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International Centre for Diffraction Data news

Executive Director announced

[Tom Blanton] Tom Blanton

Tom Blanton has been named as new Executive Director at the International Centre for Diffraction Data (ICDD).

Tom is a long-time ICDD member, an ICDD Distinguished Fellow, and past Director and Chairman of the Board of Directors. He joined the ICDD staff in 2013 as Publication Manager, and was later promoted to Principal Scientist and Database Manager. Prior to joining the ICDD staff, Tom graduated from Emory U. in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and was a member of the research staff at Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, NY, USA. While at Kodak, he served a dual role as an Analytical Scientist and Materials Characterization Scientist, reaching the position of Senior Principal Scientist. During his tenure at Eastman Kodak, Tom assumed a leadership role where he supervised an X-ray Spectroscopy laboratory and invented, developed and commercialized materials. He is the co-inventor for 46 USA and 60 international patents, author or co-author of 180+ external publications including four book chapters, and author or co-author on over 275 external presentations. Tom's extensive background in X-ray diffraction and his broad and varied knowledge of ICDD, its products and services, along with his experience in management and R&D for product development, will facilitate his successful transition to his new role as ICDD's Executive Director.

2017 Ludo Frevel crystallography scholarship recipients

The ICDD Ludo Frevel Crystallography Scholarship Committee has selected 10 recipients for the 2017 Scholarship Program. These recipients were selected, on a competitive basis, from 43 commendable applications received by the ICDD Scholarship Committee.

[Ivana Brekalo] Ivana Brekalo (USA), 'Solid-State Synthesis and Templation of Metal-Organic Frameworks' [Kipil Lim] Kipil Lim (USA), 'Study of Battery Materials Through Operando X-ray Analysis'
[Haoyan Diao] Haoyan Diao (USA), 'In situ Neutron Studies of the Atomic Distributions and Dislocation Evolutions in the Alcocrfeni High-Entropy Alloy System' [Annalise Maughan] Annalise Maughan (USA), 'Organic-Inorganic Coupling and Disorder in Hybrid Perovskite Halide Semiconductors'
[Debasmita Dwibedi] Debasmita Dwibedi (India), 'Synergetic Approaches Using Diffraction Tools in Probing the Structure-Property Correlation in Novel Sodium Battery Materials' [Christopher Mizzi] Christopher Mizzi (USA), 'The Role of Octahedral Rotations and Distortions in Flexoelectric Phenomena'
[Stanislav Fedotov] Stanislav Fedotov (Russia), 'Interrelation Between Crystal Structure and Electrochemical Properties in Cathode Materials for Rechargeable Batteries' [Patrick Tung] Patrick Tung (Australia), 'Diffuse Scattering: The Role of Local Disorder in Environmentally-Friendly Piezoelectric Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-x%BaTiO3'
[Igor Huskic] Igor Huskic (Canada), 'Real-Time Monitoring of Solid-State Reactions Using X-ray Powder Diffraction' [Yujun Xie] Yujun Xie (USA), 'Subcritical Nuclei-Coupled Crystal Growth in Metallic Glasses'

The ICDD will present each of these students with a check in the amount of $2,500 to assist in the continuation of studies in their selected fields of crystallographic research.

The ICDD has awarded 191 scholarships since 1991, totaling over $454,750. Scholarship awards are made possible by donations from both individuals and corporations. One hundred percent of all donations to the scholarship fund are applied to student funding, as defined by the program's charter.