The Thomas Young Centre: Towards a Shared Vision of Materials Modelling in London

计算科学已经成为科学的第三大支柱，是理论和实验的补充和延伸。在材料科学中，计算科学是一种特别强大的方法，为材料的结构和功能提供了基本的见解，例如催化剂的性能，纳米粒子的性质，极端条件下液体的行为，如地核，新材料的设计等等。伦敦现在是这个非常广泛的跨学科领域公认的国际卓越中心；材料学材料理论与模拟的领域。认识到这种卓越的高度集中和对材料模拟的共同兴趣，伦敦材料建模社区于2006年聚集在一起建立了托马斯杨中心。Thomas Young中心是一个涵盖伦敦所有材料建模小组的伞形组织，其目的是通过组织联合研讨会和讨论会议等方式，为伦敦现有的建模活动增加价值。在此，托马斯·杨中心的六个核心小组建议在这些基础上建立和管理共同的国际学生交流和访问项目。具体来说，我们建议：(i)进行144周的大三学生（学生和博士后）合作交流，包括与世界顶级材料建模实验室进行双向国际交流，并参观国家高性能计算机中心；（ii）由世界知名学者对伦敦进行为期36周的重点访问。拟议的以人为本的活动的主要目的是：(i)进一步加强伦敦材料建模小组之间的联系；加强与最优秀的国际集团的联系；（iii）提高我们的研究质素，从而推动我们所参与的若干EPSRC资助项目的目标。计划中的交流和访问计划将不可避免地加强现有的合作，开辟新的合作，并不断保持伦敦epsrc支持的建模学生和其他人在重要的和真正跨学科的材料理论和模拟领域的新技术和发展。这个自下而上的项目来自伦敦的材料建模社区，将促进我们目前资助的EPSRC研究活动的进展。此外，它还带来了一个独特的机会，可以引入一系列以人为本的方案，这些方案有可能为我们的以人为本的活动带来一个台阶的变化，并以此将伦敦置于世界范围内材料建模社区的中心舞台。

Computational science has become the third pillar of science, complementing and extending theory and experiment. In materials science computational science is a particularly powerful approach, providing fundamental insight into the structure and function of materials, such as the performance of catalysts, the properties of nanoparticles, the behaviour of liquids under extreme conditions like those of the earth's core, the design of new materials, and so on. London is now a recognised international centre of excellence in this very broad interdisciplinary field ; the field of the theory and simulation of materials. Recognising this high concentration of excellence and a shared interest in the simulation of materials, the London-based materials modelling community came together in 2006 to establish the Thomas Young Centre. The Thomas Young Centre is an umbrella organisation embracing all materials modelling groups in London, with the aim of adding value to London's existing modelling activities through, for example, the organisation of joint seminars and discussion meetings.Here, six core groups of the Thomas Young Centre propose to build upon these foundations by establishing and administering common international student exchange and visitor programmes. Specifically we propose: (i) 144 weeks of junior (student and post-doc) collaborative exchanges involving two-way international exchanges with the world's top materials modelling laboratories and visits to national high performance computer centres; and (ii) 36 weeks of focused visits by distinguished world-leading academics to London. The main aims of the people-based activities being proposed are: (i) to further strengthen the ties between London's materials modelling groups; (ii) to strengthen their ties with the best international groups; and (iii) to enhance the quality of our own research and in so-doing advance the aims and objectives of several specific EPSRC funded projects that we are involved in. The planned exchange and visitor schemes will inevitably strengthen existing collaborations, open up new ones, and continually keep London-based EPSRC-supported modelling students and others a breast of new techniques and developments in the important and truly interdisciplinary field of the theory and simulation of materials. This bottom-up project, coming from London's materials modelling community, will enhance the progress of several of our currently funded EPSRC research activities. In addition it brings the unique opportunity to introduce a range of people-based schemes with the potential to bring about a step change in our people-based activities, and in so-doing place London at centre-stage in the world-wide materials modelling community.