HPC-Europa3 visitor report

I am a theoretical chemist from the Technical University of Denmark near Copenhagen and I recently visited EPCC under the HPC-Europa3 transnational access programme. I was hosted by Dr Adam Kirrander at the University of Edinburgh's School of Chemistry.

In my research I have derived equations that theoretically describe a new class of ultrafast experiments at X-ray free-electron lasers. Based on these equations, I am developing a code that will finally enable us to simulate the experiments on computers. Because these calculations rely on expensive quantum chemical methods, I have to use high-performance computing. For this reason I used ARCHER. 

Besides my scientific activities here in Edinburgh, I enjoy walking through the beautiful city. I love the old architecture, the atmosphere around the Meadows as well as the view of mountains like Arthur's Seat – something I am not used to seeing at home. The only thing that annoyed me was the "Beast from the East", the snowstorm that hit the UK and particularly Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago. It forced me to cancel a long planned trip to the Highlands. Anyway, that just means I have to visit Scotland again!