This award to Indiana University is from the Division of Biological Infrastructure in Directorate of Biological Sciences, and the Chemistry Division and the Division of Materials Research in the Directorate of Mathematical Sciences. The award provides partial support to an International Neutron Scattering Instrumentation Schools (INSIS. INSIS will provide a basic education in the design and optimization of neutron scattering instrumentation as well as, for a subset of the students, a more profound understanding of an essential component of all neutron scattering instruments, the neutron detector. The school will be held in Rome in July 2012 and is described on the following website: http://neutrons.ornl.gov/conf/insis2012/. Lectures will be streamed on the internet during the school and will be archived so that they are available for individuals who are unable to attend the school. Neutron scattering is a tool that allows researchers to conduct structural studies and provides unique information in fields as diverse as biology, materials science, chemistry and geology. For this reason, both the U.S. and Japan have recently completed the construction of major neutron scattering facilities and Europe is beginning construction of a facility which may be even more powerful. To make optimum use of these facilities, advanced instrumentation is required. Unfortunately, the number of individuals worldwide who are qualified to build such equipment is severely limited. NSF funding will be used to support the travel and accommodation of one U.S. Lecturer and up to 8 students at the school. The students will either be following a graduate course currently or they will be qualified young scientists at the beginning of their research careers. Special attention will be paid to ensuring a diverse student body, including members of groups which are currently under-represented in the scientific community.
This award to Indiana University is from the Division of Biological Infrastructure in Directorate of Biological Sciences, and the Chemistry Division and the Division of Materials Research in the Directorate of Mathematical Sciences. The award provides partial support to an International Neutron Scattering Instrumentation Schools (INSIS. INSIS will provide a basic education in the design and optimization of neutron scattering instrumentation as well as, for a subset of the students, a more profound understanding of an essential component of all neutron scattering instruments, the neutron detector. The school will be held in Rome in July 2012 and is described on the following website: http://neutrons.ornl.gov/conf/insis2012/. Lectures will be streamed on the internet during the school and will be archived so that they are available for individuals who are unable to attend the school. Neutron scattering is a tool that allows researchers to conduct structural studies and provides unique information in fields as diverse as biology, materials science, chemistry and geology. For this reason, both the U.S. and Japan have recently completed the construction of major neutron scattering facilities and Europe is beginning construction of a facility which may be even more powerful. To make optimum use of these facilities, advanced instrumentation is required. Unfortunately, the number of individuals worldwide who are qualified to build such equipment is severely limited. NSF funding will be used to support the travel and accommodation of one U.S. Lecturer and up to 8 students at the school. The students will either be following a graduate course currently or they will be qualified young scientists at the beginning of their research careers. Special attention will be paid to ensuring a diverse student body, including members of groups which are currently under-represented in the scientific community.
This award helped support the participation of graduate students and postdoctoral appointees at U.S. academic institutions in a two-week international school held in Rome, Italy. The school, which was organized by a group comprising scientists from the U.S., Japan, England and Italy, aimed to provide hands-on instruction related to the design of particular types of advanced research equipment used in a technique called neutron scattering. This method allows scientists to examine both the positions and the motions of atoms inside materials. Because structure is often intimately related to materials properties, neutron scattering has often provided information that is essential for understanding the properties of materials of all sorts. In turn, many of our modern technologies depend for their success on materials properties so neutron scattering contributes both to the development of new knowledge about materials and, indirectly, to the perfection of these materials for technological applications. Examples are as diverse as plastics, magnets and devices for storing or retrieving digital information. The instrumentation used for neutron scattering tends to last for a long time – 10 to 20 years typically – and there are only about 20 major centers in the world where the technique is practiced. Four of these centers are in the U.S. Each center may have 20 or so research instruments, meaning that on average less than 5 instruments are replaced each year, worldwide. For this reason, the community of scientists who build these research instruments is small and it is difficult to preserve and communicate essential knowledge required to build a good instrument. The purpose of the International Neutron Scattering Instrumentation School (INSIS) is to provide a forum in which young scientists can learn about neutron scattering instrumentation and begin to form networks with their international peers to preserve and develop this knowledge. Judging by the responses received from students who attended the school, it was a success so the organizers propose to hold such a school every two years or so and to rotate the school’s location between Europe, America and Asia.
