Lennard-Jones Centre-CECAM Meeting 2025: From Electrons to Atoms, Molecules and Materials

Monday, 1st September to Friday, 5th September 2025

Ray Dolby Centre, University of Cambridge

This conference holds special significance for the Lennard-Jones Centre and the Cavendish Laboratory as it celebrates the remarkable advancements in electronic structure and Density Functional Theory (DFT), fields in which Cambridge has played a pioneering role. The meeting will serve as a tribute to the significant contributions of Cambridge scientists such as Professors Mike Payne, Volker Heine, and Richard Needs, whose work has shaped generations of researchers both within the UK and internationally. Additionally, this event aligns with the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Theory of Condensed Matter group at Cambridge and coincides with the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Cavendish Laboratory. The conference promises to be an inspiring forum for innovative discussions and collaborations.

Furthermore, we would like to highlight the close connection this conference shares with the Psi-k 2025 Conference, which will take place the week before. The LJC Meeting is positioned as a complementary event, and we encourage participation in both conferences, giving a discount for dual-participation. We are happy to assist with layover options to accommodate attendees between the two events. 

Program and Abstract book 

Industry Session:

A dedicated session on Thursday, 4th September will highlight the role of theoretical and computational approaches in industrial research and innovation. 
The Industry Session is embedded within a broader programme designed to foster engagement between academia and industry:

• 12:30–13:30 Lunch
• 13:30–14:15 Invited speakers
• 14:15–15:15 Industry talks
• 15:15–15:45 Coffee and tea break
• 15:45–17:00 Panel discussion
• 17:00–19:00 Networking event

VIP speakers:

• Ali Alavi, University of Cambridge
• Mike Payne, University of Cambridge

Session lead speakers:

• Volker Blum, Duke University
• Kieron Burke, University of California Irvine
• Roberto Car, Princeton University
• Stewart Clark, Durham University
• Daniel Cole, Newcastle University
• Neil Drummond, Lancaster University
• Matthew Foulkes, Imperial College London
• Giulia Galli, University of Chicago
• Hardy Gross, Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics
• Peter Haynes, Imperial College London
• Jürg Hutter, University of Zurich
• Noa Marom, Carnegie Mellon University
• Nicola Marzari, EPFL
• Arash Mostofi, Imperial College London
• Jens Norskov, Technical University of Denmark
• Ruben Perez, Autonomous University of Madrid
• Matthew Probert, University of York
• Lucia Reining, ETSF Palaiseau
• Karsten Reuter, Max Planck Institute
• Michiel Sprik, University of Cambridge
• Alexandre Tkatchenko, University of Luxembourg
• David Tozer, Durham University
• Renata Wentzcovitch, Columbia University
• Weitao Yang, Duke University

Invited speakers:

• Stefano Battaglia, University of Zurich
• Theo Breeze, Durham University
• Anna Bui, University of Cambridge
• Christian Carbogno, Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society
• Kevin (Kay) Carter-Fenk, University of Pittsburgh
• Tommaso Chiarotti, California Institute of Technology
• Steven Crisostomo, University of California Irvine
• Kimberley Daas, University of California Irvine
• Scott Donaldson, University of York
• Yichen Fan, Duke University
• Ruiqi Gao, Princeton University
• Simiam Ghan, Technical University of Denmark
• Gabriel Graf, Duke University
• Bang C. Huynh, University of Oxford
• Clio Johnson, Lancaster University
• Adil Kabylda, University of Luxembourg
• Indrajit Maity, Newcastle University
• Fatema Yahya Mohamed, ETSF Palaiseau
• Harry Moore, University of Cambridge
• Andres Perez Fadon, Imperial College London
• Patricia Poths, Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society
• Joseph Prentice, University of Manchester
• Visagan Ravindran, Durham University
• Kristoffer Simula, Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research
• Vrindaa Somjit, Argonne National Laboratory
• Jara Trujillo, Autonomous University of Madrid
• Wei-Yuan (Matisse) Tu, Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics
• Guilherme Vilhena, Institute of Materials Science of Madrid
• Chengcheng Xiao, Imperial College London
• Pinchen Xie, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
• Chao Zhang, Uppsala University 

Contributed talks:

• Lorenzo Agosta, Uppsala University
• Susannah Bourne-Worster, Durham University
• Maelie Causse, University of Cambridge
• Zachary Goodwin, University of Oxford
• Nitish Govindarajan, NTU Singapore
• Seán Kavanagh, Harvard University
• Geetu Kumari, University of Limerick
• Ming-Hsien Lee, Tamkang University
• Chen Li, Peking University
• Chanbum Park, Ruhr University Bochum

Industry speakers:

• Paola Gori Giorgi, Microsoft Research
• Miguel Hernandez-Lobato, Angstom AI
• David Munoz Ramo, Quantinuum

Poster price speakers:

• Furong Chen, Technical University of Darmstadt
• Christopher T. S. Cheung, Imperial College London
• Balazs Pota, University of Cambridge
• Timo Reents, PSI Center for Scientific Computing

Advisory board:

Carla Molteni

Erin Johnson

Emilio Artacho

Sponsors:

The meeting is sponsored by Cambridge Innovation Capital, CCP9,CCP5, CECAM, DeepVerse, JCP, MatNex and Quantinuum. We are grateful for their support in making this event possible.