CECAM (Centre Européen de Calcul Atomique et Moléculaire) is a European organization devoted to the promotion of fundamental research on advanced computational methods and to their application to important problems in frontier areas of science and technology. As the acronym CECAM indicates, traditionally the focus of its activities has been on atomistic and molecular simulations, mainly in relation to the physics and chemistry of condensed matter. Powerful methods have been developed over the last two decades for molecular simulations that have improved on their reliability. In addition, the synergic development of hardware and software, have further led molecular simulations to broaden their reach to more realistic modeling and thus their range of application, from materials science to biology to medicinal chemistry. CECAM has always been very attentive to such development and also fostered it. Nowadays, computer simulations are considered the third way of doing science, beyond theory and experiment. Indeed, their role as a research tool has been growing in many domains of science and engineering, to the point of becoming increasingly essential to their progress. In response to this phenomenon, which is believed to be at its early stages only, CECAM will evolve in its scope and structure, to cover important areas of computational science, beyond those traditional to the CECAM community, and to comprehend several competence centers distributed over Europe and their coordinated activities. CECAM activities will range from the organization of scientific workshops to that of specific tutorials at the graduate level on the use of especially relevant software, from brain-storming meetings on timely topics to collaborative research projects, and sponsoring of an interesting visitors program as well as of specialized courses in computational sciences also at the master level.
Véritable hôtel à projets, le Centre Blaise Pascal est un lieu de conférences, recherches et formations pour la région Rhône-Alpes dans le domaine de la modélisation et simulation numérique couvrant sciences dures, bio-sciences & santé, sciences humaines, mathématiques appliquées, info-sciences et ingénierie.
Etablissement public d'enseignement supérieur, l'Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon dépend du Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche. Elle est l'une des trois Ecoles normales supérieures, grandes écoles françaises internationalement reconnues. L'ENS de Lyon accomplit une double mission d'enseignement et de recherche. Elle dispense une formation d'excellence, de la troisième année de licence au doctorat, à des élèves recrutés sur concours et à des étudiants sélectionnés, tout en développant une recherche de premier plan dans les domaines des sciences exactes et expérimentales (biologie, chimie, informatique, mathématiques, physique, sciences de la Terre) et des sciences humaines et sociales (lettres et arts, langues, sciences humaines, sciences sociales).
