XAFS 2012 Summer School

IIT recently hosted its annual week-long summer school in X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (XAFS) for graduate students, postdocs, and other scientists who were new to XAFS and wanted to use it in their research. Grant Bunker, associate dean for research at IIT College of Science and Letters, acting chair of BCHS, and professor of physics, along with Duchossois Leadership Professor of Physics Carlo Segre  hosted the event, held from July 9–13 and sponsored by the Department of Physics.

About 30 students from the United States, Canada, Germany, and China attended the school, which was held at IIT and at Argonne National Laboratory Advanced Photon Source. Participants carried out a day of hands-on experiments at several APS beamlines, followed by a guided data analysis laboratory using Athena/iFEFFIT and other programs. Additionally, the week consisted of multiple lectures given by eight scientists from both IIT and APS, and a sample prep lab at IIT.

“The school came off successfully, and the students expressed effusive thanks before they departed on Friday,” said Bunker. “They really found it a beneficial and enjoyable experience.”