Denver X-ray Conference

The 44th annual Denver Conference on Applications of X-ray Analysis was held in Colorado Springs, Colorado, July 1995. There were 386 attendees for the two days of workshops and three days of technical sessions on both diffraction and fluorescence analysis. The Charles S. Barrett award in X-ray Diffraction was presented to Paul K. Predecki for his many activities in the measurement of physical properties of bulk materials as well as his leadership of the Denver Conference for over ten years.

The highlight of the meeting was the plenary session devoted to a historical review of X-ray analysis including topics on the early development of instrumentation (1950-1970) by J. L. de Vries. Other topics included later instrumentation, software from 1950 to present, development of X-ray fluorescence, and a general history of analytical techniques for diffraction analysis. The afternoon featured the Ben Post Commemorative Session where the manufacturers also described early developments in instrumentation. One interesting anecdote concerned the request of Röntgen to Siemens for a discount on some manufactured tubes because he thought the price was too high.