strongly Correlated Electron Systems and Low Dimensional Field Theories
King's College London , 8-12 July 2003.
The TCM group co-sponsored this workshop.
Organisers: James Annett, Simon Hands, Nikolaos Mavromatos, Sarben Sarkar
2002
Annual Group Meeting
University of Loughborough, 17 December 2002
This was an opportunity for members and non-members interested in Condensed Matter Theory to meet and hear talks from four distinguished invited speakers. Poster presentations were also made.
Prof Daniel Khomskii (University of Groningen), Frustrations and Orbital Ordering
Prof Antonio Bianconi (University of Rome "La Sapienza"), Self organization of doped charges driven by microstrain: strings and striped phases in strongly correlated cuprates at high doping
Dr Mike Evans (University of Leeds), Colloidal gels: structure and dynamics of "Torpid Matter"
Dr Chris Pickard (University of Cambridge), Nonlocal pseudopotentials in electromagnetic fields: theory and applications
Poster prizes were won by Rachel Strong (Cambridge) and Paul Guest (Birmingham). Well done!
The following were elected to serve on the group committee:
Prof Ben Simons (Cambridge) (Chair)
Prof Nic Harrison (Imperial/Daresbury)
Prof Volodya Falko (Lancaster)
They replace the following, who stand down from the committee:
Prof Peter King (Imperial) (Chair)
Prof Andrew Parry (Imperial)
Dr Peter Maksym (Leicester)
6th Physics by the Lake Summer School
St Martin's College, Ambleside, Cumbria 1-13 September 2002.
The 6th EPSRC/IOP Theory of Condensed Matter Summer School "Physics by the Lake", organised by Dr Julia Yeomans (Oxford), was once again a great success. The postgraduate school was attended by around 55 theorists and 9 experimentalists; 48 EPSRC-funded students, 7 UK-based non EPSRC students and 9 overseas students. Attendees came from most UK physics departments. The Ambleside location was once again a popular location due to its great natural beauty, whilst St Martin's College acted as excellent hosts.
Lecturers included:
Dr James Annett - superconductivity
Dr Martin Evans - statistical physics
Prof Peter King - applications of statistical physics
Dr Carla Molteni - electronic structure
Dr Boris Muzykantskii - mesoscopics
Prof Philip Russell - photonics
Dr Nic d'Ambrumenil - strongly correlated systems
Dr Julia Yeomans - soft condensed matter
Dr Andrew Asmour - decoherence
Seminar speakers:
Dr Patrick Warren (Unilever) - The physics of surfactant dissolution
Prof Anna Balazs (Pittsburgh) - Nano and Micron scale patterning of polymer systems
Dr Mclean-Inglis (Blackwell Publishing) - Journal Publishing
Rebecca Haskins (EPSRC) - EPSRC Fellowships
Prof Mike Gunn - Atom traps and Bose Einstein Condensation
2001
Annual Group Meeting
University of Warwick, Monday 17 December 2001
This was an opportunity for members and non-members interested in Condensed Matter Theory to meet and hear talks from four distinguished invited speakers. Poster presentations were also made.
(The meeting was moved from the usual May-June date because CMMP has moved from December to the Spring).
Programme:
10.30 Registration/Coffee
11.00 Prof Mike Cates, University of Edinburgh
Kinetic pathway of spontaneous vesicle formation
11.50 Prof Steven Louie, UC Berkeley
Theory of superconductivity in MgB2
12.40 Lunch
14.00 Dr Ben Simons, University of Cambridge
Quantised adiabatic charge transport in carbin nanotubes
14.50 Posters, tea at 15.30
16.00 Dr Alan Tennant, RAL and Oxford University
Neutrons, Fileds and the Many-Bodied Problem
16.50 Close
The Student Poster Prize was won by Iain Styles (Birmingham)
Local Organiser: Prof Robin Ball
Scientific Organiser: Dr Kim Christensen (Imperial)
Physics by the Lake Summer School 2001
St Martin's College, Ambleside, Cumbria 2-14 September 2001
The latest EPSRC/IOP Theory of Condensed Matter Summer School "Physics by the Lake" was a great success. This was the fifth in the current series of postgraduate schools, attended by around 50 students typically at the end of their first year of research. Attendees came from most UK physics departments (both theorists and experimentalists). The Ambleside location is one of great natural beauty, proving extremely popular with students, whilst St Martin's College act as excellent hosts.
Speakers included:
Dr James Annett - superconductivity
Dr Martin Evans - statistical physics
Prof Peter King - applications of statistical physics
Dr Carla Molteni - electronic structure
Dr Boris Muzykantskii - mesoscopics
Prof Philip Russell - photonics
Dr Andy Schofield - strongly correlated systems
Dr Patrick Warren - soft condensed matter
2000
Condensed Matter Theory at CMMP 2000
The CMMP 2000 conference held in Bristol on 19-21 December featured several events of interest to condensed matter theorists. The TCM group is affiliated to the IOP CMMP Division, who organised the conference, and the group played an active part in organising/chairing symposia at the meeting.
Three of the plenary talks were given by prominent condensed matter theorists.
Walter Kohn, who has made many key contributions to condensed matter physics and chemistry, especially to the development of density functional theory.These achievements led to his receipt of the 1998 Nobel prize for Chemistry.
Per Bak, best known as the originator of the concept of Self-Organised Criticality, which he has pursued in applications to systems as diverse as earthquakes, sand piles and the stock market.
John Chalker, the Mott lecturer, who has made many contributions to the theory of strongly correlated systems and the quantum Hall effect.
The Theory of Condensed Matter group organised three symposia at the conference:
Statistical Physics (featuring invited talks by Tom Duke and Paul Higgs), Electronic Structure (including an invited talk by M Rohlfing of Muenster University) and Strongly Correlated and Mesoscopic Systems.
As a special event, the conference included a Volker Hein symposium in honour of Volker's 70'th birthday. There was also a special dinner associated with this event.
Finally, the student day on the day preceding the main conference featured introductory talks aimed particularly at PhD students. Two were of particular interest to TCM group members: Geoff Rodgers spoke on Self-Organised Criticality, and Keith Benedict on New States of Matter in Two Dimensions.
There will be no CMMP 2001 conference. Instead, the meeting is moving to April 2002 (and the conference series will continue in the April slot), and will be run as a joint conference with the EPS Condensed Matter Division conference, to be held in Brighton.
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