Week I - Fundamentals, Instrumentation and Qualitative Analysis

Week II - Quantitative Analysis and Method Development

• Interactions of X-rays with matter and fundamental parameters
• XRS Instrumentation (X-ray sources, optics and detectors)
• Quantification methodology and metrology
• TXRF, GIXRF and related techniques
• Microbeam techniques, confocal XRF and X-Ray imaging
• Mobile and portable XRF
• Synchrotron XRS, XAFS, high resolution XES, and RIXS
• PIXE instrumentation and applications
• Electron induced XRS
• WDXRS
• X-ray diffraction (XRD)
• XRS in Art and Cultural Heritage
• XRS in Advanced Materials and Nanoscience
• XRS in Earth and Environment sciences
• XRS in Industrial Quality and Process Control
• XRS in Life Sciences and Forensics
• Recent Scientific Developments by XRS Instrumentation Manufacturers (reserved to exhibitors)

ECMS 2015 will deal with mineralogy, spectroscopy and related fields of science, with a special focus on the interplay between short-range and long-range information to account for crystalline and amorphous materials physical properties.

The Conference will bring together both theoretically and experimentally oriented scientists, providing them with an opportunity to share ideas and learn from one another.

La première école de cristallographie électronique organisée par la Sfmu en collaboration avec l’AFC se tiendra au laboratoire UMET de l’Université Lille 1 du 16 au 20 novembre 2015.

L'école porte sur la détermination des structures et des microstructures à l’échelle nanométrique par diffraction électronique dans un microscope électronique en transmission (MET). Elle concerne en particulier les développements récents associés à l’utilisation de nouvelles techniques d’acquisition et/ou d’analyse des données telle que la précession, la tomographie et la cartographie d'orientation. Les méthodes d'analyse de symétrie en faisceau convergent seront également présentées.

Lectures

• Fundamentals of X-ray Physics
• WDX and EDX X-ray spectrometry instrumentation
• Qualitative and semi-quantitative analysis
• Introduction to quantitative analysis
• Types and sources of error
• Precision and accuracy
• Calibration strategy
• Drift, line and interelement correction application
• Fundamental parameters
• Maintaining instrument integrity
• Specimen preparation
• Submit YOUR SAMPLES for analysis by the experts. Selected results will be the basis for class discussion. Results not presented during class can be discussed in private with the faculty throughout the clinic.

Workshops:

• XRF instrumentation, components, scope, and comparison using live and disabled WDX and EDX instrumentation.
• Selection of parameters for operation
• Demonstration of personal computer exercises in qualitative and semi-quantitative WDX and EDX analysis
• Demonstration of personal computer exercises employing polynomial regression, line overlap, empirical and fundamental parameter corrections during calibration
• Specimen preparation lecture and demonstration of the use of mixers, grinders, presses, fusion apparatus, etcetera
• Discussion of problems encountered by participants

The workshop aims at enabling structural biologists to fully exploit the latest instrumentation and software development at the SNS and HFIR facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Attendees will participate in lectures and tutorials focusing exclusively on neutron techniques applied in structural biology. The workshop is designed for graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and faculty new to or with limited experience of neutron scattering.

General Information

The unique potential of neutron scattering in structural biology arises from the strong interaction of neutrons with hydrogen (H) and its deuterium (D) isotope. This property makes the information available from neutron scattering unique and a valuable complement to data obtained from other structural techniques. Individual hydrogen/deuterium atoms are visualized in neutron density maps from crystallographic data at the resolution typical of most protein structures (2.0 -2.5 Ã...).Using H/D exchange  and contrast variation, proteins and nucleic acids are sequentially modeled and mapped in large biological complexes using small angle neutron scattering, protein-membrane interactions are revealed using Reflectometry and protein and water dynamics measured using spectroscopy.

The workshop includes a symposium, lectures and tutorials and tours of the High Flux Isotope reactor and Spallation Neutron Source, the world’s leading neutron research facilities.

The workshop is designed for graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and faculty with knowledge of protein function and structure but no or limited experience of neutron sciences.

Subjects include:

• Crystallography
• Small Angle Scattering
• Reflectometry
• Spectroscopy
• Imaging
• Labeling techniques

Course Objectives

1. Educate participants in neutron scattering techniques, instrumentation and data collection, analysis and interpretation.
2. Expose participants to cutting-edge research in neutron structural biology.
3. Build interactions between participants, their university groups, and ORNL neutron scattering experts to develop new research projects.

Application deadline: April 10, 2015

Travel and accommodation expenses are supported for selected participants from the United States. International applications are welcome. However the course organization is not able to support travel or accommodation.

The number of participants will be limited to 15. There is no registration fee for all selected participants.

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The application package consisting of 1) Information form, 2) CV, 3) Applicant motivation letter (1/2 to 1 page), 4) Principal Investigator letter of support (for graduate students only; 1/2 to 1 page), should be sent electronically to [email protected] before April 10, 2015.

The thirteenth International Conference on Electron Spectroscopy and Structure: ICESS-15, will be held in Stony Brook, New York, Sept 28th to bring together some 400 people interested in the properties of electrons and their interactions in systems ranging from atoms and molecules to complex condensed matter materials. Specific topics fordiscussion will include Atomic and Molecular Science, Photochemistry, Quantum Materials, Imaging Spectroscopies, Novel Instrumentation, and Nanomaterials.

Electronic structure is one of the fundamental properties of matter, and as such has been the subject of scientific investigation for more than a century. Â However the last two decades have witnessed important new discoveries in all areas ranging from the atomic level through to that of complex materials. Â There have also been significant developments in new methods, both theoretical and experimental, for investigating these properties. Â Â New experimental techniques have often evolved at the large scale facilities and by 2015 it is anticipated that the new state-of-the-art synchrotron radiation source at BNL, the NSLS II will be operational. Â It is anticipated that attendees will have the opportunity to tour this important facility.

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The Physics and Chemistry of a Sustainable Energy Future

School aims and scope

The international school aims at providing a thorough background in physical and chemical surface characterization, based on methods and instruments, to interested PhD students, post-docs and scientists working at European and non-European universities and laboratories. The school will cover the different aspects of surface analysis and appropriate analytical techniques in detail, from the most conventional (Raman spectroscopy, AFM/STM, IBA) to the most innovative requiring Synchrotron X-ray (X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray microscopy, X-ray diffraction/scattering). The complementarity between laboratory and X-ray based techniques will be presented.

Plenary lectures and tutorials are given by specialists of materials science, solid state-physics, physico-chemical interface from CEA, Synchrotron SOLEIL and Paris Sud University. A substantial part of the programme is devoted to practical sessions carried out on cutting edge instruments, at the facilities of partner institutes and laboratories. In addition, a practical exercise on how to prepare a successful beam time proposal is given, as well as a poster session and a tour of SOLEIL. Examples presented during the lectures cover the variety of existing applications to physics and chemistry of condensed matter.

The attendees will be able to discuss their own projects with the speakers and other participants.

• how to do an XAS experiment including a brief introduction to the XAS stations at Diamond,Â
• how to process and analyse XAS data from a "starting from scratch" level (this is the main part of the course).

Introduction

Recently crystallography and spectroscopy have reached a level of experimental sophistication and theoretical and computational advancements such that it is possible to understand the structure of even the most complex molecular systems, such as, proteins. One community derives information from average atomic charge densities from X-ray data and the other from valence orbital electron densities based on vibrational spectroscopy data. The modern generation of synchrotrons and the powerful free electron lasers (X-FEL) offer new opportunities and exciting challenges in structural science, but they will require a coordinated approach of complementary methods if they are to achieve maximum impact. We are constantly improving technical and computational methods to accelerate and automate characterisation processes and this is crucial to the fields to be explored in this meeting.

This Faraday Discussion will bring together world experts in computational, crystallographic, spectroscopic, chemical, biological and numerous characterisation methods to share and enhance their expertise.

Aims

The main aim for this FD is to bring together crystallographers and spectroscopists from chemistry, physics and biology to promote new interdisciplinary research and to benefit from complementary approaches and techniques in the rapidly emerging areas of 'time resolved studies', leading to a greater overall understanding of structural dynamics.Â

We hope to achieve:Â

• cross-fertilization of recent knowledge in time and length scales
• linking structural and dynamical information (derived from both the techniques) to understand function
• understanding non-equilibrium states and their impact on reactivity
• new collaborations towards solving problems jointly. Â

In addition, the discussion meeting is expected to identify future challenges and the novel techniques yet to be developed towards addressing temporally and spatially resolved structure-function relationships in chemistry and biology.Â

Format

The Faraday Division have been organising high impact Faraday Discussions in rapidly developing areas of physical chemistry and its interfaces with other scientific disciplines for over 100 years.Â

Faraday Discussions have a special format where research papers written by the speakers are distributed to all participants before the meeting, and most of the meeting is devoted to discussing the papers. Everyone contributes to the discussion - including presenting their own relevant research. The research papers and a record of the discussion are published in the journal Faraday Discussions.Â

Themes

• Dynamics of the Chemical Bond New experimental and theoretical approaches to understand chemical bonding and the changes that take place in the excited state for a number of biologically and technologically important reactions. Obtaining insights into and recording data from processes associated with changes to chemical bonds, whether that is bond breaking, formation, changes in length or inter-/intra-molecular vibrations, is key to obtaining further understanding of a wide range of chemical and biological reactions.
• Time and Space Resolved Methods Development and exploitation of high resolution time-resolved crystallographic and spectroscopic methods predominantly for reactions occurring in the solid-state and examining processes occurring on a broad range of timescales (ms-fs), including novel methodologies and interdisciplinary approaches which are transferable to the study of a wide range of molecular processes. Combining structural, spectroscopic and theoretical data (in 1D, 2D or 3D) within the reaction energy landscape/surfaces will provide complementary information and give a more complete picture of the underlying the behaviour of chemical reaction or biological process.
• Local and Global Dynamics Understanding the relationship between local and global dynamics is essential to correlate knowledge of a molecular process to those occurring within an extended structure e.g. whether a process is cooperative and affected by the surround lattice or occurs independently of the local environment. A combination of current and emerging experimental and theoretical approaches, most of which are transferable between disciplines, will be discussed to provide maximum insight into the relationship between structure and function for both chemical reactions and biological processes.
• Future Challenges and Emerging Techniques Exciting new directions for combining time resolved spectroscopic and diffraction techniques with modern theoretical approaches and looking forward to how we can exploit lab sources to XFELs in novel ways, bringing together all of the topics and ideas covered in earlier sessions to define new research approaches and inter-disciplinary collaborations. Â

We look forward to welcoming you to Bangalore for this Faraday Discussion.

Photon14 will comprise:

• Optics and Photonics 2014
• QEP-21 the latest in the series of conferences initiated in 1973 by the IOP Quantum Electronics and Photonics Group.
• An exhibition of the latest optics and photonics technology
• Plenary Lectures

Topics

• Active and adaptive optics
• Advances in imaging and displays
• Advances in lasers
• Advances in THz technology
• Biophotonics
• Computational photonics
• FASIG - Fringe Analysis Special Interest Group
• Fibre optic sensors
• Fibre optics and waveguides
• Lighting design
• Manufacturing of optics
• Metamaterials, nanophotonics and plasmonics
• Nonlinear photonics
• Optical and quantum metrology
  
• Optical diagnostic in engineering
• Optical environmental sensing
• Optical vortices, polarization, coherence and non-Gaussian beamsÂ
• Photonic energy harvesting
• Photonic systems
• Quantum coherent control
• Quantum dots, nanocrystals, and low dimensional materials
• Quantum information
• Quantum optics
• Silicon and carbon photonics
• Structured optical materials and biomimetics
• Trapping and manipulation
• Ultrafast and attosecond optics

• Workshop 1: High-Resolution RIXS and NanoARPES
• Workshop II: Coherent X-ray Scattering
• Workshop III: Applications of Synchrotron Radiation to Structural Biology
• Workshop IV X-ray Nano-analysis on Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science

2014 Topics

Biomacromolecular complexes and assemblies (protein-RNA/DNA complexes, e.g., viruses, ribosomes; quaternary protein structures; DNA, proteins, polyelectrolytes). The lecturers will describe related problems and discuss approaches to solutions, e.g.:

• spectroscopies (NMR, EPR, FTIR, Raman, MS…)
• microscopies (AFM, fluorescence techniques, tweezers…)
• diffraction methods
• computational solutions, modeling and simulations

Lecturers

• Nenad Ban, ETH, Zürich, Switzerland: Protein structure & function; X-ray diffraction
  • Ribosomes and their functional complexes
  • Beyond the prokaryotic ribosome
• Jasna Brujic, NYU, New York, USA: Soft matter, statistical physics; single molecule experiments-AFM
  • Emulsions and packing
  • Single-molecule AFM studies
• Mario Cindrić, RuÄ'er BoÅ¡ković Institute
  • Mass Spectrometry for protein sequencing
• Yves Engelborghs, KU Leuven, Belgium: Fluorescence microscopy and spectroscopy
  • Time resolved fluorescence spectroscopy of proteins
  • Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy : an elegant way to study molecular interactions.
• Helmut Grubmueller (COST lecturer), MPI-BPC, Göttingen, Germany: Theoretical and Computational Biophysics
  • Forces and Conformational Dynamics in Biomolecular Nanomachines 1,2
• Jané Kondev, Brandeis University, USA
  • Chromosome Folding in Cells
  • Transcriptional Regulation
• Pierre-Emmanuel Milhiet, Centre de Biochimie Structurale, Montpellier, France: High-performance AFM, membrane proteins imaging
  • Near field microscopies in structural biology
    
  • AFM imaging in the field of biological membranes
  • New developments in Bio-AFM imaging
• Lennart Nilsson, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden: Molecular modeling, nucleic acids, peptides and their interactions
• Chris Oostenbrink, UNRLF, Vienna, Austria: Structure and dynamics of biomolecules; modeling
  • Ensembles and sampling, leading to molecular dynamics simulations
  • Structure refinement using molecular dynamics simulations (NMR observables)
  • Calculation of free energies from molecular simulation
• Frances Separovic, University of Melbourne, Australia: NMR and Structural Studies of Membrane-Active Peptides
  • Solid-state NMR of membrane-active peptides
  • Membrane interactions of antimicrobial and amyloid peptides
• Ana-Sunčana Smith, RuÄ'er BoÅ¡ković Institute & Uni Erlangen-Nürnberg Germany: Membranes and vesicles, cell adhesion
  • Membranes, from self assembly to rafts 1,2,3
• Holger Stark, MPI-BPC, Göttingen, Germany: Protein structure& function; cryoEM
  • Introduction into single particle cryo-EM
  • High-resolution structure determination of macromolecular complexes by cryo-EM
• Heinz-Jürgen Steinhoff (COST lecturer), University of Osnabrück, Germany: Macromolecular Structure, EPR
  • Principles of site-directed spin labeling EPR
  • Site-directed spin labeling EPR of biomacromolecules, complexes and assemblies
• Antonio Å iber, Institute of physics, Zagreb, Croatia: Physics of viruses
  • Physics of viruses: electrostatics, elasticity and DNA condensation in viruses 1,2,3
• Iva Tolić, RuÄ'er BoÅ¡ković Institute & MPI-CBG, Dresden, Germany & RBI, Zagreb: Physics of cells, fluorescence-microscopy
  • Microtubules and motor proteins 1, 2
• Anthony Watts, Department of Biochemistry, Oxford, UK: Protein structure& function; solid state NMR
  • Principles of solid state NMR for the study of biomolecules
  • Solid state NMR for structural studies of large integral membrane proteins
  • Receptor dynamics and structure in membranes resolved using solid state NMR
• Bojan Žagrović, MFPL, Vienna, Austria: Computational Biophysics of Macromolecules
  • More dynamic than we think? On conformational averaging in structural biology 1, 2
  • Protein-RNA interactions and the origin of the genetic code

Program Committee

• Dr. Sanja Tomić RuÄ'er BoÅ¡ković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia (chair)
• Dr. Fraser MacMillan, CM1306 COST Action Chair, University of East-Anglia, UK
• Prof. Ana-Sunčana Smith Uni Erlangen-Nürnberg Germany, Germany
• Dr. Antonio Å iber Institute of Physics, Zagreb, Croatia
• Dr. Iva Tolić MPI-CBG, Dresden, Germany
• Prof. Bojan Žagrović Max F. Perutz Laboratories GmbH, Laboratory of Computational Biophysics Department of Structural and Computational Biology, Campus Vienna, Austria

The chemistry-based bottom-up nanoscience techniques evolved from colloid chemistry, a key topic in physical chemistry since the late 19^th century. The major difference to classic colloid chemistry is the molecular control with which synthetic nanomaterials can be built up and investigated. This will be discussed in sessions dealing with the tailor-made synthesis of high quality nanostructured materials, the investigation of nucleation and the growth and assembly of nano-objects into complex hybride structures with advanced functionality. A strong boost in nanoscience came from the development of structural and chemical analysis techniques with atomic resolution and from the possibility to perform spectroscopic investigations and transport measurements on single nano-objects. Therefore, special sessions are devoted to topics such as the structural and electronic characterization, spectroscopy on the nanoscale, and the investigation of transport properties. Strongly correlated to these topics is the development of theoretical methods for the descriptions of such large systems with high accuracy. Furthermore, the application of nanoparticles in the life sciences, including the biological response to nanoparticles, the visualization of biological processes using specifically functionalized nanoparticles in combination with modern molecular imaging techniques will be part of the scientific program. Besides fascinating basic science, the conference will cover aspects of applications that arose in nanotechnology including high-tech materials with improved mechanical properties, novel materials for lightning, display technologies, catalysis, energy conversion and storage, as well as contrast agents and drug delivery systems for diagnosis and therapy.

Overall, nanoscience is a true transdiciplinary topic covering physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, and engineering. Since physical chemistry plays a central role in all these areas, the Bunsentagung 2014 will highlight these aspects as the main topic. Internationally outstanding scientists will give the opening and plenary lectures and progress reports on the various aspects of nanoscience and technology. Almost all of these topics will intentionally overlap with the more generic topical areas of the Bunsentagung 2014 to foster interdisciplinary discussions and collaborations on a leading edge level of expertise.