Workshop Proposal.
FINAL Report In partnership with the American Physical Society, Division of polymer physics  and DOE SNS/HIFR University of Tennessee  traveling grant   The workshop introduced basic concepts of neutron and X-ray scattering techniques pertaining to the study of the structure and dynamics of polymers and complex fluids.  Funds were awarded in part by National Science Foundation to facilitate a workshop on Advanced Neutron and X-ray techniques in soft materials. Soft materials are a class of advanced materials that underline current and promising new technologies from high performance nano-composites to drug delivery tools.  The structure and the motion of these materials determine their function. Specialized instrumentation is however required to study these properties of soft materials. These involved neutron sources and highly intense X-ray available in national laboratories. Employing these techniques often requires further understanding of theory that is not incorporated in regular course work offered by most universities in the world.  The workshop introduced recent innovative new structure and dynamic determination techniques to a broad group of scientists including students, junior and senior faculty, as well as industrial scientists.The knowledge acquired in this workshop will directly impact the design of new materials.  Direct outcome of the work shop include: a-enhancing the use of sate of the art techniques to understand physics of  soft materials; b-broadening participation of scientists that have access to advanced characterization tools; c-fostering collaborative efforts between junior scientists and technique experts. These outcomes will directly impact the development of new soft materials.   A diverse group of participants from industry, universities and national laboratories attended the day and a half workshop. A broad range of lectures including tutorials on elastic and inelastic scattering techniques were given. The workshop announcement distributed via a large number of organizations including user groups of National X-ray and neutron facilities, polymer discussion groups and the APS minority rich-out mailing list.   Nine comprehensive lectures were presented by experts in scattering of soft matter.  In addition, new scattering methodologies were introduced.     A diverse group of participants from industry, universities and national laboratories attended the day and a half workshop. A broad range of lectures including tutorials on elastic and inelastic scattering techniques were given. The workshop announcement distributed via a large number of organizations including user groups of National X-ray and neutron facilities, polymer discussion groups and the APS minority rich-out mailing list.  Nine comprehensive lectures were presented by experts in scattering of soft matter shown in Figure 1.  In addition, new scattering methodologies were introduced.  Figure 1: The workshop had a significant impact on broadening participation. Scattering techniques are significantly less familiar to the scientific community predominantly because of the use of national facilities.  As such, despite the fact that the US has some of the most advanced instrumentation in the world, these techniques are less familiar to the science community, in comparison with in house instrumentation.  Figure 2: Being  coupled to the American Physics Society meeting, the workshop served as an excellent opportunity to expose a large group of scientists to the state-of-the-art structure and dynamic determination techniques using X-ray and Neutrons.  Â
