This project proposes to develop into a centre of excellence in FC research by  tapping into world-class researchers from both UK and Brazil. By starting the project with  state-of-the-art knowledge and a diversity of points of view, a fundamental goal of this SPEC  is to bring about a multiscale modelling-driven perspective into the now mature Brazilian FC community and share this knowledge, and the advances obtained through it, through the  multi- and transdisciplinarity of the RCGI. Seeing as how the traditional FC community has yet to deliver on critical components of a practical FC device, this project reaches out to leaders in research subjects that are cornerstones of FC technology, viz., quantum and
molecular mechanics, meso and macroscopic transport phenomena, and electrocatalysis.
These are coupled together via energetic and innovative young researchers, and a modellingdriven approach backed by advanced experimental techniques towards validation of multiscale models of FC devices. Thus, this São Paulo Excellence Chair (SPEC) aims at providing the state of São Paulo with a research nucleus in FCs through the participation of  Professors Nigel Brandon, Spencer Sherwin, Erich Muller and Anthony Kucernak, who are  world leading researchers in their respective fields. Tackling core and applied sciences, this SPEC advances on FC technologies as viable options to Brazil, where (bio)methane and bioethanol evolve to be important players in its future energy scenario. The proposed research hub is a joint initiative of leading institutions within the framework of the Research Centre for Gas Innovation (RCGI), at USP, and its paired institution, the Sustainable Gas
Institute (SGI), at Imperial College London (IC).

We are delighted to announce that Professor Spencer Sherwin has accepted appointment as Head of the Department of Aeronautics with effect from 1 October 2022, for a period of three years, in succession to Professor Paul Robinson.

More information can be found here:

https://blogs.imperial.ac.uk/senior-appointments/2022/04/26/head-of-the-department-of-aeronautics/

Congratulations to PRISM’s Dr Cohen who was jointly awarded an EPSRC grant, led by Neil Chue Hong from the University of Edinburgh – Understanding and Nurturing an Integrated Vision for Education in RSE and HPC (UNIVERSE-HPC).  The grant EP/W035731/1 is funded by EPSRC. The project is led by EPCC, University of Edinburgh and is a collaboration between University of Edinburgh, University of Oxford, Imperial College London and University of Southampton.

It focuses on developing a training curriculum framework that will support Research Software Engineers (RSEs) specialising in High Performance Computing and Exascale technologies in developing the skills necessary to undertake the next generation of data- and compute-intensive research. This will be achieved through a combination of developing and collating training materials and a range of community-building activities. The outputs will also support the development of a professional Masters programme focusing on RSE and HPC skills and technologies.

PRISM team value academic visits highly; they help us to build a vibrant, internationally diverse and exciting research culture for our research community. PRISM’s Academic Visitors can be involved in several activities during their stay. This includes collaborating with members of staff in research projects, exchanging knowledge or experience, holding academic discussions, observing teaching practices, and exploring opportunities for future joint projects.

This Academic Year PRISM will host the following Academic Visitors

• Professor Mike Kirby from School of Computing, University of Utah
• Professor Hugh Blackburn from Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Monash University
• Proffessor Hari Sundar from University of Utah
• Prof Jean-David Benamou and his PhD student Hugo Malamut from INRIA, Paris. Joinly with the Prof Cotter they have worked on optimal transport methods for solving geophysical fluid dynamics equations.

Congratulations to Prof Colin Cotter (PI) who have been awarded EPSRC Standard Grant Next generation particle filters for stochastic partial differential equations’ (£376k).

We are delighted to announce that Dr David Ham has been awarded ARCHER2 grant Scalable and robust Firedrake deployment on ARCHER2 and beyond with University of Edinburgh  (£68k)