"Joint School on Spin Physics 2021" (JSSP2021)
The "Joint School on Spin Physics 2021" (JSSP2021) took place from October 25th to 28th in Apolda as a conference workshop organized in collaboration by and for the international PhD students of the TRR 173 - Spin+X and the TRR 227 - Ultrafast Spin Dynamics. The event was held in person and was received with gratitude from all participants.
The joint school covered a broad range of spin-related phenomena from slow to ultra-fast timescales and weakly to strongly correlated systems. Examples from state of the art theory and experiments in invited and student talks as well as technical tutorials together with discussion meetings, two poster sessions and a workshop on networking were provided.
JSSP2021 has proven to be a success in bringing together the scientists from both CRCs, fostering the exchange of ideas, enhancing discussions and providing a platform on which joint research projects can be founded.
The event started with an interactive discussion on PhD programs in both CRCs and how to learn from the successes and difficulties that were encountered in organizing the research and PhD programs. Katharina Franke (CRC/TRR 227 Ultrafast Spin Dynamics) and Bärbel Rethfeld (CRC/TRR 173 Spin+X) led the discussion on how to improve the PhD student – supervisor relationship, optimizing the PhD learning experience and keeping a proper work-life balance along the way. Throughout four days, seven invited talks, 14 student talks and two poster sessions took place and were met with great interest. In addition, a networking workshop, a technical programming workshop on atomistic simulations using VAMPIRE and a workshop on optimizing success beyond the PhD by Jairo Sinova rounded off the program.
The 100 scientists could try out their new networking skills and deepen their scientific discussions during a city tour through the old town of Apolda. In addition to discussing individual successes possible areas of collaborations between both CRCs were discussed and explored.
The conference concluded with a plenary discussion of the invited speakers Bärbel Rethfeld, Olena Gomonay, Khalil Zakeri Lori and Richard Evans giving their perspective on the challenges, successes and future developments of spintronics.
The desired effect of JSSP2021 was to bring together two of the leading research programs on spintronics in Germany. As a first result, a joint application for a PhD focus session at the next DPG spring meeting was submitted by PhD students from both TRRs and already accepted by the DPG.
This article was written by Hendrik Meer and Tobias Wagner.