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National seminar on neutron and X-ray scattering

Serpong, Indonesia, August 2005

[Seminar crowd]The 6th National Seminar on Neutron and X-ray Scattering was held at the National Nuclear Energy Agency of Indonesia (BATAN) in Serpong, Indonesia on August 3, 2005. The one-day seminar was attended by more than 120 participants coming from local universities and research institutes including 16 scientists from abroad. Eight speakers from India, UK, Australia, Japan, Singapore and Indonesia were invited to this seminar and presented oral talks. Meanwhile, 39 posters from the participants were also presented.

The seminar was officially opened by the Chairman of BATAN, Soedyartomo Soentono, and followed by a general talk on neutron scattering in soft condensed matter given by S. Goyal (UGC-DAE Consortium for Scientific Research, BARC, India). A. Ikram (Head of Neutron Scattering Lab from BATAN, Indonesia) gave a brief presentation on the neutron scattering facilities in Serpong. Another talk on some applications of small-angle X-ray scattering in complex liquid crystalline systems was delivered by G. Ungar (U. of Sheffield, UK). A review on small angle neutron scattering (SANS) in biological materials was presented by R. Knott (ANSTO, Australia). After a lunch break there was a presentation made by J.R.C. Van der Maarel (National U. of Singapore) with the title of ionic diblock copolymer micelles: small angle scattering estimates of charge ordering in the coronal layer. Z. Nurachman (ITB, Indonesia) presented a talk on protein X-ray crystallography. A talk on neutron stress measurement of W-fiber reinforced Cu composite was delivered by M. Nishida (Kobe City College of Technology, Japan). S. Mazumder (BARC, India) gave a talk on small angle scattering: the Indian scenario. Finally, the seminar was officially closed by the Deputy Chairman of BATAN, Pramudita Anggraita.

Prior to the seminar a two-day workshop was held in the neutron scattering laboratory in Serpong. The workshop was attended by more than 30 participants including 6 participants from abroad, i.e. Malaysia and Mexico. They were divided into two groups depending on their topic of interest, i.e. small angle neutron scattering and residual stress analyses. During the workshop, a lecture on basic theories of neutron and X-ray scattering was given by A. Purwanto (BATAN, Indonesia), meanwhile the lectures on theories of SANS, SAXS and residual stress analyses were given by the invited speakers mentioned above including a young scientist, V.K. Aswal (BARC, India), who gave an enlightening lecture on the principle of SANS and data reduction and N. Minakwa (Japan) gave in impressive talk on residual stress analyses. The participants were given an opportunity to experience hands-on training using the SANS machine and powder diffractometer for residual stress measurements and they carried out data analysis together with their tutors.

Besides facilitating an exchange of ideas, knowledge, and experience, the workshop and seminar were also aimed at attracting people especially the local researchers to make use of the neutron scattering facilities in Serpong for their research. Feedback from the participants revealed that they were impressed by the program and they looked forward to attending the continuation program planned next year in Bandung, West Java.

Edy Giri R. Putra & Sutiarso