National School on Neutron and X-ray Scattering

The National School on Neutron and X-ray Scattering (NXS) provides graduate students at the start of their thesis research who are attending universities in North America with a comprehensive introduction to the wide array of neutron and X-ray scattering techniques available at large-scale user facilities. The two-week-long NXS school combines both a classroom component, which lays out a theoretical foundation of these techniques, and hands-on demonstration experiments on state-of-the-art instruments at the facilities to provide a practical introduction on how specific measurements are performed and analyzed. During the classroom lectures, the students are introduced to the basic principles of neutron and X-ray scattering theory, the characteristics of the sources, detectors, optics, and familiarized with various specific techniques available at the facilities. These topics are covered by ~25 lecturers each year, drawn from leading experts in academia, national laboratories, and industry. In addition, more than 100 user facility staff assist the students during the two-week school with the experiments at the individual instruments. This broad grounding in the fundamentals of both neutron and X-ray scattering techniques, emphasizing the complementary nature of these structural probes combined with practical hands-on demonstrations of measurements, is the key component that distinguishes the NXS school from other, more topical educational outreach courses offered at other facilities.