Canadian Powder Diffraction Workshop

Saskatoon, Canada, May 2012

T. rex, the oldest attendee.

Attendees at the Canadian Powder Diffraction Workshop.

Practical session at the Canadian Powder Diffraction Workshop.

The 9th Canadian Powder diffraction workshop was held in the Dept of Geology, the U. of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. Over 50% of the 30 attendees were from Saskatchewan and further west. There was an evening barbecue and a tour of the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron.

It was the first time GSAS-II had been unveiled publicly, and students were given the opportunity of training on this and the established GSAS/EXPGUI suite. To enhance the training experience, all attendees worked on their own laptops. There were morning lectures and afternoon practicals,with hands-on experience in operating PDFGUI, GSAS and GSAS-II. Bob Von Dreele (ANL), Joel Reid (CLS), Ian Swainson (NRC and CCNI), Pamela Whitfield (NRC), Angus Wilkinson (Georgia Tech), and Thomas Proffen (ORNL) covered neutron and synchrotron diffraction; crystallography fundamentals; powder diffraction basics; sample preparation and phase identification; Rietveld fundamentals; GSAS, PDF, total scattering, and PDFGUI. The workshop was sponsored by the Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation and supported by the U. of Saskatchewan, CLS, the National Research Council, and the Canadian Institute for Neutron Scattering.