Germany: Matrac 2

Matrac 2 2019 Credit: Schürmann/TUM

31st March – 5th April 2019

MATRAC 2 School 2019: Application of Neutrons and Synchrotron Radiation in Materials Science with Special Focus on Fundamental Aspects of Materials

40 students from 8 countries descended on Herrsching am Ammersee and Garching bei München in Bavaria, Germany for a three-day theoretical, two-day practical course on the application of neutrons and synchrotron radiation for analysing materials.

At the Haus der bayerischen Landwirtschaft in Herrsching, 15 internationally renowned experts delivered a theoretical lecture course ranging from the basics of neutron and x-ray scattering to their uses for structural and dynamic analysis of materials.

2 days of hands-on experiments at the Heinz Maier-Liebnitz Zentrum (MLZ) in Garching followed the lecture component. Each participant was given a tour of the FRM II reactor and the opportunity to carry out a long and a short experiment on two different instruments, including time in the programme for detailed data analysis.

Participants had the chance to display their own research posters to fellow students, igniting some lively scientific discussions, and also present their experiment findings to the group at the end of the course. And, the school would not have been complete without traditional Bavarian cuisine, offered on the last evening at a local country inn.

The school was organised by Helmholtz Zentrum Geesacht (HZG), CAU Kiel, University of Göttingen and University of Bremen (Germany) and Linköping University and Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden). It was financially supported by SINE2020 as well as the Röntgen Angström Cluster and the BMBF and the German Länder Hamburg, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen and Schleswig-Holstein. For more information about Matrac Schools visit their website.

You can also find out about other SINE2020 supported neutron schools here.

I had heard about synchrotrons and neutrons before and came here particularly interested in neutrons. This School has confirmed it and I am now 'addicted to neutrons'!

You can also watch our video below.