JCNS Workshop 2012 Attracted Neutron Experts from all over the World
October 18, 2012
The Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS) and the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), Spain, jointly organized the 2012 workshop “Trends and Perspectives in Neutron Scattering for Soft Matter and Biophysics“ held in Tutzing, Germany, from 8 – 11 October. 75 attendees joined this event, which included 42 presentations and 16 posters. The combination of the conference’s charming location at the Protestant Academy in Tutzing in conjunction with the highly motivated attendees from Europe, USA and Japan created a stimulating atmosphere which resulted in numerous interesting discussions throughout the workshop.
Topical sessions such as “Advanced Instrumentation for Soft Matter Research”, “Physics of Life”, “Soft Materials for Energy”, “Kinetic Processes”, “Sustainable Polymers”, “Functional Materials”, “Synergies between Neutrons and Simulation” and “Nanostructured Systems” formed the structure of the workshop.
Recently developed nanodevices may play a key role in future strategies for tumor therapy. In this field, neutron scattering is of fundamental importance for an understanding of the key processes. Soft matter materials were described as key enablers for future renewable energy sources and biofuels. It was clearly demonstrated that even for very complex systems, modeling is becoming more and more important to fully exploit neutron scattering experiments and deepen basic understanding.
The rapid progress in the field of soft matter research and biophysics has resulted in an ever increasing challenge to extend the limits of existing neutron instrumentation and to start building specially-adapted high performance instruments at both existing and future neutron sources such as the European Spallation Source (ESS). JCNS and ICS contributed a total of 8 oral presentations and 11 posters, underlining the key role of JCNS in neutron scattering-based soft matter research and advanced instrumentation.
Dieter Richter from the scientific organizing committee stated: “We thank all the leading experts in the different scientific fields for sharing their knowledge and results with us. Based on the excellent presentations throughout the workshop, the meetings were extremely useful and exceptionally fruitful for information exchange within the community. I want to thank my scientific co-chair Juan Colmenero from DIPC and all attendees for coming to Tutzing and for their contributions in terms of their talks and discussions”.
The next JCNS workshop will focus on magnetism and will be held in Tutzing on 7 -10 October, 2013.