Travel Award Program
The Materials Computation Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign administers an NSF-sponsored program to support travel by US-based scientists to workshops, symposium and tutorials organized by CECAM, ICTP, and PSIK.
Who is eligible for support?
Support is available to faculty, postdocs, students or research scientists at US universities; junior faculty from smaller institutions are particularly encouraged to apply. Only researchers attending or employed by US universities are eligible. We will consider individuals from research areas overlapping with those of MCC: condensed matter physics, chemistry, materials science and computer science.
Please note: While US-based scientists at government or private research labs may apply on a case-by-case basis, travel support is preferentially awarded to junior scientists and to under-represented groups at universities. Employees of NASA, DOD or DOE laboratories are not eligible for MCC travel support.
What does the support cover?
Funding will support travel to and from the workshop and cover local expenses during the workshop. In some cases, only partial funding will be available.
When do I apply?
In general, the travel support application is due the same date that the workshop application is due. (You must submit two applications; one for the workshop itself, and one for travel support.) For the workshops which have not posted application due dates, the MCC Travel Officer has assigned a due date for the travel support applications 90 days before the event starting date, and marked the due date with an asterisk (*) in the list below. For example, if a workshop starts on June 1st, and there's no workshop application due date, the travel support application is due March 1st. If you have questions, please contact the Travel Officer.
Upcoming workshops:
The CECAM workshop page lists other details about the events.
Last modified:
Monday, 14-Apr-2008 16:35:29 CDT
| Dates |
Workshop |
Travel Support Application Due |
| 5/12-16/2008 | Modern Concepts for Creating and Analyzing Surfaces and Nanoscale Materials Costa Brava, Spain |
January 31, 2008 |
| 5/26/2008 | Accurate energetics of condensed matter with quantum chemistry Lyon, France |
February 26, 2008* |
| 5/26 - 6/6/2008 | SUSSP 2008 on High Pressure Physics Isle of Skye, Scotland |
March 1, 2008 |
| 6/2-4/2008 | Critical materials issues in photovoltaics: searching for solutions via theory and simulations Lausanne, Switzerland |
March 4, 2008* |
| 6/7-1/2008 | XXXVII International School on the Physics of Semiconducting Compounds Jaszowiec 2008 Ustron-Jaszowiec, Poland |
March 14, 2008 |
| 6/9-12/2008 | Structural, electronic and transport properties of quantum wires Lyon, France |
March 11, 2008* |
| 6/16-19/2008 | Computational approaches to semiconductor, carbon and magnetic nanostructures Lyon, France |
March 18, 2008* |
| 6/16-20/2008 | Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Summer School Barcelona, Spain |
May 30, 2008 |
| 7/16-18/2008 | Dissipative Particle Dynamics: Addressing deficiencies and establishing new frontiers Lausanne, Switzerland |
April 17, 2008* |
| 7/23-25/2008 | Energy Landscape of Solids: from (hypothetical) topologies to material properties Lausanne, Switzerland |
April 24, 2008* |
| 7/28-30/2008 | New directions in the theory and modelling of liquid crystals Lausanne, Switzerland |
April 29, 2008* |
| 8/3-6/2008 | Fifth International Conference on Physics and Applications of Spin-related Phenomena in Semiconductors (PASPS V) Foz do Iguaçu, PR, Brazil |
April 15, 2008 |
| 8/31 - 9/14/2008 | Third Psi-k Nanoquanta school and workshop proposal on Time-Dependent Density-Functional Theory: Prospects and Applications Benasque, Spain |
June 2, 2008* |
| 8/31 - 9/15/2008 | Time-Dependent Density-Functional Theory: Prospects and Applications Benasque, Spain |
June 2, 2008* |
| 9/2-5/2008 | Computational nanofluidics Lyon, France |
June 4, 2008* |
| 9/3-6/2008 | Membrane Protein Assembly: Theory and Experiment Lausanne, Switzerland |
June 5, 2008* |
| 9/10-12/2008 | Surfactant Templated Porous Materials: Synthesis and Characterisation Zurich, Switzerland |
June 12, 2008* |
| 9/18-19/2008 | Standardisation and databasing of ab-initio and classical simulations Zurich, Switzerland |
June 20, 2008* |
| 10/2-5/2008 | Common trends between Kinetic theory, Dynamical Density Functional methods and mesoscopic methods based on effective free energy models Lausanne, Switzerland |
July 4, 2008* |
| 10/6-9/2008 | Mineral spectroscopy by theory and experiment Lausanne, Switzerland |
July 8, 2008* |
| 10/27-29/2008 | Joint ICTP-KFAS Workshop on Nanoscience for Solar Energy Conversion Trieste, Italy |
July 15, 2008 |
Obtaining travel support
To get support you must:
- Visit the workshop's website and complete a workshop application.
- Complete the online MCC Travel Support application, to apply for travel support from the NSF. Late travel support applications will be accepted, but are given lower funding priority. Applicants should apply to the travel program
simultaneously with applying to the workshop.
The MCC travel officer will inform you of any award thirty days after the travel support application due date.
It is the responsibility of the traveler to obtain any required visas from the appropriate embassy or nearest consulate of the country. Be sure to allow sufficient time for processing any visa applications.
Reimbursement after travel
The traveler will be reimbursed only after all travel-related receipts, a Travel Reimbursement Form, and a scientific report have been received by the MCC travel officer. NSF rules apply to this travel reim bursement, along with other guidelines given in the Travel Award Instructions (PDF).
Note: The University has a policy of charging tax on reimbursements which are processed more than 60 days after the
expenses were incurred.
Please email the MCC travel officer if you have questions.
Other travel support opportunities
Travel support for specific workshops will be listed here, as we hear about them. You can also check the American Physical Society webpage on International Travel Grants. The Grant is up to $2000 for travel and lodging expenses for international travel while visiting a collaborator.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Updated 1/4/2008
Q: What should be the contents of the letter of reference from my adviser/supervisor?
A: We usually recommend to the advisers that:
- The letter should indicate:
- Your approval for the applicant's participation in the trip
- How you think the applicant's attendance at this workshop will benefit their professional development and research
- How suitable the topic is for applicant's interests and current level of experience
- Any support which your university can provide to fund this trip
- A lengthy letter is not necessary, it can be 2-4 short paragraphs.
- Please send the letter to travel@mcc.uiuc.edu.
- The letter can be a plain-text email message, or a PDF file attached to an email message.
Q: I've submitted my application several months in advance of the application deadline -- is it possible to get an early decision?
A: No, very likely not, for two reasons. One, we evaluate the applications after the workshop organizers have accepted applicants to the workshop itself. Two, typically the Travel Officer reviews all the applicat ions at one time, after the Travel Support deadline for that event has passed. In case there are more applicants than we can fund, this is fair to all the applicants. The deadline is usually 90 days before the workshop/event date, to give the Travel Committee time to review the applications and inform the applicants, with more than 60 days before the event starting date, so that awardees can make any travel arrangements.
Q: I'm not flying directly to and from the workshop location from my home institution. For example, immediately after the workshop, I'm flying to a third city, to attend another workshop before returning home. How does this influence reimbursement?
A: Please submit two flight itineraries, along with the ticket prices for those itineraries. The first should be your actual itinerary with documentation showing you actually paid for this ticket; the second will show the flight costs for a trip directly to and from the workshop location, without any additional stops. We can cover the minimum of the two ticket prices (plus any lodging during the workshop stay, and taxi/train expenses to attend the workshop).
Q: The documentation says that all non-US citizens need to submit a copy of their visa and I-94. Where and how should I submit those items?
A: You should submit those documents with your completed Travel Reimbursement Form, after you return. The address is listed on the form.
Q: Can you give me a letter saying that I've been accepted to the workshop?
A: No, such a letter has to come from the conference organizers. We can write a letter that you have a travel grant to go to the workshop.
Q: Can these funds cover my visa costs?
A: No, the funding can only be used to support travel to and from the workshop and cover local expenses during the workshop. The funds cannot be used to cover anything else, for example, the funds cannot be used to cover costs incurred when obtaining a visa.
Previous Workshops include:
Last modified:
Monday, 14-Apr-2008 16:35:29 CDT
| Dates |
Workshop |
Travel Support Application Due |
| 2/25-29/2008 | Exact-exchange and hybrid functionals meet quasiparticle energy calculations Berlin, Germany |
November 15, 2007 |
| 1/21 - 2/2/2008 | Advanced School on Quantum Monte Carlo Methods in Physics and Chemistry Trieste, Italy |
October 15, 2007 |
| 11/26-30/2007 | High performance density functional theory: wavelets, order(N) scaling, parallelism Lyon, France |
August 28, 2007* |
| 11/8-10/2007 | Modelling and simulation of friction at the nanoscale: from understanding to control Lyon, France |
August 10, 2007* |
| 10/2-5/2007 | Energy flow dynamics in biomaterial systems Paris, France |
July 4, 2007* |
| 10/1-3/2007 | Chirality and Molecular Recognition at Surfaces Lyon, France |
July 3, 2007* |
| 9/20-22/2007 | Ionic Transport: from Nanopores to Biological Channels Lyon, France |
June 22, 2007* |
| 9/17-19/2007 | Modelling the structures and reactivity of silica and water: from molecule to macroscale Lyon, France |
June 19, 2007* |
| 9/7-8/2007 | Use of the O(N) ab initio code CONQUEST Lyon, France |
June 9, 2007* |
| 9/3-6/2007 | Linear-scaling ab initio calculations: applications and future directions Lyon, France |
June 5, 2007* |
| 8/27-31/2007 | Advances in continuum quantum Monte Carlo methods Lyon, France |
May 29, 2007* |
| 8/7-10/2007 | Theoretical and Experimental Studies of Quantum Dynamics in Condensed Phase Chemical Systems Lyon, France |
May 9, 2007* |
| 7/25-27/2007 | Modelling the Interaction of Biomolecules with Inorganic Surfaces Lyon, France |
April 26, 2007* |
| 7/22-29/2007 | Summer School: Ab-initio Many-Body Theory San Sebastian, Spain |
April 23, 2007* |
| 7/19-20/2007 | Theoretical Aspects of Design of Periodic Materials Lyon, France |
April 20, 2007* |
| 7/16-18/2007 | Simulation, design and crystal engineering of metal-organic frameworks Lyon, France |
April 17, 2007* |
| 7/5-7/2007 | Fluid phase behaviour and critical phenomena from liquid state theories and simulations Lyon, France |
April 6, 2007* |
| 7/2-4/2007 | New directions in liquid state theory Lyon, France |
April 3, 2007* |
| 6/18-22/2007 | Efficient density-functional calculations with atomic orbitals: a hands-on tutorial on the SIESTA code Lyon, France |
March 20, 2007* |
| 6/13-15/2007 | Glasses meet Glasses: reconciling views Lyon, France |
March 15, 2007* |
| 5/28-30/2007 | Ab-initio approaches to electron-phonon coupling and superconductivity San Sebastian-Donostia, Spain |
March 15, 2007 |
| 4/16-19/2007 | Simulations of hard bodies Lyon, France |
January 16, 2007* |
| 2/5-7/2007 | Multiscale Approaches to Nanomechanics Lyon, France |
November 7, 2006* |
| 1/11-13/2007 | XIII International Workshop on Computational Physics and Materials Science: Total Energy and Force Methods Trieste, Italy |
November 15, 2006 |
| 12/18-20/2006 | Inelastic effects in transport at the atomic scale: from realistic current simulations to chemical detection at the atomic scale via IET spectroscopy Lyon, France |
September 19, 2006* |
| 11/6/2006 | Simulating matter at the nano-scale using density-functional theory, pseudopotentials and plane waves Lyon, France |
August 8, 2006* |
| 10/30 - 11/11/2006 | Joint MolSimu-Psi-k Tutorial "Quantum Simulation of Liquids and Solids" Lyon, France |
August 1, 2006* |
| 10/25-28/2006 | Simulations of novel carbon materials Lyon, France |
July 27, 2006* |
| 10/18-20/2006 | Multiscale modeling of soft and biological matter Lyon, France |
July 20, 2006* |
| 10/4-6/2006 | Polymer Surfaces And Interfaces Lyon, France |
July 6, 2006* |
| 9/26-29/2006 | Theory of single molecule force experiments and simulations Lyon, France |
June 28, 2006* |
| 9/25-26/2006 | Psi-k/COST workshop on multiscale modeling of extended defects and phase transformations at material interfaces Wroclaw, Poland |
June 27, 2006* |
| 9/19-22/2006 | 11th Nanoquanta Workshop on Electronic Excitations: a decade of applications of the Bethe-Salpeter Equation Lyon, France |
June 21, 2006* |
| 9/19-22/2006 | Protein folding and misfolding: Bringing theory close to experiment and vice versa Lyon, France |
June 21, 2006* |
| 9/14-16/2006 | Heat transfer simulation at the atomic scale : new challenges for the futur Lyon, France |
June 16, 2006* |
| 9/11-15/2006 | Catalysis from First Principles Lyon, France |
June 13, 2006* |
| 8/29-31/2006 | Computational aspects of building blocks, nucleation, and synthesis of porous materials Lyon, France |
May 31, 2006* |
| 8/27 - 9/11/2006 | Psi-k/NANOQUANTA SCHOOL + WORKSHOP on Time-Dependent Density-Functional Theory: Prospects and Applications Benasque, Spain |
May 29, 2006* |
| 7/18-21/2006 | Models and Theory for Molecular Magnetism Lyon, France |
April 19, 2006* |
| 6/26-28/2006 | Patchy Colloids, Proteins and Network Forming Liquids: Analogies and new insights from computer simulations Lyon, France |
March 28, 2006* |
| 6/19-23/2006 | Mineral Physics with Computation and Experiment Lyon, France |
March 21, 2006* |
| 6/12-14/2006 | State of the art, developments and perspectives of electronic structure calculations in the frame of the Projector Augmented-Wave (PAW) method. Lyon, France |
March 14, 2006* |
| 6/5-24/2006 | Summer School on Quantum Magnetism Grenoble, France |
May 15, 2006 |
| 5/29-31/2006 | Modelling and simulation of clays over various scales of time and space Lyon, France |
February 28, 2006* |
| 5/22-25/2006 | Protein Aggregation Lyon, France |
February 21, 2006* |
| 5/15-18/2006 | New developments for first principles molecular dynamics simulations in condensed matter and molecular physics Lyon, France |
February 14, 2006* |
| 4/19-21/2006 | Data representation and code interoperability for computational materials physics and chemistry Lyon, France |
January 19, 2006* |
| 3/9-11/2006 | Novel theoretical aspects of frustrated spin systems Lyon, France |
December 9, 2005* |
| 10/17-19/2005 | Ab Initio Meets Classical Simulations: The Development of Empirical Potentials for Atomistic Systems |
July 19, 2005* |
| 10/12-14/2005 | Structure and rheology of self-assembling and aggregating colloidal suspensions: theory, simulation and experiment |
July 14, 2005* |
| 9/23-25/2005 | Ab-initio Simulation methods beyond Density Functional Theory |
June 25, 2005* |
| 9/17-21/2005 | Psi-k 2005 Conference Schwbisch Gmnd, Germany |
June 19, 2005* |
| 9/12-14/2005 | Simulating deformed glasses and melts: from simple liquids to polymers |
June 14, 2005* |
| 9/5-7/2005 | Towards new methods to design catalytic and separation processes in nanoporous materials |
June 7, 2005* |
| 8/29-31/2005 | Multiscale Modeling of Macromolecule/Membrane Interactions |
May 31, 2005* |
| 7/20 - 8/1/2005 | INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF SOLID STATE PHYSICS--34th Course: Computer Simulations in Condensed Matter: from Materials to Chemical Biology Sicily, Italy |
May 1, 2005 |
| 7/18-21/2005 | Modeling and simulation of entrangled polymeric liquids |
April 19, 2005* |
| 7/11-13/2005 | Electronic Structure of Polyoxometalates. Interplay between Experiment and Theory |
April 12, 2005* |
| 7/4-6/2005 | The anomalous Hall effect: Recent advances via the geometric-phase approach |
April 5, 2005* |
| 6/27-30/2005 | From gases to glasses in granular matter: Thermodynamic and hydrodynamic aspects Lyon, France |
March 29, 2005* |
| 6/20-24/2005 | State-of-the-art, developments and perspectives of real-space electronic structure techniques in condensed matter and molecular physics |
March 22, 2005* |
| 6/13-17/2005 | Van der Waals Forces and Density Functional theory |
March 15, 2005* |
| 6/6-17/2005 | Conformational dynamics in complex systems Lyon, France |
March 8, 2005* |
| 6/6-8/2005 | Rugged Free Energy Landscapes: Common Computational Approaches in Spin Glasses, Structural Glasses and Biological Macromolecules |
March 8, 2005* |
| 6/2-4/2005 | Simulation of rare events: The reaction coordinate problem in complex systems Lyon, France |
March 4, 2005* |
| 5/16-19/2005 | EXC!TiNG Symposium on Excited-state properties of solids Mannheim, Germany |
March 14, 2005 |
| 4/25-27/2005 | Water dimers and Weakly Interacting Species in Atmospheric Modeling |
January 25, 2005* |
| 4/4-6/2005 | Biomembrane Organization and Protein Function - From Computation to Experiment Lyon, France |
January 4, 2005* |
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