2014 SMB Imaging Summer School

The 1st SSRL SXRMI (Synchrotron X-ray MicroXAS Imaging) School will provide a practical users' guide to planning and conducting microXAS imaging experiments at SSRL beam lines. Students will participate in hands-on sessions at the beam lines, including on the following facilities: hard x-ray microXAS imaging (BL2-3), hard X-ray mesoprobe XAS imaging (BL10-2), and the newest microXAS imaging "tender" energy beam line (BL14-3). The hands-on sessions will be paired with several sessions of data analysis and data mining of imaging data. The School will also cover new instrumentation and techniques at SSRL microXAS imaging beam lines and will include topics that can only be learned by direct access and experience at the facility through on-the-experiment training.

This school will provide a practical users' guide to planning and conducting microscale imaging and spectroscopy measurements at SSRL beam lines, and will cover important techniques including X-ray fluorescence imaging, microscale and mesoscale X-ray absorption spectroscopy, as well as hard and tender X-ray experimental ranges. The school will address topics that are not commonly included in text books or class lectures, and typically obtained only through on-the-experiment training. There will be:

• Introductory session to SSRL imaging beam lines
• Sessions of sample preparation tips, tricks and experimental planning
• Hands-on sessions at SSRL beam lines
• Sessions of data processing and analysis
• Sessions of spectroscopy theory

The school will also cover new instrumentation at SSRL imaging beam lines.

This school has been made possible with support from the DOE-BES.

The ACA Summer Course in Chemical Crystallography is a program that is now into its third decade of instruction here in the United States. The current incarnation of the course is directed towards Single-Crystal Chemical Crystallography and Powder Diffraction techniques, as applicable to small molecule studies. The course is designed to instruct attendees in the theory and practice of these two aspects of crystallography.

The course is held every summer, in even years at The University of Notre Dame, and in odd years at Northwestern University.

No prior knowledge of crystallography is expected from attendees. However, a good understanding of undergraduate level chemistry, physics and mathematics is desirable. While the course is geared towards graduate level attendees, applications from strong undergraduate students will be considered. Past course attendees have included faculty members and industrial researchers.Â

48th Crystallographic Course at Ettore Majorana Centre, Erice, Italy

X-ray crystallography is the pre-eminent technique for obtaining the three dimensional structures of organic materials. Understanding the translation of molecules to crystals and thought functional assembles is key if we want to be able to predict and control the assembly of matter with sufficient certainty and precision to allow preparation of materials and assemblies with far more sophisticated properties and functions than are accessible in materials synthesized using current methods. Great advances continue to be made in determining crystal structures, allowing the pace of structural understanding to increase and making it possible to respond rapidly to emerging opportunities in crystal and particle engineering. This course will help to equip the next generation of scientists with a deep understanding of the tools they need to prototype and engineer crystals to design materials with increasingly sophisticated properties.

The course has two core objectives. Firstly, it will provide a review of the fundamentals and the application of crystallography to molecule to crystal to functional form design together with an evaluation of the technology at the present state. Secondly, it will review the progress in this field and summarize the application and results to other fields of interest across speciality chemicals and other fields

Topics to be discussed include:
• Molecular Structure, Chirality, Crystallography and Crystal Chemistry
• Solution Supersaturation, Nucleation and Crystal Growth Fundamentals
• Defects, Reactivity and Mechanical Properties
• Molecular to Crystal Science Modelling Route Map
• Molecular and Solid-State Data Informatics
• Nano Particle Production and Dispersion
• Advanced Multi-scale Modelling
• Process Analytics and Crystal Characterisation
• Orientational Disordered Crystals and Liquid Crystals
• Reverse Engineering: Learning from Practice
• Forward Perspective: Grand Challenges in Directed Assembly

The total fee, inclusive of registration, boarding and lodging during the course, is 1,200 Euro for European Community residents and the equivalent in hard currency for the remaining ones.

In order to reflect the multi-disciplinary nature of the Course, attendants will be selected on the basis of the scientific discipline, publication record and the connection between their current research and the listed topics. The application date might also become a priority element. Financial support for young applicants (under 35 of age) is conditional to the success of the several applications submitted by the organizing committee to international and national sources.

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On the occasion of the International Year of Crystallography, the French National Neutron Society is organizing an international school on "CRYSTALLOGRAPHY AND NEUTRONS" which will be held in Oléron (France) from 21 to 24th September 2014. There is still time to register (deadline: June 30).

This school suits beginners and advanced researchers wishing to explore and use the capabilities of neutron scattering. The courses will be taught in English.

For European (non-French) students, NMI3 can support the participation of students preparing a formation in a Non-French European University in the frame of "Neutron and Muon European Schools" (NaMES).

The school will focus on the specific strengths of neutron scattering (magnetism, light elements, contrast methods) and present the most relevant neutron techniques for various materials, their limitations and their application fields. It will also show the main technical characteristics of neutron scattering spectrometers available to the French and European communities of crystallographers, chemists, physicists and specialists of Materials Science.

The training will take place over 4 days, during which lectures on the different techniques of neutron scattering will be provided together with practicals. Specificity and complementarity of these techniques with other laboratory techniques (diffraction and X-ray scattering, reflectivity, X-ray spectroscopy and Raman inelastic scattering) will be highlighted.

Fan du LLB is an annual school delivered in French and offering young French-speaking researchers a first contact with real experimental neutron scattering. The school is aimed at students and post-docs working in all scientific areas where neutrons can provide valuable insights, although priority is given to those having never had any contact with neutrons scattering.

After an introduction to neutron sources and neutron scattering, ten different thematic subjects based on different scientific problems that can be addressed by neutron scattering, are proposed to the students. In groups of four to five, the students are then introduced to two different neutrons scattering technique, during three days devoted to experiments and data analysis. One of the distinguishing features of our school is that the students often come with their own samples, which are tested during the training together with our demonstration samples. This ensures a good and efficient participation of the students. The course lasts for 3.5 days.

The 2014 IUCr Crystallographic Computing School will take place at La Cité collégiale in Ottawa, Canada. It will introduce modern methods of programming crystallographic calculations in a series of lectures and in-depth tutorials by leading crystallographic software developers. Our teachers are drawn from across the crystallographic world and include experts in protein, small-molecule and powder crystallography. By working together, we aim to share what we know with the next generation of crystallographic developers.

The School is intended for senior postgraduates and postdocs in all areas of crystallography (including macro- and small-molecule crystallography, powder diffraction, and small-angle scattering) who may want to become involved in software development, but lack experience in this.

The registration fee will be C$325; self-catering accommodation in College apartments is available from C$50 a night.

The registration deadline is June 27th 2014.

• Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics Research (OPERA) in Kyushu University, Japan,
• Polish Supramolecular Chemistry Network Foundation, and the
• Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland.

The School aims at an audience including researchers and academics as well as beginners or advanced graduate students or post-docs in Solid State Physics, Chemistry and Material Science (expected number of participants is 80). The training objectives of the school are:

• to highlight the specific contribution of neutron scattering for studying the wide variety of crystalline materials with respect to other techniques,
• to present the different neutron techniques (diffraction, reflectometry, 3-axes spectroscopy, … ) with their most relevant limitations and their application fields,
• to promote exchanges between the participants and the senior researchers and well-trained users working on large scale facilities.
  Introductory lectures (crystallography, properties of neutrons and neutron sources) will be given at the beginning of school before detailing more specific techniques for neutron measurements applied to the various problems (nuclear structure / dynamics / magnetism) and studied materials (powder / single crystal / thin film) as well as the main technical characteristics associated with spectrometers.
  Practicals on data analysis will be organized to complete the theoretical training.

The whole training will be published in a volume of the "collection SFN" (EDP sciences). All previous published books can be dowloaded via http://www.neutron-sciences.org/ (free access).

This HERCULES Specialized Course will address non-crystallographic X-ray and neutron scattering techniques for structural biology and soft matter with a focus on small angle scattering, reflectometry and fibre diffraction. An introduction to the theory as well as recent state-of-the-art examples from a multitude of systems (proteins, polymers, membranes, fibres, colloids etc.) will be presented as well as recent developments in sample environment and data analysis. Furthermore, two practical days on two ILL instruments (D17 and D33) and two ESRF beamlines (BM02 and BM29) will be proposed. The course is aimed at PhD students, postdocs and scientists in the field of physics, chemistry and biology who want to learn more on the theoretical background, practical aspects and applications of these techniques.

Programme

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OpenLab and crystallographic training in X-ray Powder Diffraction

Partners of IUCr and UNESCO for OpenLab Ghana: PANalytical BV

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Venue:Â Department of Physics, University of Ghana in Accra, Ghana

Important dates
Application deadline (with financial support request): 5 May 2014

Participation in this OpenLab is limited to 30 students (a minimum of 10 is required to confirm the OpenLab).

A UNESCO/International Union of Crystallography initiative in collaboration with PANalytical BV, F. Malawi Engineering Co. Ltd., and the Department of Physics at the University of Ghana in Accra, Ghana.

We invite you to register for training scheduled for 09 â€" 12 June 2014 at the “Centre for African Wetlands”, Ebenezer Laing Road, on the campus of the University of Ghana in Accra. Diffraction equipment is housed in the Department of Physics on campus.

Lecturers:

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• Prof Gilberto Artioli (Università di Padova), co-author of the volume “Fundamentals of Crystallography”, C. Giacovazzo ed., IUCr-Oxford University Press, and author of “Scientific Methods and Cultural Heritage”, Oxford University Press.
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• Dr. Nicholas Norberg (PANalytical)

Read more and register here:
http://www.panalytical.com/Event/OpenLab-Ghana.htm

Closing date for participation is 5 May 2014

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The main objective of the "Soft-Inter2014" school is to present a state of the art on self-assemblies and of their related concepts together with their characterization in the three disciplines, i.e. physics, chemistry and biology, in order to generate debates and communications in between scientific communities. An extremely didactic approach will be requested to the speakers, all of them being scientists involved in cross-disciplinary research of very high level. In addition, each two-hours course will be coupled to a brainstorming workshop hosted by the lecturer and a moderator of another discipline that will help in stimulating discussion. These discussions will compare the different views on the weak interactions, and help to identify purely semantic discrepancies on this adisciplinary concept.

14 to 25 October 2013 â€" Florianópolis - Brazil

In this School of Advanced Studies will be treated theoretical and practical aspects of crystallographic methods applied to the determination of the chemical structure of materials. The proposed themes for the School involve all material science, control and Description of industrial crystallization processes, nanotechnology, and especially polymorphism and co-crystallisation of drugs. The second school in Crystallization and Crystallography for Latin America (ECRISLA) will feature internationally recognized experts and will be taught at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil.

Theoretical aspects

Theoretical studies of X-ray diffraction of single crystals to determine new structures using area detectors. Theoretical studies of X-ray diffraction powder for identifying polymorphs and co-crystals in drugs and the possibilities of determination of average crystallite size and microstrain.

 Practical aspects

Knowledge and experience applied to problems crystallography using X-ray diffraction monocrystal using area detectors in different fields of research. Applications of the techniques of X-ray diffraction of the powder to the study and control of active pharmaceutical ingredients in industrial level. Use and practical software for determination of average crystallite size and microstrain.