CNL's first Virtual Neutron Scattering School (VNSS)

November 30 until December 4, 2020

The curriculum covers a broad range of neutron scattering methods applicable to a variety of scientific areas, including magnetism, thin films, structural materials, and soft materials. The school is aimed at graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and early-career researchers with backgrounds in physics, chemistry, materials science, engineering, biology, or mineralogy, with little or no prior knowledge of neutron scattering techniques.

Program

The School consists of morning lectures and afternoon interactive experimental simulation sessions.

Draft Program

Lectures

Lectures will be presented by national and international experts and will provide in-depth coverage of neutron scattering theory, methods, and applications. Several lectures will also illustrate applications of neutrons beyond neutron scattering, including materials irradiation and testing, isotope production, and boron neutron capture therapy.

Lecture topics will include:

• Properties of neutrons

• Basic theory of neutron scattering (elastic and inelastic)

• Powder diffraction

• Strain measurement and stress determination

• Crystallographic texture measurements and analysis

• Triple-Axis Spectroscopy (TAS)

• Small-Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS)

• Neutron reflectometry

• Neutron imaging

• Advances in neutron instrumentation

• Application of neutron scattering (industrial, biological, surface sciences, and quantum materials)

• Other applications of neutrons beyond scattering (irradiation, nuclear forensics, isotope production and boron neutron capture therapy)

• Neutron sources (research reactors, spallation, and compact accelerator based)Â
  

Experimental Simulations

The afternoon experimental simulation sessions will cover several thermal-neutron scattering techniques to reinforce the concepts presented in the morning lectures. There will be ample opportunity to interact with experts and to learn first-hand how data are acquired and analyzed.

Simulation sessions will include:

• Powder diffraction (Monday)

• Reflectometry (Tuesday)

• Stress/strain/texture measurements and analysis (Wednesday)

• Inelastic scattering (Thursday)
  

Students will be able to attend all or only a selection of the lectures and simulations based on their interests and availability. We recommend the students to attend all the experimental simulation sessions to gain experience in these important neutron scattering methods.

Certificate of Attendance

A Certificate of Attendance will be issued to participants who attend ALL sessions. Course credit may be offered to students at the discretion of their educational institution. CNL staff will be able to register this training in CNL's online Learning Management System (LMS) using the Self-Reported Training feature.

Registration

There is no registration fee and the School is open to all. Space is limited and will be allotted on a first come-first served basis.

Registration is now open until October 30, 2020. Â

Contact us

Address further inquiries to school organizer Dr. Zahra Yamani ([email protected]).

Looking forward to (virtually) seeing you at CNL’s First Virtual Neutron Scattering School!

This one month course, coordinated by the Université Grenoble Alpes, is designed to provide training for students, postdoctoral and senior scientists from European and non-European universities and laboratories, in the field of Neutron and Synchrotron Radiation for condensed matter studies (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Materials Science, Geosciences, Industrial applications). It includes lectures, practicals and tutorials, visits of Large Facilities and a poster session (each participant puts up a poster about her/his thesis or research topic for a day).

• PART I:Â BASIC METHODS AND INSTRUMENTSÂ :
  (This part is common for all the participants - 1.5 weeks)
• PART II is divided into two parallel specialized sessions (3.5 weeks) :
  • Session A:Â PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY OF CONDENSED MATTER
  • Session B:Â BIOMOLECULAR STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS

A special seven days programme is included , in a partner institution among European Large instruments. In 2021, one week (out of the five of the school) will be spent in one different partner institutions among 4:

• ALBA synchrotron in Barcelona, Spain
• KIT Light Source in Karlsruhe, Germany
• Elettra and FERMI in Trieste, Italy
• Swiss Light Source / Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen, Switzerland

The language of the course is English.

The workshop has been designed for postgraduate, postdoctoral and research scientists that deal with macromolecular crystallography and cryo EM but need further knowledge on the routine uses, the state of the art and fundamentals that underlie the modern techniques for macromolecular crystallography and cryo EM. The topics will cover crystallographic computing and fundamentals using XDS, CCP4 and Phenix, as well as the state of the art on topics such as the strategies for protein production, biophysical methods, data collection, phasing, automated pipelines at synchrotron and refinement with ARCIMBOLDO, SHELX and SIR2014 and modeling with COOT.

MCS2020 will provide six days of lectures and workshops. The course is designed for 25 highly motivated attendants.


Requests to participate must be sent by a free-formated E-mail, before March 11th, 2020 to the following address: [email protected] , indicating the motivation to participate and experience on macromolecular crystallography and including a letter of recommendation from PhD Director (only for PhD students).

The workshop includes a symposium, lectures, and hands-on experiments at the High Flux Isotope Reactor (IMAGINE, BIO-SANS) and the Spallation Neutron Source (EQ-SANS, LIQREF, MaNDi, Neutron Spin Echo Spectrometer). The workshop is designed for graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and faculty with knowledge of structure and function of biological macromolecules but with limited to no experience with neutron sciences.

The aim of the school is to illustrate principles, methodologies and most recent applications of neutron detection technologies. In particular, the school will tackle various arguments that span from neutron interaction principles, materials for neutrons detectors, neutron sources, Monte Carlo simulation codes, up to applications with neutrons.

• data processing;
• phasing and structure determination;
• model refinement and validation;
• introduction to crystallography + cryo-electron microscopy integration

This year, a one-week "CHRNS Summer School on Methods and Applications of Small Angle Neutron Scattering and Neutron Reflectivity" will be held June 1-5, 2020 at the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR).Â

This school provides participants the opportunity to learn about small angle neutron scattering (SANS), and neutron reflectometry (NR) at the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR), via hands-on practical training and theoretical classes. These powerful experimental techniques are used by researchers in a variety of scientific disciplines to probe the microstructure of materials at length scales ranging from 1nm to 20 microns. The NCNR is home to world-class SANS, USANS (Ultra Small Angle Neutron Scattering), VSANS and NR instruments, which are available to all qualified researchers through the NCNR's anonymous, peer review proposal system.

Please note that this year the school will not cover inelastic neutron scattering.Â

Application deadline: 6th April 2020. The school is restricted to 42 participants.Â

Topics:

• The development of various 3D electron diffraction/MicroED techniques â€" a historical perspective
• Introduction to transmission electron microscopy and electron diffraction
• 3D electron diffraction/MicroED (SAED, PED, EDT) and space group determinationÂ
• Sample preparation for both materials and life sciencesÂ
• 3D ED/MicroED Data collection  Â
• Radiation damage  Â
• 3D ED Data Processing and data merging including practical demo labs
• Methods for phasing diffraction data â€" small molecules and macromolecules
• Practical demo labs for structure solution and refinement with 3D ED/MicroED data â€" two groups for small molecules and macromolecules, respectively
• Dynamical refinement
• New developments in 3D electron crystallography

This one month course, coordinated by the Université Grenoble Alpes, is designed to provide training for students, postdoctoral and senior scientists from European and non-European universities and laboratories, in the field of Neutron and Synchrotron Radiation for condensed matter studies (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Materials Science, Geosciences, Industrial applications). It includes lectures, practicals and tutorials, visits of Large Facilities and a poster session (each participant puts up a poster about her/his thesis or research topic for a day).

• PART I: BASIC METHODS AND INSTRUMENTS :
  (This part is common for all the participants - 1.5 weeks)
• PART II is divided into two parallel specialized sessions (3.5 weeks) :
  • Session A: PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY OF CONDENSED MATTER
  • Session B: BIOMOLECULAR STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS

The language of the course is English.

This workshop is aimed at PhD students, post-doctoral fellows and any researchers or engineers involved in the field of bio-crystallography.Â

The workshop will contain lecture classes and hands-on experimental sessions, which will include time for the collection and processing of X-ray diffraction data collected on the Proxima-1 and Proxima-2A beamlines at SOLEIL.

Participants are invited to attend a MOOC session, which is accessible here, prior to attending the workshop.

Registration is limited to 12 participants. Registration deadline: 31st January 2020.Â