CALIFA CONSORTIUM MEETING IN LA LAGUNA
The CALIFA collaboration will celebrate a 2nd Busy Week the 29th of November to the 2nd of December 2011 (both included). PD Dr. Dominik Bomans is going to participate in that meeting.
The main goals of this meeting are: To put in common the current status of the first generation of science articles, stimulating the collaboration between the different groups and to prepare the data release of the first data sets.
Prof. Achim von Keudell ist Chair der GRC 2016
Die Gordon Research Conferences zählen zu den renommiertesten Konferenzen überhaupt. Mit der Verpflichtung der Vortragenden über aktuelle und unpublizierte Arbeiten zu sprechen und der Verpflichtung der Teilnehmer diese Informationen vertraulich zu behandeln, zählt diese Konferenzreihe zu den spannendsten und interessantesten überhaupt. Nirgendwo sonst bekommt man mehr Einblicke in die aktuelle Entwicklung der Plasmaphysik und hat zusätzlich noch die Gelgenheit in entspannter Atmosphäre mit hochkarätigen Experten zu diskutieren.
Als Chair der GRC 2016 „Plasma with Complex Interations-Exploiting the Non-Equilibrium“ war Prof. Achim von Keudell maßgeblich an Organisation und Programmgestaltung beteiligt. Eine kleine EPII Delegation bestehend aus DoktorandInnen und einem Postdoc war ebenfalls vor Ort und konnte von dieser außergewöhlichen Konferenz profitieren.

Computational Plasma Physics at the RUB and in Copenhagen
From 22.09. to 24.09.2010 an informal meeting on Computational Plasma Physics between the working group of Prof. Dr. Rainer Grauer and Prof. Dr. Åke Nordlund (Computational Astrophysics) has been held in Copenhagen at the Niels Bohr Institute. In particular, the progress of the use of graphics card clusters in this field was discussed.
On this occasion, Martin Rieke gave an introductory talk on CUDA and solving 2D EMHD equations on graphics cards. Dr. Christian Schwarz reported on his new framework cudaHYPE and its use in parallel solving of 3D MHD equations on a GPU cluster. From the Copenhagen group, Dr. Troels Haugbølle told us about his experiences with PIC (Particle in Cell) simulations on graphics cards.
In Prof. Grauer's talk, he explained strategies for coupling kinetic and fluid systems (Vlasov/MHD coupling). Last in the lecture series, Prof. Nordlund reported on new simulation results in the field of solar physics.

Culham Plasma Physics Summer School 2010
The Research Department enabled the participation of Michael Zacharias, Tomislav Skoda, and Michal Michno in the „Culham Plasma Physics Summer School 2010“ from July 12th to July 23rd. This school was the 47th in the series organized at Culham Science Centre, near Oxford. The school was addressed to graduate and PhD students from all over the world and offered lectures in fundamental principles of plasma physics on the one hand and a broad range of applications on the other hand. The participants deepened their understanding of MHD and kinetic theory and broadened their knowledge by studying the applications in fusion, astrophysics and industrial plasmas. The lectures on space plasmas by Dr. Jonathan Eastwood from the Imperial College London and on astrophysical plasmas by Dr. Philippa Browning from the University of Manchester were of particular interest for the Research Department. There was also a lot of room for scientific exchange and the participants made valuable contacts to other researchers.
Jens Dreyer at the IceCube Collaboration Meeting
The IceCube neutrino telescope is currently the most powerful instrument for observing neutrinos from astrophysical plasmas. All scientists involved in this project are united in the IceCube Collaboration. This international collaboration meets semi-annually, in the spring in the U.S. and in the fall in Europe. The collaboration meetings are used for exchange of ideas and discussion among the members, who come from the USA, New Zealand, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium and Germany, among others. Mr. Dreyer and Mr. Olivo attended the collaboration meeting in Annapolis, Maryland, USA, from May 1 to 10, 2010. During the meeting, Mr. Dreyer presented a software project that is being conducted in Bochum at the RD. This project deals with the reprogramming and improvement of a central software component of the simulation chain of IceCube and was therefore received with great interest.
Furthermore, Mr. Dreyer was able to discuss ideas for future data analysis with many experts of the collaboration. Furthermore, Dr. Dreyer represented the interests of the Research Department within the IceCube collaboration on the Collaboration Board. Martino Olivo gave a talk on neutrino production in Gamma Ray Bursts, which was also received with great interest by the collaboration. Furthermore, Mr. Olivo was able to discuss the results of a publication dealing with neutrino production within shocked plasmas in Gamma Ray Bursts with the specialists of the IceCube collaboration.