Motivation, format & lecturers

Numerical simulations of galaxy formation and evolution play an increasingly important role in astrophysics, forming a third pillar of research alongside observations and theory. Simulations allow us to examine the evolution of systems, even when non-linearity or complexity limit the predictiveness of theories.

Every astronomer should have experience with performing simulations, just as every simulator should have experience with observational data. This experience helps in judging the strengths and weaknesses of simulations.

The Durham Advanced School is designed for everyone, from beginners to experienced simulators. Our wide-ranging topics include N-body simulations (both idealised and cosmological) and simulations of the chemistry of the interstellar medium. Morning sessions will be lecture-based, addressing the main questions each simulation tool is designed to tackle. Afternoon sessions will be hands-on, allowing participants to run simulations and analyze results within a single Jupyter notebook. The aim of each session is to provide you with a solid understanding of how simulations are run and what the codes do.

Participants are encouraged to present their own interests and ongoing work with the help of a few slides during the Flash Talks session.

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The school will be covering the following broad areas:

• N-body methods: Sownak Bose (ICC)
• Analysing simulations: Andrew Pontzen (ICC)
• Generating initial conditions: Azi Fattahi (Oskar Klein Centre & Stockholm University)
• Hydrodynamical simulations (AMR): Adrianne Slyz (University of Oxford)
• Hydrodynamical simulations (SPH): Matthieu Schaller (Lorentz Institute, Leiden University)
• Radiative processes: Tom Theuns (ICC)
• Stellar populations: Anna McLeod (ICC & CEA)
• Special science topics:
AGN and clusters: Claudio Dalla Vecchia (IAC) ; Dwarf galaxies: Arianna di Cintio (ULL/IAC) ; The Milky Way: Alis Deason (ICC & CEA)
• Tutorial leads: Sioree Ansar (ICC), Sarah Johnston (ICC), Willem Elbers (ICC), Eva Durán Camacho (IAC), Kyle Oman (ICC & CEA), Kate Harborne (ICC), Will Roper (University of Sussex), Ricarda Beckmann (University of Edinburgh)

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Download the school's poster

There will be a workshop in Durham on AstroStatistics and Research-Oriented Data Analysis the previous week (8-12th September). If you are interested, you can see details here

Code of Conduct

The organisers are committed to making this meeting productive and enjoyable for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, nationality or religion. We will not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. All participants are required to abide by the following Code of Conduct to help us achieve a safe and positive conference for everyone. Please follow these guidelines:

1. Be kind to and respect others. Do not insult or put down other attendees.
2. Behave professionally. Harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary comments or jokes are not appropriate. Harassment includes sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, sexual attention or innuendo, deliberate intimidation, stalking, and photography or recording of an individual without consent. It also includes offensive comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race or religion.
3. All communication should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate.

Participants asked to stop any inappropriate behaviour are expected to comply immediately. Attendees violating these rules may be asked to leave the event at the sole discretion of the organisers without a refund of any charge. We reserve the right to report any violation of the code of the conduct to the individual's host institution.

Any participant who wishes to report a violation of this policy is asked to speak, in confidence, to either Tom Theuns (tom.theuns@durham.ac.uk), Francesca Fragkoudi (francesca.fragkoudi@durham.ac.uk), any of the organisers, or one of the astronomy allies.

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Acknowledgement

This code of conduct is based on the "London Code of Conduct", as originally designed for the conference "Accurate Astrophysics. Correct Cosmology", held in London in July 2015. The London Code of Conduct was adapted with permission by Andrew Pontzen and Hiranya Peiris from a document by Software Carpentry, which itself derives from original Creative Commons documents by PyCon and Geek Feminism. It is released under a CC-Zero licence for reuse.