Workshop A : Ab initio and density functional methods for designing new materials for solar energy conversion and storage

A lot of novel materials can be generated and screened by their computed properties even before their synthesis, focusing experiments on the most promising candidates and exploring rapidly new generation of materials for solar energy conversion including batteries for storage. Computational method Ab initio computation, which allows parameter free calculations real materials at the atomic level and focuses on the understanding and the design of new materials with superior properties and functionalities, has proven its merit. The progress over the last 20 years is largely due to the success of density-functional theory (DFT). Thus these calculations can be applied to all condensed matter systems, ranging from metals, semiconductors and insulators to complicated nanostructures.The workshop provides a forum for researchers and students working on ab initio density functional electronic structure theory and designing new materials for solar cells and storage.

Submission:

See IRSEC’14 submission page: http://med-space.org/irsec14/submission/.
On your submission in easychair system, please use the Topic : “Workshop A : Ab initio and density functional methods for designing new materials for solar energy conversion and storage”.

Workshop Chairs:

Biography of Prof. Abdelilah Benyoussef

Abdelilah Benyoussef carried out his “Doctorat d’état” studies on the spin glass phase in disordered and frustrated magnetic systems at the university of Paris Orsay and the “Commissariat de l’énergie Atomique” (CEA) in Paris, France, where he received his “Doctorat d’état” degree in 1983.
Abdelilah Benyoussef, is a full professor in the physics department of the Faculty of science in Mohammed V University, since 1987. He is a permanent member of the Moroccan Hassan II Academy of Science and Technology, since 2006. He is associate professor in the materials and nanomaterials center of the Moroccan Foundation for Advanced Science, Innovation and Research. He is National coordinator of the Competences Pole of Condensed Matter and Systems Modeling. He is also an editor in chief of the Moroccan Journal of Condensed Matter. He is President of the Moroccan Society of Statistical Physics and Condensed Matter. He has been visiting professor in many research centers, laboratories and Universities in Belgium, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, Tunisia, and United states.
The main interest topics of Abdelilah Benyoussef are Ab initio calculation and Monte carlo method in modeling and simulation of new materials for renewable energy; Magnetism and phase transition in condensed matter; complex systems and critical self organization in statistical physics.

Biography of Prof. Sabre Kais

In 1989, Prof. Kais received his Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from the Hebrew University. After a postdoctoral appointment at Harvard University 1989-1994, he joined the Chemistry Department at Purdue in 1994 as an Assistant Professor. Since 2002, he has been a full professor of Chemical Physics. He received the National Science Foundation Career Award in 1997. He was also awarded the Purdue University Faculty Scholar Award (2004-2009), and the Guggenheim Fellowship Award (2005). In 2007, Prof. Kais was the Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2012, he received the Sigma Xi Research Award. He has courtesy professorship appointments at both the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Physics at Purdue and Chief Scientist at Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute. He is a former director of the NSF center Quantum Information for Quantum Chemistry (QIQC) and external professor at Santa Fe Institute. He has published over 160 peer-reviewed papers and served on the editorial board of several chemistry and physics journals. His research focuses on electronic structure and dynamics of quantum systems, quantum criticality and dimensional scaling, quantum information and computation, stability of matter in external fields and quantum transport.