1st NHR Conference in Berlin, September 18 – 19, 2023 (Image: Jürgen Aloisius Morgenroth)
2023-10-09
From September 18–20, 2023, the first NHR conference took place on site at the Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB). Almost 200 domain scientists, HPC consultants, decision makers, and administrative staff interacted at a vibrant event, which not only served to reflect the current state of the NHR effort but also sparked new collaborations for the years to come. Once more it was proven that online meetings are a poor substitute for intense, ad-hoc discussions over a cup of coffee.
The aim of the event was the exchange among researchers from the fields of Atomistic Simulation, Life Science, and Agent-based Simulation in their disciplines and with the HPC user community. On Monday, keynote lectures, contributed, and invited talks took turns; on Tuesday and Wednesday panel discussions and working group meetings completed the program. The breaks between talks made for a relaxed and stimulating atmosphere.
In retrospect, the first NHR Conference was a great success and a blueprint for future NHR events. It did exactly what it was meant to do: bring everyone together in a relaxed setting to foster exchange and collaboration.
Participants of the First NHR Conference in Berlin are looking forward to next year's meeting in Darmstadt (Image: Jürgen Aloisius Morgenroth)
“This first meeting of the NHR centers was a good start for even closer cooperation and mutual support,” summarized Prof. Dr. Gerhard Wellein at the end of the conference, “Ultimately, we all want to offer a powerful and stable technical basis to the domain scientists.” (Image: Jürgen Aloisius Morgenroth)
In one of the well-attended sessions on Life Science and Atomistic Simulation, Rainer Böckmann, Professor of Computational Biology at FAU and PI at NHR@FAU, presented a short talk on „Curving molecules - on the fascinating role of lipids in COVID-19 vaccines and cell membranes.“ (Image: Jürgen Aloisius Morgenroth)
Marius Trollmann specifying his poster “One Ring to Rule Them All: Lugdunin’s Disruptive Effects.” Additional posters were presented by: Prof. Dr. Petra Imhof with "NA-Repair Mechanisms: Molecular Simulations and Computational Alchemy", Dr. Anna Kahler with “Improving MD performance on HPC clusters through in-depth hardware knowledge and advanced program usage”, Dr. Alireza Ghasemi with “Incorporating electrostatic interactions in machine learning interatomic potentials,” PD Dr. Anselm Horn with "Novel Antiviral Strategies: Structure-Based Design and Optimization of PG16-Antibody Derived CDRH3 Peptides against HIV1," and scholarship student Olena Denysenko with "Identification and structural characterization of peptidic ligands for novel antiviral strategies against SARS-CoV-2." (Image: Jürgen Aloisius Morgenroth)
At the panel discussion "Women in HPC: Empowering future careers” Ayesha Afzal, scientist of the NHR@FAU team, discussed with other scientists about existing challenges in male-dominated working environments. (Image: Jürgen Aloisius Morgenroth)
Group photo of the Erlangen NHR@FAU team that attended the conference.
