23rd National School on Neutron and X-Ray Scattering

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the National School on Neutron and X-ray Scattering (NXS) will be held virtually from July 12-30, 2021. This year's NXS will be three weeks in length. The first week will consist of half day lecture sessions. The second two weeks will be full-time consisting of lectures and remote experiments.

Overview

The main purpose of NXS is to educate graduate students in the use of major neutron and x-ray facilities. Lectures, presented by researchers from academia, industry, and national laboratories, include basic tutorials on the principles of scattering theory and the characteristics of the sources, as well as seminars on the application of scattering methods to a variety of scientific subjects. Students will get “hands-on” experience using neutron and synchrotron sources by conducting short remote experiments at Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source and at the Spallation Neutron Source and High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Jointly Conducted by: Argonne National Laboratory's, Advanced Photon Source and Materials Science Division, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Neutron Sciences Directorate and Materials Science and Technology Division.

The School is supported by the U. S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, and Materials Sciences and Engineering Division.

Format of NXS2021

The final program is now available
Most of the lectures this year will be using the “flipped classroom” concept, where students complete a series of prerequisite lectures before the live lectures and experiments.
The lectures will be short (only 30-45 min) and are based on the full lectures from last year. Lecturers and students will be able to pose questions up front and the students will also be able to submit questions. During a lecture key messages from the full lecture will be summarize, question answered and/or new interesting points beyond the original lecture will be addressed.
This year’s platform will be presented using Zoom, which will hopefully improve accessibility for everyone.
The lecture recordings and slides are available under lectures and must be watched and studied PRIOR to the seminar. The seminars will offer the possibility to reflect and discuss the studied content. Study of the pre-recorded lectures is REQUIRED to benefit from the live lectures and experiments.

Scientific Directors: Stephan Rosenkranz and Uta Ruett, Argonne; Matthias Frontzek, Mike Manley, and Bianca Haberl, Oak Ridge.

What Do the Students Think?

Students talk about their experience at the 23^rd National School on Neutron and X‑ray Scattering, or NXS 2021.

Jointly conducted by Oak Ridge and Argonne national laboratories, NXS immerses graduate students in national user facilities to learn in a hands-on environment how to use neutrons and X-rays in their research.