Building a Network for Neutron Scattering Education
March 27-28, 2008
Marriott Westfields, Chantilly, Virginia
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Report
Synopsis
In a concerted effort supported by both NSF and DOE/BES, the US has rebuilt its
leadership in neutron scattering capability through a significant investment in five US
neutron source facilities and related instrumentation. These unique facilities provide
opportunities in neutron scattering to a broad community comprising researchers from
academic institutions, federal laboratories and industry. However, neutron scattering is
often considered to be a tool for “experts only” and in order for the US research
community to take full advantage of these new and powerful tools, a comprehensive
education and outreach program must be developed to address the needs of the research
community at all levels. Such a program needs to be developed at national level to take
full advantage of modern education methods and to leverage the existing educational
capacity at universities and the national facilities. We propose to hold a workshop entitled
“Building a Network for Neutron Scattering Education” that will define and design a
roadmap for a comprehensive neutron scattering education program in the US. Successful
implementation of this roadmap will maximize the national intellectual capital in neutron
sciences and increase the sophistication of research questions addressed by neutron
scattering at the Nation’s forefront facilities.
The roadmap developed at the workshop will lead to the design of an national
infrastructure for education of students, faculty, and professional researchers who wish to
make use of national neutron scattering facilities but do not have (or do not believe they
have) the educational background to do so. The workshop will bring together US
academicians, representatives from neutron sources, scientists that have developed nontraditional
educational programs, educational specialists, and managers from government
agencies to create a national structure for providing ongoing neutron scattering education.
A concerted effort will be made to involve representatives from Historically Black
Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and Minority Education Institutions (MEI) both
through targeted advertising and recruitment as well as the use of personal contacts.
The intellectual merit of this workshop lies in the creation of a roadmap and framework
for neutron scattering education across the many fields of science for which neutrons can
be a powerful investigative tool. The national neutron sources have individually
developed small scale outreach and advertising programs aimed at increasing awareness
among researchers of the potential applications of neutron scattering. However, this
awareness needs to be coupled with, and integrated into, a broader initiative which
provides an education program addressing the complete range of experience, from the
student to the experienced researcher, and the wide range of disciplines covered by the
technique. Such an initiative must also take full advantage of existing educational
programs and expertise at universities and expand them using modern distance learning
capabilities, recognizing that the landscape of education is changing.
The workshop will serve to gather together the so far scattered and independent elements
of an education program and form them into a comprehensive initiative based on modern
tools. The broader, long term, impact will be the development of a research community
capable of taking full advantage of the unique tools that the nation has invested in.
Sponsors
National Science Foundation
UT/ORNL Joint Institute for Neutron Scattering
Oak Ridge Associated Universities
UT-Battelle, LLC
Schedule
View the Agenda in PDF format.
Most talks on Thursday and summaries on Friday morning are available from the Agenda by clicking on them.
Participants
View the Attendees in PDF format.
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