NSCPHD1075 StarPlan Summer School on Computational Astrochemistry

Course description:

The PhD Summer School on Computational Astrochemistry 2015 will be held at the Center for Star and Planet Formation (STARPLAN) hosted at the Natural History Museum.

The aim of the school is to introduce the students to a number of current topics in astrochemistry. During the morning sessions the focus will be on theory, while in the afternoon the students will apply the theory through hands-on exercises. The main vehicle for the practical exercises at the school is provided by KROME (kromepackage.org), a code for chemistry and microphyics developed at STARPLAN. This will allow the students to explore many interesting aspects of the physical processes in the interstellar medium, such as non-equilibrium gas chemistry, dust physics, thermochemistry, and photochemistry. In addition the school will introduce long-wavelength observations, and the practical aspects of linking numerical simulations with synthetic observations.

The school have the following scheme, which is based on the already successful previous edition:

A. Morning Sessions dedicated to general talks about chemistry in astrophysics, thanks to the participation of several outstanding speakers, including Kazuyuki Omukai [KO] from Tohoku University (Japan), one of the world-recognized experts in modelling microphysics, and Daniele Galli [DG] from INAF Arcetri (Italy), who has a long experience in chemistry and thermal processes of the interstellar medium. The interaction of the participants with the invited speakers will greatly improve their knowledge in this field. From local institutions are involved Troels Haugbølle [TH] (STARPLAN), who is an expert in computational astrophysics, Jes K. Jørgensen [JJ], who is an expert in observations and analysis of protostellar systems at infrared and (sub)millimeter wavelengths, and Tommaso Grassi [TG] who is the main developer of KROME. STARPLAN will also support additional talks by external speakers, and other members of the groups will contribute to the tutorials.

B. Afternoon sessions aimed at dealing with practical exercises to improve the skills of the participants in modelling the chemistry and the microphysics in realistic astrophysical environments. The students will be constantly supervised by tutors to maximize the results.