Rechnen für die Forschung

Reinhard Alkofer, Sprecher des Forschungsschwerpunkts Modelle und Simulation, die Referenten Stefan Schaefer, Volker Springel und Christoph Dellago mit Workshop-Organisator Christian Lang (v.l.)

Workshop des Schwerpunkts Modelle und Simulation zu statistischen, stochastischen und zusammenhängenden Methoden

Neueste Entwicklungen auf dem Gebiet statistischer, stochastischer und zusammenhängender Methoden standen im Mittelpunkt eines Workshops des Forschungsschwerpunkts „Modelle und Simulation“, der am 10. April 2013 am Institut für Physik der Uni Graz stattfindet. Als Referenten konnten drei herausragende Vertreter der Disziplinen gewonnen werden: Dr. Volker Springel von der Universität Heidelberg und dem Heidelberger Institut für Theoretische Studien, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christoph Dellago von der Universität Wien und Dr. Stefan Schaefer vom CERN.

Die TeilnehmerInnen des Workshops kamen aus unterschiedlichen Wissenschaftsrichtungen, wie auch der Schwerpunkt „Modelle und Simulation“ ForscherInnen aus verschiedensten Disziplinen zusammenführt. Mathematische Modellbildung und computergestützte Simulationen sind zu unverzichtbaren Forschungsmethoden in vielen Wissenschaftszweigen geworden. Innovative Modelle führen zu Problemlösungen, die mit traditionellen Methoden nicht bearbeitet werden können.

Springel stellte in seinem Vortrag „Simulating the Universe“ vor, wie per Zufallszahlen-Techniken deterministische Prozesse berechnet werden können. Dellago beschäftigte sich mit der Simulation von Phasenübergängen im Nanobereich und Schäfer mit Strategien bei Gitter-Rechnungen in der Quantenchromodynamik. Organisiert hat den Workshop Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christian Lang vom Institut für Physik.

Gudrun Pichler

Related news

A fresh start, a calling, holidays: what draws people from other career paths to teaching

They used to develop software; now they teach maths in the classroom. Career changers are expected to help address the shortage of qualified teachers in Austria’s schools. In their doctoral theses at the Institute for Educational Research and Teacher Training at the University of Graz, Melanie Gürentz and Claudia Mair examined how these new teachers perceive their new professional roles.

Talent Talks bridge the gap in career guidance

The Styrian Chamber of Commerce (WKO Steiermark), the Styrian Chamber of Labour (AK Steiermark) and the AMS are joining forces when it comes to training young people and, through the “Talent Talks”, are creating a seamless pathway to career guidance. This takes preparation and follow-up support – just in time for the start of the term and the scheme’s tenth anniversary – to a whole new level. A new survey conducted by the Talent Centre among 2,687 former participants to mark the anniversary shows just how important this development is. Of the young people who received follow-up support from the Talent Report, 74.6 per cent stated that they had a good understanding of their own strengths and talents following the Talent Check. Without follow-up support, the figure was 66.5 per cent – a significant difference of 8.1 percentage points.

ERC Starting Grants: three million euros for two researchers at the University of Graz

Two researchers from the University of Graz have secured prestigious and generously funded grants from the EU. Starting Grants from the European Research Council (ERC), each worth 1.5 million euros, have been awarded to the human geographer Heide Bruckner and the social scientist Silvana Weiss.

Austria’s emissions rose in 2025: University of Graz researchers analyse the causes

The Environment Agency Austria has today published the figures for the country’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2025. While emissions fell sharply year on year from 2022 to 2024, they rose again by just under 0.7 per cent in 2025. Researchers at the University of Graz have analysed how much of this increase was due to structural changes in the economy and how much was attributable to external factors over which there is little control. “In 2025, the colder winter compared with 2024 increased emissions by 0.81 per cent, while the weak economy reduced them by 0.38 per cent. If we factor out these influences, we find an underlying increase of 0.26 per cent compared with the previous year,” reports economist Karl Steininger. “This clearly means that Austria is not on track to meet its climate targets, which require a substantial reduction in emissions by 2030.”