Summer schools „Theory of NMR“
The group organizes an annual one-week summer school in an old youth hostel nearby Leipzig. At SCHLOSS WINDISCHLEUBA. These schools are supported by the International Society of Magnetic Resonance ISMAR.
THE CYCLE OF SUMMER SCHOOLS
(I) General NMR (Sun 27 March – Sat 2 April 2022; Sun 14 March – Sat 20 March 2027)
(II) Relaxation (Sun 26 March – Sat 1 April 2023)
(III) Solid-state NMR (Sun 10 March – Sat 16 March 2024)
(IV) Hyperpolarization (Sun 16 March – Sat 22 March 2025)
(V) Spin-Chemistry (Sun 15 March – Sat 21 March 2026)
(1) INFORMATION ON SUMMER SCHOOL 2027
„General NMR“: 14 – 20 March 2027
Via Dror-List and this page, there will be a CALL for students in autumn 2026.
Deadline for application will be end of September 2026.
Max number of participants will be 60.
Practical information below (see number 7).
(2) INFORMATION ON SUMMER SCHOOL 2026
„Spin-Chemistry“: 15 – 21 March 2026
This school has been a „special edition“ dedicated to Spin-Chemistry to celebrate the HYP*MOL Consortium (webpage & LinkedIn).
Teachers (already agreed): Ilia SOLOV’YOV, Irina ANASIMOVA, Luca GERHARDS (Univ. Oldenburg), Gunnar JESCHKE (ETH Zürich), P.K. MADHU (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Hyderabad), Jörg MATYSIK (Univ. of Leipzig), Georgeta SALVAN (TU Chemnitz), Jonathan WOODWARD (Univ. of Tokyo)
Topics will be: Quantum mechanics, level crossings, density matrix, relaxation theory, magnetic field effects, RYDMAR, theoretical methods in spin-chemistry, SCRPs, CIDEP & CIDNP, hyperpolarizazion mechanisms (RPM, DR, TSM, DD), biological magneto-reception, NV-centers, molecular spintronics.
(3) INFORMATION ON SUMMER SCHOOL 2025
„Hyperpolarized NMR“: 16 – 22 March 2025
There has been hold a summer school on Hyperpolarized NMR at Youth hostel Schloss Windischleuba (40 km South of Leipzig/Germany) from Sun/16 March (evening) to Sat/22 March (morning) 2025 supported by ISMAR and HYP*MOL (on Linked-In). Topics have been: General view on hyperpolarization, DNP methodology, PHIP and SABRE, NV centers, CIDEP and CIDNP, level crossing analysis, long-lived states.
Teachers:
Eike BRUNNER (TU Dresden), James EILLS (Helmholtz Center Jülich), Gunnar JESCHKE (ETH Zürich), P.K. MADHU (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Hyderabad), Jennifer MATHIES (Univ. Konstanz), Ilia SOLOV’YOV (Univ. Oldenburg).
Organizer: Jörg Matysik (Univ. Leipzig).
Practical information: see below.
(4) INFORMATION ON SUMMER SCHOOL 2024
„Solid-state NMR“: 10 – 16 March 2024
Summer school III has been hold from Sun/10 March to Sat/16 March 2023 at the Youth hostel at Windischleuba.
Topics have been: Basics of solid-state NMR, quantum mechanics, spin-interactions, tensors, Euler angles, static case, MAS, CP, instrumentation, decoupling, recoupling, operators, AHT, multidimensional experiments, molecular motion, polymers, quadrupolar nuclei, biomolecules, protons at high MAS and high field.
Teachers: Amir Goldbourt (Tel Aviv University), Olivier Lafon (Université de Lille), P.K. Madhu (TIFR Hyderabad), Kay Saalwächter (Universität Halle-Wittenberg), Albert Smith (Universität Leipzig), Zdeněk Tošner (Charles Univ. Prague), Thomas Wiegand (Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen).
Organizer: Jörg Matysik (Univ. Leipzig).
Program: here.
(5) INFORMATION ON SUMMER SCHOOL 2023
„Relaxation“ in 2023
Summer school II has been hold from Sun/26 March to Sat/1 April 2023 at the Youth hostel at Windischleuba.
The topics: Basics of NMR, basic quantum mechanics, Hamiltonians, Liouville space and super operators, Redfield theory, correlation functions and spectral density functions, relaxation pathways, relaxation mechanisms, relaxation in solids, relaxometry, paramagnetic relaxation, thermalization, Lindblaad formalism.
The teachers have been: Christian Bengs (Univ. Southampton), Matthias Ernst (ETH Zürich), Amir Goldbourt (Tel Aviv University), Paul Schanda (IST Austria), Albert Smith (Univ. Leipzig).
Organizer: Jörg Matysik (Univ. Leipzig).
(6) INFORMATION ON SUMMER SCHOOL 2022
„GENERAL NMR“ in 2022
Summer School I „General NMR“ has been be hold from Sun 27th March to Sat 2nd April 2022.
The school has been dedicated to basic concepts of NMR and EPR.
Topics: Quantum mechanics of NMR and EPR, Relaxation, Spin interactions, Density operator formalism, Product operator formalism, simulation software „Simpson“ , Solid state NMR: MAS and CP, Decoupling and recoupling, Multidimensional experiments, Hyperpolarization
Teachers: Tatyana Polenova (Univ. Delaware), Christian Bengs (Univ. Southampton), Gunnar Jeschke (ETH Zürich), P.K. Madhu (TIFR Hyderabad), Jörg Matysik (Univ. Leipzig), Paul Schanda (IST Austria), Zdenek Tosner (Charles Univ. Prague).
(7) PRACTICAL INFORMATION
- Participants pay for TRANSPORT by themself.
- The FEE of the Summer School covers accommodation, food, participation on the entire program incl. teaching documents.
- Information about the Youth Hostel „Schloss Windischleuba“: see more.
Q: Is the summer school only for PhD students?
A: No, also MSc students, postdocs and even young group leaders are welcome to attend. The motivation needs to be explained in the application.
Q: What kind of lectures will be given at the summer school? Will professors give presentations or they will use blackboard to give lectures?
A: Teachers will use „Power Point“ and traditional blackboard. Print-outs on paper and PDFs will be provided. A tablet allowing to add notes tom the PDFs might be the perfect tool.
Q: In case there will be a script, is it possible to get it in electronic form earlier so one could have them during lectures and make notes much easier and more complete?
A: The printed script will be available when the school starts. The PDFs will be also available per „Dropbox“ cloud storage.
Q: Will be an examination at the end of the course?
A: There will be no examination.
Q: Will there be a poster session for students?
A: There will be no poster session or something similar. The teaching program will be entirely done by the teachers. Discussions among students and with the teachers are strongly encouraged at the whole time.
Q: How to reach the Youth Hostel on Sunday?
A: From Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Hbf, Main Station) to Altenburg by S-Bahn (regional train S5 and S5X), see: „www.bahn.de“ (German Railways, several languages available at the right top side). Train will take about 40 minutes. As we experienced, the transport function of Google Maps might MISGUIDE you. HERE is a map for the local transport. Altenburg is located in between Leipzig and Zwickau.
Walking from station Altenburg to the Youth hostel might take you an hour (1h) on a natural road. If you are lucky, also taxis are available. There are also local busses. If you are too late, Hotel Astor, close to the Altenburg railway station might provide you a shelter. At Leipzig Hbf are plenty of hotels: stay there if you risk to become too late.
Q: What type of food can I expect?
A: Proper traditional German cuisine (as Schnitzel and Bratwurst). If you are lucky, there also might be even the very local Mutzbraten. Indian students might enjoy Curry Ketchup. At the Youth hostel, there is also a coke machine, and wine and beer will be available. The next supermarket (Rewe) will be 30 min by walking. Veg and vegan can be handled easily. Gluten-free food can be organized.
Q: Can I require special food?
A: Although the kitchen team is very small and no reasonable person can expect 5-star hotel service, they manage to organize for the main dishes also veg and vegan food as well as gluten-free meals. For the cake in the afternoon, unfortunately, no variations are available.
Q: Do I have to bring towels/bed covers?
A: Please bring TOWELS with you. Bed covers will be provided.
Q: Which comfort of accommodation can I expect?
A: It is a nice old Youth Hostel with mainly 4- or 6-bed rooms, each having its own bathroom attached. By the way, there might be some dust in the old castle.
Q: Is there a castle ghost?
A: We do not know exactly. There always has been serious rumor about it. March 2026 first documents were presented (published on LinkedIn). The ghost might appear mainly at midnight. Also, to the best of our knowledge, no Hamiltonian including the action of the ghost into spin dynamics has been discussed yet in the scientific literature.
Q: Which type of clothing will be required?
A: Informal clothing. Be prepared that it might be cold in Germany during the early spring. We will be staying in a really old castle which is not always fully heated. A set of warm cloths is probably advisable.
Q: Should I travel with suitcase or backpacker?
A: For the transport by bus on Sun and on Sat, there is a kind request by the bus company since space for luggage is limited: Please do not travel with hard protective suitcases.
Q: How much magnetic resonance I need to know to understand the lectures?
A: You need to be acquainted with terms as: eigen state, resonance, 90-degree pulse, offset, coherence, FID, FT, chemical shift, J-coupling, dipolar interaction, T1, T2, the principle of 2D experiments. Read in the NMR highly recognized text books of, e.g., Harald Günther, James Keeler or Malcolm Levitt much as possible. For advanced readers: the wonderful text book by K.L.Ivanov, P.K. Madhu, and G. Rajalakshmi (here) originates from the teaching of our Windischleuba school. I am extremely glad about that! And it is a monument dedicated to my dear friend, the late Konstantin Ivanov, which I miss very much.
Q: Is it possible to join per video conference?
A: Talks and exercises have also be broadcasted via Zoom. Participation per Zoom also needs enrolement. Online participants will not receive a certificate of attendance. Not yet clear whether that service will be offered in 2027.
Q: Will students obtain ECTS points?
A: No. The summer school is not part of any official university teaching programme and has no final examination.
Q: What about a Whatsapp group?
A: That is a great idea! Lets do this! When you will be invited to the meeting, you also will receive a QR code for the Whatsapp group. It also might provide you with fresh travel Information on the way to Windischleuba.