Annual Report 2007 - The Australian Nanotechnology Network

3. WORKSHOP KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
B.1 Professor Richard Needs
Professor John Dobson
B.3 Associate Professor Mike Ford
Professor Richard Needs is a Professor in the Theory of Condensed Matter Group of the
Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University, UK.Richard has been researching the
electronic properties of materials since 1983. He has worked on a wide range of complex
systems such as surfaces, interfaces, defects, and clusters, mainly studying structural
properties, including phase transitions and excitation energies. He has used a variety of
computational techniques, including density functional theory methods, many-body
perturbation theory and quantum Monte Carlo methods. In recent years he has been
developing continuum fermion quantum Monte Carlo methods and applying them to
problems in condensed matter. He and his group have developed the “CASINO” quantum
Monte Carlo code which is now used in a number of groups around the world.
Professor John Dobson is with the Physics Group, Griffith University, Queensland.
John's research fields are within the area of theoretical condensed matter Physics. His
specialities are many body theory, theoretical Chemical Physics, fundamentals of Density
Functional Theory, especially time-dependent density functionals and van der Waals
density functionals. His current research projects are in the areas of van der Waals
interactions and quantal hydrodynamics for plasmon oscillations in nanostructures.
B.2 Professor Mukunda Das
Professor Mukunda Das is a Senior Fellow in the Research School of Physical
Science, ANU, Canberra, ACT.
His research work is in the general area of theoretical condensed matter physics.
Within this area his research interest includes, Mesoscopic Systems (Electron
Transport and Noise), High Temperature Superconductivity, Strongly Correlated
Electronic Systems, Density Functional Theory, Theory of Disordered States and
Bose-Einstein Condensation.
Mike Ford is Associate Professor of Nanotechnology, at the University of Technology,
Sydney (UTS) and runs the education programs at its Institute of Nanotechnology. Mike's
research background lies in experimental methods for measuring electron motion in matter
and the fundamental question of electron correlation in atoms and molecules. His current
research interests are fundamental electronic properties of materials and nano-scale
systems, electron motion and bonding in van der Waals clusters as a route to
understanding solvation chemistry, and synthesising scanning tunnelling microscope
images using quantum chemical methods.
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