Posted by: Christian Vettier in workshop, tennessee, simulation, science, Scandinavia, research, neutron scattering, McStas, knoxville, it, ill, icns, ess scandinavia, energy, conference on
May 26, 2009
Scandinavia was highly represented at the ICNS meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee. Scandinavian scientists gave three invited talks and several (8) oral contributions, not counting many posters. In total, 30 contributions were presented by scientists affiliated in Scandinavia, which is a very large number compared to other countries, but reflects the expertise and experience of Scandinavia in the field of neutron research. Moreover, a parallel one-day workshop on neutron instrument simulation was organised by McStas experts from Copenhagen and Risø (and ILL!) where neutron scientists could get some training in instrument modeling.
This does not come as a surprise since the neutron community in Scandinavia has developed neutron science for decades through the research carried out at the facilities for neutron scattering in Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
- In Denmark, Risø National Laboratory (now Risø DTU) has an outstanding international reputation in neutron diffraction and neutron scattering research and has been developed over the years thanks to their reactor-based neutron facility. Risø has had a seminal role in neutron methods and has had an impact on all neutron instruments. All the expertise acquired there has been passed on to other neutron centres in the world, in particular SINQ at PSI, Switzerland, where Danish scientists are operating several instruments.
- In Sweden, scientists are using neutron scattering methods in soft condensed matter, in physics and chemistry in engineering sciences; they work at the ILL, Grenoble, at ISIS in UK, at PSI in Switzerland, but also in Germany. In Sweden, experiments were performed at the Swedish research reactor R2 in Studsvik. The NFL - Studsvik Neutron Research Laboratory was a leading institute for neutron sciences. As a company, Studsvik operates not only in Sweden, but also in UK, Germany or USA and has a further company segment for Global Services.
- In Norway, the research reactor JEEP II at Kjeller (Institute for Energy Technology, IFE, near Oslo) is a national resource for material physics research and neutron irradiation technology. The availability of this multi-purpose reactor is kept very high to content the many user-groups.
All these centres have joined forces to develop modeling tools to optimise various neutron instruments, which explains why the Copenhagen / Roskilde group is acquired such high repute in neutron instrument modeling and virtual experiments run on computers.
As a complement to the international organisation now being built up by ESS Scandinavia for designing and developing the accelerator driven, next generation neutron source in Sweden; the 273 neutron users in Scandinavia will provide us with a solid base of supporting expertise right in the neighbourhoods of Lund!
The closing address to ICNS was given by a lyrical Sunil Sinha, in great form. Sunil reviewed the impact of neutron scattering methods on major fields of science, stressing the uniqueness of neutrons but also the complementarity with synchrotron x-rays. He said, and he was absolutely right, that modern neutron sources sit next to synchrotron x-rays sources. This is why ESS will be built next to the MAX IV synchrotron!
Posted by: Johan Långberg in usa, sweden, oxford, knoxville, icns, garden of eden, exhibition, ess scandinavia, denmark, colin carlile on
May 7, 2009
ESS Scandinavia team have had a successful week at the International Conference on Neutron Scattering, ICNS, in Knoxville. Our exhibition material first got stuck in the US customs but when it finally arrived and was set up, scattered visitors gathered around our booth refrESShing themselves with our Swedish spring water. We've been talking to a lot of visitors, promoting the multilateral European ambition to develop and build the world's next generation neutron source. We've 
handed out all our publications and booklets describing ESS Scandinavia's work to achieve this. People also showed great interest, turning the pages all week, in the new book "Experimental Neutron Scattering" written by Colin Carlile and B.T.M Willis (Oxford University Press).
Numerous apples of ESSS knowledge were eaten and the ISIS director Andrew Taylor seemed amused by the ESSS Garden of Eden atmosphere. Even the conference T-shirts, worn by our Swedish/Danish ESSS staff, have caused people to queue and sign up on a list in order to get one.
Something's coming, something good!
As we enter the Conference Centre in Knoxville, Tennessee, there are notices on all the doors "No weapons are allowed inside the Conference Centre. Please leave all guns behind." I would be the first to admit that sometimes talks can drag on and on - I am no innocent in this area myself - but surely shooting the speaker is a punishment too far... Or is it?
Here we all are in Knoxville, 28 brave souls from Scandinavia - 7 from the ESSS Secretariat - who have run the gauntlet of swine flu and the possible end of civilisation as we know it, to attend the International Conference on Neutron Scattering in Tennessee.
With our specially designed shirts (thanks Karl !) we are quite a visible presence here, demonstrating the very solid scientific strength which Scandinavia has in neutron scattering. When we get a delegate list we can see whether in fact we are the largest delegation. Neither has the weather been kind to the organisers, with tornado warnings on Sunday, but we were thoughtfully supplied with umbrellas in our delegate pack, a nice practical touch - just like the delegates to the Bilbao meeting a few weeks ago were. There was lots of reminiscing about the warm sunny weather which we had left behind us in Lund but we have been warmly welcomed here.
Last night the whole Scandinavian team all went out to dinner together at Calhouns waterfront restaurant, an inspired choice of Sofie, Therèse and Johan, since the heavens opened up especially for us and it was quite dramatic over the Tennessee river. Waterfront was therefore the word. We had a really lovely evening with the friendliest waiter and waitress you could imagine. Such enthusiasm and involvement with the (admittedly good-looking!) Scandianvians.
Interestingly, a senior local fellow had earlier asked me how things were doing at ILL. I told him that they had said goodbye to that old guy who used to be there about three years ago and had replaced him with a (somewhat !) younger version (news can travel slowly sometimes...) and that now I was in Sweden. "Oh", he replied with a glazed look in his eye, "the weather must be really bad there." As he said this I glanced out of the window - there was a torrential rainstorm outside, with cars being washed down the street in front of my eyes (no, no... I made that last bit up!). But it is really interesting how we as humankind comfort ourselves with preconceived ideas. I resisted saying (as I admit I sometimes do) that the Polar bears have migrated north for the summer now and the streets of Lund are safe for a few weeks. Let us hope that the imminent decision on the siting of ESS will be made objectively, setting aside preconceived ideas which all of us carry around with us. I feel confident that that is in fact happening.
