September 23-25, 2003

NSLS EXAFS Data Collection and Analysis Short-Course Has Another Successful Year

A hands-on EXAFS Data Collection and Analysis Course was held September 23-25, 2003 at the NSLS. The course was co-organized by Bruce Ravel (Naval Research Laboratory), Simon Bare (UOP LLC), with superb administrative support by Lisa Tranquada (SFA, Inc.). Twenty-eight eager participants (graduate students, postdocs, and institution and industrial scientists) representing universities, national laboratories, research institutes and industry attended the course. Of these, there were ten new users to the NSLS. The participants had diverse research interests across a broad spectrum of scientific fields (materials science, geological and environmental sciences, catalysis and biology) and attended to learn how XAFS may be applied to their research program.

The four-day course was divided into morning lectures, with two afternoons of hands-on data collection using seven different NSLS spectroscopy beamlines (X9B, X11A, X18B, X19A, X23A2, X23B, and X26A), and two afternoons of data analysis. The instructors on the beamlines were Faisal Alamgir, Wolfgang Caliebe, Scott Calvin, Syed Khalid, Tony Lanzirotti, Nebojsa Marinkovic, and Kaumudi Pandya.

The eight morning lectures were: “Introduction to XAFS”, given by Matt Newville (University of Chicago), “Basics of sample preparation” by Scott Calvin, “XANES measurement and interpretation” by Simon Bare (UOP LLC), “Detectors and synchrotron radiation” by Peter Siddons (BNL), “Basics of data processing” by Shelly Kelly (Argonne National Laboratory), “Introduction to theory” by John Rehr (University of Washington), “Introduction to analysis” by Anatoly Frenkel (Yeshiva University), and “Applying XAFS into a research program” by Rich Reeder (SUNY Stony Brook). The time allotted for the lectures allowed ample time for stimulating discussion, which often developed.

For the first two days of the course, after attending the morning lectures, the participants were divided up into small groups by research discipline to conduct the experimental part of the course. Each student became familiar with beamline operation and collected real XAFS data on representative samples from their own individual research projects. On the last two days, following the morning lectures, the participants learned data analysis techniques using their own data that they had just collected. The participants also enjoyed ample time for informal discussion over coffee and in the evenings over the excellent dinners and drinks that were included in the course fee.

There was a tremendous amount of information disseminated over the four days. All the participants left the course with new friends and armed with the basic tools to apply x-ray absorption spectroscopy to their own research programs.

We plan to offer the course again in 2004 – check the NSLS website for updated information.

The course was sponsored by the NSLS, with support from the Center for Environmental Molecular Science at SUNY Stony Brook.

RELATED LINKS: Workshop Website

ARTICLE BY: Simon Bare (UOP LLC)

PHOTO BY: Roger Stoutenburgh