Issue 1, 2014
Issue 1, 2012
The 226 applications for this year's Nordita fellowships were evaluated and ranked by the three Nordic Research Committees and by the Nordita faculty. We would like to take this opportunity to thank committee members for their time and continuing commitment to Nordita. The six fellowships that were awarded are listed below, in alphabetical order, along with their current affiliation and field of research. The new Nordita Fellows will be arriving in Fall 2012.
At its last meeting, the Nordita board appointed Professor Bengt Gustafsson Nordita Corresponding Fellow for three years. Bengt is Professor Emeritus at Uppsala University and has visited Nordita on a regular basis during the past year to work on the radial structure of newly forming stars. As a Corresponding Fellow, Bengt wants to engage himself in three major activities and plans to organize meetings and other activities. First of all, he wants to organize a meeting on the early evolution of the Sun and solar-like stars. Such a meeting would allow a broader exposure of the topic to the Nordic community. Second, he plans to bring together people from the Nordic countries who work on topics related to the star-disk coupling between the proto-Sun and the surrounding disk. The coupling determines the star?s spin-down with implications for turbulent mixing and lithium evolution in the star. Finally, the solar-terrestrial connection is an area where there is great expertise in the Nordic countries and where Bengt envisages establishing a forum for discussion and Nordic collaboration through visits and mini-workshops.
In 2012 Nordita will once again arrange a one-week summer school in physics for undergraduate students from the Nordic and Baltic countries. The school will be held at Danhostel Hillerød; Nordisk Lejrskole & Kursuscenter in Hillerød, a picturesque suburb north of Copenhagen, Denmark. The school aims at introducing frontier areas of physics research at a level understandable for undergraduate students, and to stimulate their interest in further studies. It gives a unique possibility for students to meet outstanding scientists both in class and in an informal atmosphere.
The following five series of lectures, each of four hours, will be given. The lectures will be accompanied by group exercises and discussion sessions.
The 2012 Nordita MasterClass is organized by Paolo DiVecchia and Dhrubaditya Mitra.
Nordita is looking to fill a one-year postdoctoral position funded by a grant from the Swedish Research Council awarded to Assistant Professor Dhrubaditya Mitra.
Nordita is interested in being the host institution for grants under this Swedish Research Council program for a limited number of highly qualified applicants in theoretical physics and related areas, whose research interests are well matched to ongoing work at the institute. Nordita can co-sponsor grants by contributing to the salary of the Principal Investigator and providing research facilities.
February 27 ? March 23, 2012
This program focuses on the different methods for modeling the dynamics of biomolecular systems, ranging from force-field based all-atom representation of individual biomolecules to coarse-grained models for multi-component systems. In particular, the link between these 'complementary' modelling approaches, which cover distinct length and time scales, is of central interest.
April 16 ? May 11, 2012
In this program we gather scientists working on the subject to study: (a) Techniques and algorithms that are developed using statistical mechanics to process high dimensional data. These include, but are not restricted to, various exact and approximate algorithms used for ?tting statistical models, Bayesian inference and sampling methods. (b) The biology of information processing in organisms, importantly in large scale neuronal networks. This part involves both experimental and theoretical work. (c) The application of statistical mechanics techniques for analyzing high-throughput experimental data collected form neuronal and genetic networks and the implementation of learning and inference algorithms in biological systems
Coordinators: John Hertz, Peter Latham, Yasser Roudi
28 May ? 22 June 2012
The program is dedicated to the present and future phenomenological impact of the first years of results from the Large Hadron Collider experiments at CERN. The aim is to have a very active scientific environment with theorists and experimentalists discussing the latest results and investigating future directions.
Coordinators: Paolo Di Vecchia, Sten Hellman, Francesco Sannino, Kimmo Tuominen, Chris Kouvaris, Claudio Pica
March 28 ? 30, 2012
This workshop is the third one in a series which has been initiated in 2010 at Nordita. The first two editions in 2010 and 2011 were highly appreciated by the participants, what encouraged us to continue, in order to provide a ?forum? where scientists in the Nordic countries working in the area of Statistical Physics can meet regularly. The workshop series brings together experts interested in the broad spectrum of timely problems in (classical) Statistical Physics, ranging from fundamental aspects in the theory of non-equilibrium processes to modern applications in biophysics.
Coordinators: Ralf Eichhorn, Alberto Imparato
May 23 ? 26, 2012
The meeting aims to extend the reach of statistical mechanics from satisfiability to unsatisfiability, and the eventual connection to glasses.
Coordinators: Mikko Alava, Erik Aurell, Ralf Eichhorn, Pekka Orponen
June 27 ? 29, 2012
The workshop focuses on non-locality in quantum foundations, quantum information, and quantum gravity, including string theory and emergent gravity. The aim of the workshop is to bring together researchers working on various aspects of non-locality, to identify commonalities as well as differences in the role non-locality plays in different approaches to a fundamental description of space, time and matter.
Coordinator: Sabine Hossenfelder
The next Nordita Board meeting will take place in Oslo on May 24 - 25, 2012.
→ Link to electronic preprints: www.nordita.org/preprints
The following preprints have been posted to the Nordita on-line archive since the last newsletter issue:
If you have information about meetings or other items that would be useful to include in Nordita News, please send it to Anne Jifält, Nordita, email: anne@kth.se.
For back issues of the Nordita newsletter, see www.nordita.org/news/nordita_news/available_issues.