The Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) is pleased to announce the two projects that have been selected to participate in next summer’s YoungCAS, the intensive, international research concept for talented young scholars that launched in 2017.

For the first time, the Centre will in 2018 host two YoungCAS projects -- one in the natural sciences, the other in the social sciences.

The two groups, consisting of up-and-coming postdoctoral researchers and other young scholars, will in July meet for a week each in Oslo. Scholars in both groups will spend their week working together, learning from one another, and setting the stage for future collaboration.

Following a rigorous evaluation process, the CAS Board of Directors has selected the following two projects:

Do Electron Current Densities Determine All There Is to Know?

Project leader: Andre Laestadius, postdoctoral researcher, University of Oslo (UiO)

Laestadius, who received his Ph.D. in applied and computational mathematics from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, pitched a project that will aim to construct a theoretical foundation for magnetic field effects in density-functional theory. Laestadius plans to bring together colleagues at UiO along with scholars in Germany and the United Kingdom.

‘We are very pleased that CAS has provided us with this great opportunity,’ Laestadius said. ‘We look forward to a week of interesting work on the fundamental issue of a Hohenberg-Kohn result in current density-functional theory.’

Workshop on Indigenous Law and Methodology

Project leader: Margherita Paola Poto, postdoctoral researcher, University of Tromsø (UiT)

This project will look at legal problems and other issues that indigenous communities face in order to help scholars and lawyers who work with those groups. In particular, the group, which consists of scholars from institutions in Brazil, Canada, Italy, and Norway, will focus on gender issues. Poto received her Ph.D. in public law from the University of Pavia in Italy.

‘I am very grateful to the YoungCAS programme for the amazing opportunity to organize a highly engaging and inspiring workshop on indigenous methodology that will gather young experts from Northern Norway, Germany, Italy, British Columbia, and Brazil,’ Poto said. ‘Challenging the conventional thinking on the indigenous discourse will be everyone’s responsibility. Teamwork activities will be encouraged and new synergies and ideas will be created.’