The use of neutrons and photons in Earth sciences - A workshop report

On Thursday, 19 October at 15:15 hrs, Dr. Sebastian Jaksch will hold a seminar at the Ångström Laboratory in room Å90102.

Dr. Jaksch is a soft-matter physicist who work at the intersection between physics, chemistry and biology. Among other things he work on instrumentation and neutron scattering, building the small-angle neutron scattering SANS instrument SKADI at the upcoming ESS and a novel high-flux capable high-resolution neutron detector SoNDe.

On 24 May we will host Giovanna Fragneto, the Science Director at the European Spallation Source (ESS) that is being built in Lund. 

Welcome to a kick-off event and lecture where we introduce the new Uppsala Technical Humanities Network (UTHN). 

On 9 March, Ryuji Maruyama, J-PARC Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, will give a talk on "Recent progress in the neutron multilayer optics at J-PARC MLF".

We welcome you to a Neutron Seminar with talks about studies using neutron scattering.

Date: Monday, 21 November, 2022

Time: 15.00 – 17.00 hrs 

We will celebrate the end of the summer semester with an afternoon of talks about studies using neutron scattering. We will start with a communal lunch.  At the end of the afternoon, there will be a mingle with drinks and snacks. 

On 8th June, starting at 09:15 hrs, there will be a one-day workshop about physical measuring techniques such as neutron scattering, X-ray methods, etc., for studies in archaeology, art history, and related areas. If you are interested in this interdisciplinary area of research, you are welcome to participate. 

Energy storage in lithium-sulfur batteries is potentially higher than in lithium-ion batteries but they are hampered by a short life. A new paper in Chem, published 22 March, has now identified the main bottlenecks in performance using small-angle scattering. 

In December 2021, Uppsala University established a long term strategy for engagement with ESS (and MAX-IV). The Centre for Neutron Scattering aims to help fulfil this strategy.  

Are you interested in the potential 'in-kind' contributions to the construction and development of the European Spallation Source (ESS) that will be used for neutron scattering? This activity would be supported by external funds via VR.  Uppsala University will assist with planning, co-ordination, and negotiations with ESS and VR.  An intitial meeting to provide information and discuss possibile activities will be held at 14:00 hrs on Friday, 4 March, in room 13167 (Södra fakultetsrummet) at the Ångström Laboratory.

"Swedish universities, institutes and companies collaborate on planning new instruments for installation at ESS, the world's most powerful research facility for neutron radiation, outside Lund. The Swedish Research Council has now granted funding for two interdisciplinary projects as feasibility studies for future instruments at ESS: SAGA and HIBEAM."

A team led by Martin Sahlberg, Centre for Neutron Scattering, Department of Chemistry - Ångström, have been using additive manufacturing (3D-printing) to investigate the conditions of glassy metal. The findings suggest that the metal (AMLOY-ZR01) would be a good candidate for windows etc. 

The Swedish neutron scattering society (SNSS) is starting a seminar series on different topics. The plan is to have two hours of presentations every third month and address areas of research, which are expected to be possible as soon as the ESS starts. The first seminar will be on neutron imaging and take place on 17 November, between the hrs of 13:00 and 15:00. The program and abstracts are attached below. 

A seminar about diverse applications of neutron scattering with expert outside speakers and reports of research in Uppsala will be held on 21 October, 2020, at 13:00 hrs.  

On the afternoons of the 14 and 15 of October, 2020, between 13:00 to 17:00 CEST, there will be an online workshop entitled "Imaging, Materials and Engineering". 

The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) has decided to extend their funding of SwedNess research school. SwedNess is a graduate school for neutron scattering operated by six Swedish universities, coordinated by Uppsala University. SwedNess has the goal to educate doctoral students to expand Sweden's expertise in neutron scattering to exploit ESS, the European Spallation Source, now under construction in Lund. The financing consists of 100 million SEK until 2025. 

The Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) has highlighted work from Uppsala University about water purification using sustainable, natural products in a press release about a newly published paper, entitled "Towards a molecular understanding of the water purification properties of Moringa seed proteins". 

On November 13, 2019, there will be a seminar by Prof. Paul Henry, Instrument Scientist at ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, UK, on "Neutron Scattering Methods for Energy Materials". 

Time and location: Wednesday, November 13, at 10:15 hrs, in Room Å80115 at the Ångström Laboratory. 

Welcome to attend a seminar organised by the Centre for Neutron Scattering on 11 June 2019 in Å2002 (13.15 to 14.00).  Max Wolff will present 'UppCANs: Bringing neutrons to the users'.  

On the 20th of May 2018 at 1515 (in room Å2001) there will be a seminars with visiting researchers from Oak Ridge National Lab and TU Delft. It is a special neutron-themed seminar with presentations with researchers from international neutron facilities. The topics will cover the use of neutron based techniques to investigate energy materials in situ or operando. 

Hydrogen makes up about half the atoms in proteins, but it's almost invisible in X-ray crystallography, the method by which most biological structures are solved. In Lund the world’s most powerful neutron source ESS is under construction. Neutron crystallography enables the direct observation of hydrogens and protons, from very large protein crystals. 

On 23 January 2019 at 15.15 (in Room Å80127) the Centre for Neutron Scattering is holding a seminar about present and planned research with neutrons.  Three staff members from Ångström Laboratory will present aspects of their work. 

On May 8 we held a full-day workshop at the Department of Earth Sciences at Uppsala University, on the application of neutrons and x-rays in Earth sciences. The motivation for the workshop was mainly that the use of these techniques remains underexploited at the department today and, considering current developments at the Swedish National Synchrotron Laboratory (MAX IV) and the upcoming European Spallation Source (ESS) the aim of the workshop was to increase our readiness and illustrate the capabilities of these facilities. 

Uppsala University has developed neutron absorbing components made with boron carbide/plastic composite. These can be 3-D printed to make a range of products.  The technology developments, for example, described in the paper Anders Olsson, Maja S. Hellsing, Adrian R. Rennie 'New possibilities using additive manufacturing with materials that are difficult to process and with complex structures' Physica Scripta 92, (2017), 053002, are now exploited by a start-up company Additive Composite Uppsala AB established this year.  A successful delivery of components has already been made to the European Spallation Source (ESS). 

"Marvin Seibert at Uppsala University is using neutrons to study RuBisCO, an abundant enzyme essential to life on earth. His team hopes to determine how plants and other organisms use RuBisCO to catalyze a reaction called carbon fixation that converts carbon dioxide into useful organic compounds."  

The Swedish Minister for Higher Education and Research, Helene Hellmark Knutsson, visited the neutron facility at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory on 19 March 2018. She had the opportunity to learn about some research projects being conducted with Uppsala University and to discuss with graduate students Shirin Nouhi and Emil Gustafsson as well Professor Adrian Rennie.  She was particularly interested in the work related to environment and health that involved international collaborations.

The picture shows (left to right) Helene Hellmark Knutsson, Emil Gustafsson, Shirin Nouhi and the RAL scientist Max Skoda discussing a neutron reflection experiment.

The purpose of this workshop is to convey the research potential of neutrons (spallation sources) and photons (synchrotron radiation) to geoscientists at Uppsala University. This potential is largely underexploited at the department today and, considering current developments especially at the Swedish National Synchrotron Laboratory (MAX IV) and the upcoming European Spallation Source (ESS), we would like to increase our readiness, and illustrate the capabilities of these facilities. 

This is a short report about GISANS at ESS that has been prepared following the workshop in Garching that was jointly sponsored by the Centre for Neutron Scattering. 

There will be a workshop on GISANS that takes place in Garching, Germany on 19 and 20 February, 2018. The workshop is sponsored by the Centre for Neutron Scattering. If you would like to know more please contact: Adrian Rennie, adrian.rennie@physics.uu.se.

Swedish researchers want to develop and build instruments at ESS, including the world-wide GISANS instrument - which can only be achieved thanks to access to the world's most powerful neutron source, ESS. According to the ESS Scientific Council, the design and financing of instruments at ESS is urgent. The Swedish Neutron Scattering Society (SNSS) therefore proposes that Swedish industry merge and finance instrument through foundation, PPP, investment fund or other capitalization in cooperation with government research financiers and foundations. 

The Centre for Neutron Scattering welcomes the Network of Young Nordic Neutron Scatterers to Uppsala on the 6th of October 2017.  

Between Monday, May 15th, and Tuesday, May 16th, 2017, the 21st annual Swedish Neutron Scattering Society meeting takes place at the Ångström Laboratory.

Flora Meilleur from North Carolina State University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory will visit Uppsala next week. The Centre for Neutron Scattering and ICM have organised a seminar to be held on Monday, May 15th.

On May 16th 2017, there will be a kickoff meeting for the new Neutron Scattering project and Research School, SwedNess. 

The SNSS annual meeting will be held between May 15th and 16th, 2017. 

The Centre for Neutron Scattering will hold a seminar with short presentations about some of the various current studies made with neutrons in Uppsala and plans for future work. This will be an opportunity for people to meet and discuss with colleagues and for new users to learn about what can be done with neutron scattering. Refreshments will be available after the seminar so that participants can continue with informal discussions. 

On April 21 the Centre for Neutron Scattering are hosting a seminar by Dr. Joe Zaccai on the topic "New neutron scattering opportunities to study structural dynamics of biological complexes". 

A new paper in Journal of Applied Crystallography points the way to easy fabrication of apertures and masks for neutron scattering without cadmium.