Delta Science Institute provides free interactive courses for Ph.D. students interested to enhance their experience in computational quantum chemistry.
✨ How to Enroll in the Course
To join, you’ll need to:
Be a current Ph.D. student* at a university.
Maintain (or create) a LinkedIn profile with an “About” section and your current university affiliation.
Send your initial solution to dsi_course_dft@dsedu.org. Please include in your email:
A link to your LinkedIn profile
Your university affiliation
Once enrolled, you’ll receive personalized guidance and feedback throughout the course. If you make mistakes or need help, you’ll get corrections, explanations, and recommendations until you reach the correct solution.
Important for all interested students!
Enrollment in the DFT course is confirmed only after you submit your solution to the introductory tasks.
Why? Because this ensures you begin learning actively from day one. After sending your solution, you’ll receive feedback, corrections (if needed), and your official course enrollment.
Start building your DFT foundation today — your journey into computational quantum chemistry begins with the first step!
* While the course was originally designed for Ph.D. students, motivated Master’s students who plan to use Density Functional Theory (DFT) in their research are very welcome to join. This hands-on experience can become a real asset for your M.S. thesis and future career in academia or industry.
Special Note for Postdoctoral Researchers:
As a Postdoc, you already bring advanced knowledge and research experience. That’s why your path in this course is designed to be more challenging and rewarding. Instead of the introductory approach (Method 1) in Introduction to DFT, you will be expected to work with Method 2, which is closer to real research-level DFT applications, or even propose your own original solution.
This ensures that your project is not only a learning exercise but also a demonstration of your independent research capability—something that can strengthen your scientific portfolio, add to your publication record, or open doors for advanced collaborations.
At the end, your well-documented solution will serve as a formal endorsement of your expertise in computational quantum chemistry.
📘 How the Course Works
Step-by-step learning: Start with the Introduction and progress through a series of small, connected tasks. Each task builds on the previous one, so study them in order.
Guided practice: The first few tasks come with solutions. Study these carefully, then apply your new knowledge to solve the remaining tasks.
Support & feedback: Share your solutions via email at dsi_course_dft@dsedu.org. If there are any mistakes or inaccuracies, you’ll receive personalized feedback and recommendations until your solution is correct.
Documentation: Submit your solutions in Word or LaTeX format.
Copying formulas: If you need to copy formulas from the webpage, simply right-click on the formula and select MathML or LaTeX format to paste it into your document.
By following this approach, you’ll learn actively, correct mistakes as you go, and build solid, practical skills in computational quantum chemistry.
🎓 Certificate & Recognition
At the successful completion of the course, you’ll receive an official Certificate from Delta Science Institute along with a personal recommendation on your LinkedIn profile to showcase your achievement.
To earn your Certificate, you’ll demonstrate your skills by:
Completing recommended methods (or even designing your own innovative method),
Submitting well-documented solutions that include both the theoretical explanation and your developed programming module,
Providing data files and graphs that clearly present your results.
Motivation tip: Make your solution well documented, because you can later use it as a solid foundation for your Ph.D. thesis or future research work.
This way, your work is not just graded — it becomes a portfolio piece that highlights your expertise in computational quantum chemistry and supports your academic career.
Additional Requirements for Certificate Eligibility
To ensure that your learning experience is authentic and meaningful, and to help you build valuable skills for your research career, please note the following requirements:
Original Work – Your submitted solution must be prepared independently and reflect your own understanding and effort.
Documentation & Explanation – Along with your solution, please include a short explanation (1–2 paragraphs) describing your approach, key steps, and what you learned. This demonstrates your personal understanding and strengthens your scientific writing skills.
Extension/Modification – In some tasks, you will be asked to extend or slightly modify the provided method (for example, apply it to a different potential or compare with analytical results). This ensures that you go beyond replication and develop independent problem-solving ability.
By following these steps, you will not only qualify for the Certificate from Delta Science Institute, but also create a documented piece of work you can proudly use in your PhD thesis, research portfolio, or LinkedIn profile.
The list of the courses
Introduction to Density Functional Theory
Introduction to Green's Functions (under development)
Advanced in DFT (under development)
Electron Transport (under development)
Theory of Magnetic Resonances (under development)
Introduction to Quantum Espresso (under development)
Introduction to Yambo (under development)
Introduction to Schottky Barrier (under development)
Introduction to Ammonia Fuel Cells (under development)
Introduction to Density Functional Theory
Level of difficulty: 3/10, 7/10, or 10/10
Summary
This interactive course is developed for Ph.D. students who are already familiar with Quantum Mechanics and have experience with one of the programming languages, Fortran, C++, Python, or any other high-level programming languages, and want to enhance their experience with computational quantum chemistry methods.
During your work on this course you will study introduction to Density Functional Theory (DFT) and will make your own DFT code from scratch. The length of the course depends on your experience and can be completed during one month, if you already have some knowledge about DFT and computational methods of mathematical physics, or during 6-12 months if you just started study of DFT and computational methods. There is available short version of the course without intensive DFT coding. In short course you will study two computational methods to solve differential equations, like Schrödinger equation, numerically.
The course-specific requirements
- knowledge of Quantum Mechanics;
- experience with one of the high-level programming languages (Fortran, C++, Python).
The course goal
After the course you will have experience in DFT coding, will build your own DFT program from scratch, and will be able to apply this program to solve the following task:
To calculate the lowest eigenvalue and eigenfunction of an isolated C5+ ion within the LDA using the Ceperley–Alder exchange–correlation functional as parameterized by Perdew and Zunger. Compare numerical solution with analytical solution from Schrödinger equation.