Modern Methods in Rietveld Refinement for Structural Analysis (MMRRSA) - 2017

18 Jun 2017, 03:00 → 23 Jun 2017, 13:00 US/Eastern

We are pleased to announce that the third annual “Modern Methods in Rietveld Refinement for Structural Analysis” school will be held from June 18-23, 2017, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in close partnership with the Shull-Wollan Center - a Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences (University of Tennessee and ORNL) and Bruker-AXS. 

Registration for this course is now closed and applicant review is in progress.

The primary goal of this school is to teach participants Rietveld refinement and other methods for evaluating crystal structures from powder diffraction data with an emphasis on data collected on US national user facility beamlines optimized for structural analysis such as the 11-BM, 17-BM, and 11-ID-B synchrotron beamlines at the APS of Argonne National Laboratory, the POWGEN and NOMAD time-of-flight neutron diffraction beamlines at the SNS of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the XPD synchrotron beamline at the NSLS-II of BNL.  The combination of advances in instrumentation and advances in software algorithms now allow many challenging structural problems to be resolved solely from powder diffraction data, and an up-to-date instruction in modern methods will be provided.  This course will emphasize traditional solid state compounds (non-molecular), and will use the TOPAS software as the platform for Rietveld refinement (complementary trial license will be provided to participants).  

There will be a special secondary emphasis this year on the complementary use of pair distribution function (PDF) data to carry out small-box refinements for average unit cells, highlighting the new functionality of the TOPAS software to carry out both Rietveld and PDF refinements.  Both NOMAD (neutron PDF) and 11-ID-B (synchrotron PDF) beamline scientists will be present as instructors at the course, and there will be an opportunity for participants to have data suitable for both Rietveld and PDF refinement collected on their own sample at both synchrotron and neutron beamlines.

Confirmed 2017 instructors include Prof. Peter Khalifah (SBU), Prof. Cora Lind (U. Toledo), Dr. Katharine Page (ORNL, NOMAD), Dr. Ashfia Huq (ORNL, POWGEN), Dr. Jue Liu (ORNL), Dr. Karena Chapman (ANL, 11-ID-B), Dr. Saul Lapidus (ANL, 11-BM), Dr. Wenqian Xu (ANL, 17-BM), and Dr. Nathan Henderson (Bruker-AXS).

Further general information about the course is available through the website: https://sites.google.com/a/stonybrook.edu/mmrrsa-portal/. 

There will be no registration fee associated with this course.  Participant meals will be covered by the Shull Wollan Center, and there are ongoing fundraising efforts to additionally support some or all of the lodging expenses. All other travel expenses will be the responsibility of the participant.

Organizers:

• Prof. Peter Khalifah, Stony Brook University

• Dr. Katharine Page, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Instructors:

• Karena Chapman, Argonne National Laboratory, 11-ID-B

• Dr. Nathan Henderson, Bruker AXS

• Dr. Ashfia Huq, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, POWGEN

• Prof. Peter Khalifah, Stony Brook University

• Dr. Saul Lapidus, Argonne National Laboratory, 11-BM

• Prof. Cora Lind-Kovacs, University of Toledo

• Dr. Jue Liu, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

• Dr. Katharine Page, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, NOMAD

• Dr. Wenqian Xu, Argonne National Laboratory, 17-BM

Primary Sponsors:

• American Crystallographic Association

• Bruker AXS

• Joint Photon Sciences Institute (SBU/BNL)

• Shull Wollan Center - a Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences