Graduate student Julia Rossi who works with Professor Calvin Johnson got to go on an exciting trip to Italy this past summer 2012 to attend a seminar on Theoretical Nuclear Physics.  The entire trip was funded by Calvin Johnson.

Nuclear Talent: Doctoral School on Computational Many-Body Methods for Nuclear Physics at ECT* from June 24-July 14, 2012

“The doctoral school course on computational methods ran at the European Center for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas (ECT*) in Trento, Italy in collaboration with the University of Trento starting June 24 and ending July 14 in 2012. The main aim of the doctoral program was to learn how to solve complicated quantum many-body problems using advanced numerical methods. During the three week course, I completed two many-body solvers. The first solver used Variational Monte Carlo methods highlighting theoretical aspects such as the Central Limit Theorem, covariance, auto-correlation functions, error estimates and blocking. The second Schrödinger’s equation solver for many interacting particles was a Configuration Interaction (CI) Shell Model program using large-scale diagonalization methods. The doctoral school was an extraordinary experience to learn from esteemed professors Morten Hjorth-Jensen (Michigan State University and University of Oslo), Calvin Johnson (San Diego State University), Francesco Pederiva (University of Trento) and Kevin Schmidt (Arizona State University) and meet international nuclear physics students. The doctoral school was a pivotal opportunity for me to learn advanced computational methods and theoretical approaches for many-body problems to use in future research.”