This award will partially support a conference focused on Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) planned for June 17-19, 2014, at Carnegie Mellon University, under the sponsorship of the Microanalysis Society (MAS). EBSD is an important technique that utilizes the diffraction of high-energy electrons to determine the orientations of crystals in natural and synthetic materials. This approach has major applications in both material science and geology related to understanding everything from crystallization processes to microstructures that record material histories and affect material properties (such as strength and conductivity).
The previous three meetings of this type were held in the U.S. and occurred in May 2008 and May 2010 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and in June 2012 at Carnegie Mellon. All were extremely successful, where participation grew from ~100 to ~165. The most recent workshop brought together 40 students, over 100 professionals, and 7-12 vendors to exchange information and experiences involving the EBSD technique. We will repeat the format with some modifications for EBSD 2014. The first day is an all-day tutorial aimed at beginners (students and others) who wish to get up to speed with this technique. In the afternoon, there will be more advanced tutorials for more experienced users. Throughout the session, attendees will have the opportunity to see live EBSD demonstrations by all four major EBSD vendors on CMU instruments. The next two days will consist of invited and contributed talks spanning various material science and geosciences topics: materials processing, nuclear materials for energy, high temperature/tectonics, strain, 3D reconstructions and high performance ceramics. These talks and a planned poster session will allow significant participant interaction. Students will particularly benefit from these interactions while also having the opportunity to present their research via oral or poster presentations. Student attendance is hoped to be increased to ~45. Since 2008, NSF has supported 99 student scholarships for attendance to this conference series.
