This two day workshop held prior to the International Mineralogical Association will focus on theoretical and practical approaches to the derivation of Quantitative Phase Abundance (QPA) from powder diffraction data (with emphasis on laboratory-based X-ray diffraction).

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OpenLab and crystallographic training in X-ray Powder Diffraction

Partners of IUCr and UNESCO for OpenLab Ghana: PANalytical BV

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Venue:Â Department of Physics, University of Ghana in Accra, Ghana

Important dates
Application deadline (with financial support request): 5 May 2014

Participation in this OpenLab is limited to 30 students (a minimum of 10 is required to confirm the OpenLab).

A UNESCO/International Union of Crystallography initiative in collaboration with PANalytical BV, F. Malawi Engineering Co. Ltd., and the Department of Physics at the University of Ghana in Accra, Ghana.

We invite you to register for training scheduled for 09 â€" 12 June 2014 at the “Centre for African Wetlands”, Ebenezer Laing Road, on the campus of the University of Ghana in Accra. Diffraction equipment is housed in the Department of Physics on campus.

Lecturers:

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• Prof Gilberto Artioli (Università di Padova), co-author of the volume “Fundamentals of Crystallography”, C. Giacovazzo ed., IUCr-Oxford University Press, and author of “Scientific Methods and Cultural Heritage”, Oxford University Press.
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• Dr. Nicholas Norberg (PANalytical)

TOPIC I: X-ray Physics

• The nature of X-rays
• Interaction of X-rays with crystalline matter
• Crystal and symmetry
• X-ray diffraction: theory

TOPIC II: Data collection and treatment

• Sample preparation
• Experimental configurations and X-ray optics
• Practical aspects of data collection
• Practical aspects of data processing
• Indexing
• Phase identification and quantification
• Information about structure solution and the Rietveld method
• Random and systematic errors
• Crystallographic databases

TOPIC III: Application

• Hands on â€" bring your own material for analysis
• Crystallography and its application in mining
• Some advanced applications
• Careers in crystallography
• Commonly used software and interpretation of program output

Read more and register here:
http://www.panalytical.com/Event/OpenLab-Ghana.htm

Closing date for participation is 5 May 2014

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This school will provide a practical users' guide to planning and conducting scattering measurements at SSRL beam lines, and will cover important techniques including small angle scattering, thin-film scattering, powder diffraction, structure refinement and surface x-ray scattering. The school will address topics that are not commonly included in text books or class lectures, and typically obtained only through on-the-experiment training. .

This meeting, which is to be one of the first official events of the International Year of Crystallography, 2014, as declared by UNESCO and the IUCr, provides a forum in which the greater Southern African scientific community can get exposure to recent developments in powder diffraction, as presented by internationally recognized leaders. And secondly, an opportunity for the African researchers, to present their own work in these areas to their national and international peers.

Powder diffraction along with its affiliated techniques; have evolved greatly in recent decades. Its domain is no longer primarily limited to qualitative and quantitative analysis of mineralogical and industrial samples, and advances in instrumentation and the development of new methodologies have seen it increasing being used in studies that address contemporary scientific and socially important challenges. Significant fields of activity now include the study of energy and other functional materials, polymorphism, various catalytic systems and mechanistic details of phase changes, gas solid reactions and interactions, using some powder diffraction related technique. The latter including; structure determination, Rietveld refinement, non-ambient studies, as well as total scattering based methods which have extended the reach of powder diffraction to include short range order phenomena, normally associated with amorphous or nano materials. Furthermore, reflectometry, small angle scattering, neutron based methods and electron crystallography, all important to materials science should all be well represented.

IV School of the Argentina Association of CrystallographyÂ

Fundamentals and Applications of X-Ray Powder Diffraction

Objectives

• To provide students with the necessary theoretical background and knowledge the most important experimental diffraction X-ray powder including fundamental and advanced aspects.
• To introduce students to various applications of the technique and tools for data analysis required to address each case.

Mode

The mode of dictation School consist of lectures and practical classes with a total workload of 40 h. Practical classes will include the collection of experimental data and using different analysis programs with free access. The evaluation will consist of a written exam scheduled for November 10 in early morning.

Recipients

The School is particularly aimed at postgraduate students (areas of chemistry, physics, biology, geology, engineering and related) who need to use X-ray powder diffractionas a working tool.

Main topics

• Theoretical Foundations of powder diffraction
• Experimental Aspects
• Crystallographic symmetry and Index Allocation
• Databases and qualitative analysis
• Rietveld refinement
• Quantitative analysis of crystallite size and tension
• Powder diffraction with synchrotron light
• Introduction to structural determination ab initio from powder diffraction data

The School and Workshop aim to celebrate the 100 years of X-Ray Diffraction and to provide a forum for exchange of knowledge in the fields of crystallography in order to get the latest developments in structure determination of biological and non-biological molecules. During this occasion, the history and developments of Crystallography in Egypt and North Africa will be reviewed. Single crystal and powder techniques will be considered using conventional Sealed Tube and non-conventional Synchrotron Radiation. Advanced applications of different techniques such as Small Angle Scattering as well as Raman and IR spectroscopy in characterizations of materials will be also covered. Hand-on computer training on the latest developed programs in the field will be also available.

The primary focus of the meeting will be recent scientific advances in powder and single crystal diffraction at static and dynamic high pressures. Presentations will cover a variety of subjects in and related to high-pressure crystallography, including crystal structures, phase transitions and their kinetics, new materials synthesis, Earth and planetary science, soft and biological matter, physical and chemical properties, theory and computation, as well as technique developments for high-pressure studies at synchrotron, neutron and laboratory-based facilities.  This workshop is a continuation of The International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) Commission on High Pressure workshop series first established in 1996 followed by workshops at the ESRF (1997), APS (‘98), SPring-8 (‘00), in Orsay (‘01), Berkeley (‘03), Saskatoon (‘04), Dubna (‘06), Oxford (‘07), Harbin (‘09), Gatlinburg (‘10) and most recently in Mito (2012). This year the workshop will be held at DESY in Hamburg which looks back at a long history of high-pressure research at DORIS (shutdown in 2012) as part of HASYLAB.  In 2010, a new Extreme Conditions Beamline (ECB), optimized for high-pressure research in the Diamond Anvil Cell, opened at â€" PETRA III - the latest 3rd generation source with the currently smallest emittance in the world. In the future, DESY will extend its capabilities in the field of high-pressure research by adding a new Large Volume Press beamline at the extension of PETRA III and by contributing to the High Energy Density Instrument at the European XFEL which is being built in Hamburg. This year, the workshop will be organized jointly by the IUCr Commission on High Pressure and DESY.

Tutors: Detlef Beckers, Corrado Cuocci, Andrew N. Fitch, Mauro Gemmi, Carmelo Giacovazzo, Fabia Gozzo, Irene Margiolaki, Stavros Nicolopoulos, Rosanna Rizzi, Robert B. Von Dreele & Jonathan P. Wright.

Topics to be covered include:

• FOR Powder Crystallography: powder diffraction (experimental methods, sample preparation, detectors, synchrotron radiation), the unit cell determination, full pattern powder decomposition, space group determination, ab initio and non ab initio phasing techniques for powder diffraction data, computer applications. Protein Powder Diffraction: Overview, methods & applications.Â
• FOR Electron Crystallography: The physical bases of the electron diffraction and their special features with respect to X-ray and neutron diffraction. The experimental diffraction methods : elements of electron microscopy, traditional diffraction techniques and modern ones (the Precession Electron Diffraction (PED) and the Automated Diffraction Tomography (ADT) methods).
• Phasing via electron diffraction data: computer applications.

Student bursaries will be available to contribute to local costs or travel expenses of a limited number of applicants.Â

For registration and/ or bursary application email Dr. Partha Pratim Das: partha@upatras.grÂ

Accuracy in Powder Diffraction IV

Purpose:

We are pleased to announce the location and dates for our next "Accuracy in Powder Diffraction" meeting. This meeting, designated APD-IV, is the fourth in the series which are held approximately every ten years. They constitute a review of the state of the art in powder diffraction techniques, instrumentation and data analysis methods. The meeting will host a program of invited presentations plus a contributed poster session. APD-IV will cover the broad range of developments in powder diffraction metrology and methodology in the time since APD-III. In addition, we will host an exhibition area where leading instrument manufacturers and providers will be available to discuss recent commercial developments in the diffraction context.

The 2012 PCG-SCMP Powder Diffraction and Rietveld Refinement School will be held at the University of Durham from Sunday 25th to Thursday 29th of March. Lectures will be given by Jeremy Cockcroft, Andy Fitch, John Evans and Ivana Evans. There will also be small group tutorials and a large number of hands-on practical computer sessions.
Topics to be covered will include:

• Data collection strategies for X-ray and neutron diffraction
• Constant wavelength and time of flight diffraction
• Modelling peak shapes
• Indexing powder patterns
• Rietveld, Le Bail and Pawley fitting methods
• X-ray and neutron combined Rietveld refinement
• Extended solids and molecular systems
• Restrained refinements
• Rigid body refinements

Magnetic refinements will not be explicitly covered.
Accommodation will be at Grey College Durham and lectures/computer workshops will be held in/near the Chemistry Department. Durham is on the fast east coast rail track. London is ~2.75 hours and Edinburgh 2 hours. There are a number of cheap flights to Newcastle Airport (e.g. flybe to Exeter/Southampton; Easy Jet to Bristol/Stanstead/Geneva/Nice, etc). More travel information can be found here.
For more information please email ivana.radosavljevic@durham.ac.uk.
Thanks to our 2012 sposors: the IUCr, Rigaku and Bruker.

Foreword

The department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences and Techniques, University Cheikh Anta Diop, in collaboration with the University of Trento, Italy, following the success of the second African School and Workshop on X-rays in Materials, held in Dakar, in January 2009, organizes the third edition of such school-workshop.

Aims

• promoting the scientific cooperation between African researchers in the material science area
• introducing the principal techniques of structural investigation of materials using X-rays, with particular attention to X-ray diffraction from powders and X-ray scattering from non-crystalline materials
• training young researchers by means of practical exercises of x-ray powder diffraction measurements and data analysis on computer
• presenting the actual research advances on material characterisation using advanced X-ray techniques.

Topics

• Basic crystallography
• Interaction of X-rays with matter
• X-ray sources and instrumentation
• X-ray powder diffraction
• X-ray scattering from non-crystalline system
• Applications of X-ray diffraction to Material Science
• Other techniques: X-ray diffusion; X-ray absorption and photemission spectroscopies and their application to Material Science

International Advisory Committee

• Gilberto Artioli, University of Padova, Italy
• Alastair N. Cormak Alfred University, Usa
• Karimat El-Sayed Ain-Shams University, Egypt
• Paolo Fornasini, University of Trento, Italy
• Pierre Lagarde, SOLEIL, Paris, France
• Silvano Lizzit, Elettra Trieste, Italy
• Takafumi Miyanaga, University of Hirosaki, Japan
• Settimio Mobilio University Roma 3 Italy
• Francesco Rocca, IFN-CNR and FBK, Trento, Italy
• Paolo Scardi, University of Trento, Italy
• Adrian Wright, Reading University, UK

Local Organizing Committee

• Chairman: Djibril Diop
• Members: Aboubaker C. Bèye, Issakha Youm,  Ahmadou Wagué, Arame B. Faye, Coumba Thiandoume, Abdou Ciss Wade, Bridinette Thiodjio Sendja, Ibrahima Diouf

Technical and Scientific Assistant

• Roberto Graziola, University of Trento, Italy

Purpose of the Course

Structural crystallography is often thought to be synonymous with single-crystal crystallography, yet for several decades, powder diffraction has made important contributions to the understanding of materials structure and behaviour.

However, it is perhaps the last decade that has seen some of the most remarkable breakthroughs in experimental powder diffraction and in the analysis of powder diffraction data, to the extent that it is no longer considered to be an analytical technique of last resort.Â

Instrumentation at both the laboratory and facility level has become increasingly versatile to the extent that throughput and resolution are no longer mutually exclusive. In the field of data analysis, ingenious algorithms that take full advantage of modern computing power have meant that inorganic, molecular and even protein structures are being solved and refined relatively routinely.

This course is intended to serve as a complete introduction to the diverse field of powder diffraction, and will provide a firm grounding from which attendees can build future research achievements.

The PCG/SCMP (Physical Crystallography Group of the British Crystallographic Association/Structural Condensed Matter Physics group of the Institute of Physics) will be holding the 2010 Rietveld refinement school at the University of Durham. The course will run from Sunday 18th to Thursday 22nd of April. Lectures will be given by Jeremy Cockcroft, Andy Fitch, John Evans and Ivana Evans. There will also be small group tutorials and a large number of practical hands-on computer sessions.

Topics to be covered will include:

• Data collection strategies for X-ray and neutron diffraction
• Constant wavelength and time of flight diffraction
• Modelling peak shapes
• Indexing powder patterns
• Rietveld, Le Bail and Pawley fitting methods
• X-ray and neutron combined Rietveld refinement
• Extended solids and molecular systems
• Restrained refinements
• Rigid body refinements

Thanks to our 2010 sponsors: the EPSRC, PCG-SCMP and IUCr.

European XRD Days Dresden

Seminar on advanced X-ray diffraction techniques and applications

2014 is the UNESCO International Year of Crystallography. We are therefore pleased to invite you to a 2-day seminar on modern aspects of (powder)-X-ray diffraction.
The seminar will focus on: • Advances in powder diffraction; data acquisition and analysis • Analysis of thin layers and nanomaterials • Non-ambient X-ray diffraction: temperature, chemistry, time
Discussions will be encouraged in an informal atmosphere. The primary aim of the XRD days is to benefit the everyday users of X-ray diffraction at universities, research institutions and industrial research & development departments. Each topic will have the following agenda: • 45 minute keynote presentation • 20 minute presentations by participants • 45 minute 'ask the specialist' session
Participants are encouraged to send short abstracts. The scientific committee will select talks, and those chosen to give a presentation will receive a 50% reduction on the registration fee.