Materials World Network: The Materials Computation Center Outreach David M. Ceperley, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, DMR This Travel Program support US capabilities, activities, and partnerships in molecular and electronic simulation. To that aim, the Travel Program offers funds for US students and early-career scientists to participate in: international workshops held in Europe and an annual American workshop focused on electronic structure. International Workshops: This year’s 60+ events focused on computational modeling in such diverse materials as: metal alloys explosives cellular and protein membranes natural & artificial DNA the atmosphere & climate Partnerships with European organizations: The primary scientific partners are CECAM and Psi-K, two organizations who host workshops at research centers in France, Germany, Austria, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Since 1989, the Annual Workshop on Recent Developments in Electronic Structure Theory brings together over 100 students, postdocs, and senior researchers to discuss computing properties of materials, breakthroughs in computational efficiency and accuracy, and strategies to apply these methods to the study of molecules, liquids, and solids. Available talk slides from previous workshops are on our website. The May 2014 workshop was organized by Profs. Marco Buongiorno Nardelli and Jincheng Du (University of North Texas) and Prof. Marco Fornari (Central Michigan University).

Materials World Network: The Materials Computation Center Outreach David M. Ceperley, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, DMR Broader impacts of participating in specialized, small, international workshops: Researchers increase abilities in cutting-edge topics. Elizabeth, a graduate student at the University of Michigan, attended Enhancing molecular simulations with PLUMED in Belfast, United Kingdom, May She wrote, "One of the poster presenters had conducted research similar to mine: looking at calcium in various membranes, and the discussion surrounding his poster was valuable for identifying possible problems with my system...Overall, the meeting has broadened my understanding of specific free energy methods and the field in general, and provided ideas for my research going ahead.” Researchers talk with experts they might never otherwise meet. Sikandar, a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, attended Simulating Soft Matter with ESPResSo in Stuttgart, Germany, October He describes, "At the meeting I got an opportunity to interact with researchers from the theory group at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany. They invited me to visit the group for a week following the meeting." Researchers share knowledge and software back in the U.S. Derek, a research scientist at Cornell University, attended LMF/QSGW Hands-On Course in Warrington, UK, March He wrote, “I direct the simulation effort at the Cornell Nanoscale Facility…To promote greater adoption of this approach in the United States, I plan to post lectures and tutorials related to this approach on the CNF webpage. I also plan make the codes available on our local computing cluster.”