Conferences / Workshops

Learn more about the conferences and collaborative workshops hosted by APAM faculty members

2022 Workshop on Recent Developments in Electronic Structure (ES22)

The 34th Annual Workshop on Recent Developments in Electronic Structure Theory will be held May 31-June 3, 2022 at Columbia University. This workshop series travels to a different institution within the US each year.

Typical scientific themes for the workshop include:

Quantum chemistry on solids

Green function techniques

Materials data

Quantum Monte Carlo

Density functional theory

Applications of machine learning to electronic structure

The planned scientific program will include ~20 invited talks, two poster sessions: in-person and virtual, and a hands-on tutorial on open-source code. The scientific level is appropriate for advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and senior scientists. The meetings will take place at International House, 500 Riverside Drive New York, NY 10027.

Workshop on Future Directions for Enabling Coastal Storm Flooding Prediction for High-Resolution Forecasts and Climate Scenarios

Kyle Mandli, Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics, hosted the Workshop on Future Directions for Enabling Coastal Storm Flooding Prediction for High-Resolution Forecasts and Climate Scenarios at Columbia University from Oct. 25-26, 2019.

The growing threat from coastal flooding is recognized as one of the most dangerous and frequent natural hazards to the world’s coastal communities. The purpose of the workshop was to both discuss the current state-of-the-art in coastal flood prediction, but also where research effort should be spent to better address the hazard. Speakers at the event, as well as a set of panels, outlined the history of the field as well as current short-comings of modeling efforts including representation of wind-waves, precipitation based flooding, and the fluid mechanics near coastal structures.

Featured speakers included Brian Blanton, Director of Environmental Initiatives and Coastal Oceanographer at the Renaissance Computing Institute and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Andrew Kennedy, a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences in the College of Engineering at the University of Notre Dame; Saeed Moghimi, a NOAA/UCAR Scientist in the Office of Coast Survey at the National Ocean Service; and Don Resio, Professor and Director of the Taylor Engineering Research Institute in the College of Computing, Engineering and Construction, at the University of North Florida. This workshop was co-sponsored by the Columbia Initiative on Extreme Weather and Climate and the APAM Department

2019 MHD Control Workshop

Gerald Navratil, the Thomas Alva Edison Professor of Applied Physics, hosted the 24th Workshop on MHD Stability Control at Columbia from October 28-30, 2019.

The workshop theme was “Key MHD Control Issues on the Path Towards a Compact Fusion Pilot Plant.” It embraced the focus of the Community Planning Process, building on the National Academy recommendation that, “the United States should start a national program of accompanying research and technology leading to the construction of a compact pilot plant that produces electricity from fusion at the lowest possible.”

Transport and localization in random media: theory and applications

Workshop on Mathematical and Physical Aspects of Topologically Protected States

Plasma Physics 50th Reunion

Faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends gathered on April 26, 2012 for the Plasma Physics Laboratory 50th Anniversary Celebration, which included some of the founding faculty of the plasma lab including Robert Gross, C.K. (John) Chu, and Amiya Sen.

The day began with a series of technical and personal reflections in Davis Auditorium. Event coordinators, Professors Gerald Navratil and Michael Mauel, welcomed the attendees and gave a brief overview of the 50-year timeline. Professor and Dean Emeritus, Bob Gross, joined in via Skype and spoke about the early days of the lab. Plasma physics alumni then took the stage to share their experiences and memories over each decade. Speakers included Don Spero (Ph.D. ‘68), Jay Kesner (Ph.D. ‘70), Don McNeil (Ph.D. ‘73), Richard Post (Ph.D. ‘73), Steve Paul (Ph.D. ‘81), Steve Sabbagh (Ph.D. ’90), Dave Gates (Ph.D. ‘94), David Maurer (Ph.D. ‘00), and Oksana Katsuro-Hopkins (Ph.D. ‘07). New APAM plasma faculty, Andrew Cole and Francesco Volpe, concluded the talks by giving brief presentations on their current research and plans for the future.  

The talks were immediately followed by a tour of the Plasma Physics Lab and a reception in the APAM Department. The day ended with dinner at Columbia’s Faculty House, where the highlight of the evening was the presentation (via Skype) of a 50-year photo history of the lab with messages signed by Plasma Lab alumni, followed by more personal reflections and fond memories from various guests.

Photos: 50 Years of the Plasma Lab (pdf)

2009 Symposium on Pure and Applied Science: Honoring 40 Years of Contributions by Richard M. Osgood, Jr.

Columbia University hosted a Symposium on Pure and Applied Science, honoring 40 years of fontributions by Professor Emeritus, Richard M. Osgood, Jr.

The event, Sponsored by the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Departments of Electrical Engineering and of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, took place on January 5, 2009, and invited speakers included Steve Brueck, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of New Mexico; Vladimir Bulovic, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, M.I.T.; Nicholas Camillone III, Brookhaven National Laboratory; Louay Eldada, HelioVolt Corporation; Erich Ippen, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, M.I.T.; Bahram Jalali, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles; Jim Misewich, Brookhaven National Laboratory; Peter Moulton, Q-Peak, Inc.; and Alan Wilner, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California.

2018 PlumbFest Symposium

APAM Professors, Lorenzo Polvani and Adam Sobel, along with Darryn Waugh from Johns Hopkins University, hosted a Symposium and Festschrift celebrating Prof. Alan Plumb’s 60th Birthday.

The symposium was held in the Davis Auditorium on Friday and Saturday, October 24-25, 2008. It ran a day and a half, and consisted of a dozen invited talks and a banquet at Tavern on the Green.

The symposium speakers included Isaac Held from GFDL/Princeton, John Marshall from M.I.T., Joan Alexander from NWRA/Boulder, Marv Geller from Stony Brook University, Lesley Gray from the University of Reading, Joanna Haigh from the Imperial College (London), Paul Newman and Mark Schoeberl from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Bill Randel from the National Center from Atmospheric Research, Ross Salawitch from the University of Maryland, and Paul Kushner and Ted Shepherd from the University of Toronto.

Prof. Plumb, the honoree at the Symposium, is a Fellow of the Royal Society (UK) and the recipient of many prizes. He is one of the world’s most eminent atmospheric scientists, and has made seminal contributions to the understanding of the ozone hole, the monsoon, and many other atmospheric phenomena. Prof. Plumb’s was Prof. Sobel’s doctoral dissertation advisor, as well as the postdoctoral supervisor of Prof. Polvani and Prof. Waugh at M.I.T.

2008 9th International Workshop on Non-Neutral Plasmas

Prof. Thomas Pedersen hosted the 9th International Workshop on Non-neutral Plasmas from June 16-20, 2008. A total of 51 physicists from all over the world (U.S., Germany, Russia, Japan and several other countries) attended the workshop, which was held in Davis Auditorium.

The field of non-neutral plasma physics, which is represented at Columbia by Prof. Thomas Pedersen’s CNT group, was founded 2 decades ago. It was therefore appropriate that the workshop concluded with a historical overview by Chuck Roberson entitled “Non-neutral plasma physics at 20”. Many interesting results were presented, including studies of dusty plasmas in zero gravity environments, progress on the effort to create, trap, and study antihydrogen, and new con- finement records in the toroidal non-neutral devices, including record long confinement in the CNT non-neutral stellarator, and even longer confinement times achieved in the Lawrence Non-neutral Torus, exceeding one second.

The workshop included a guided boat tour around Manhattan, and a guided tour of the Plasma Physics Laboratory.

2007 MHD Control Workshop

MHD Control Workshop
November 18-20, 2007
Hosted by Prof. G.A. Navratil

2006 CIG Magma Migration Conference

2002 MHD Control Workshop

MHD Control Workshop
November 18-20, 2002
Hosted by Prof. G.A. Navratil