Recently in Professional Category

During the plenary session of the 65^th Annual Denver X-Ray Conference, the following awards were presented. The 2016 Birks Award was presented to Alan C. Huber, Amptek, Inc., and Jacob (Nate) Sherman (awarded posthumously). The 2016 Robert L. Snyder Student Travel Awards were given to the following nine students; Valentina Aguilar, Quan Kuang, Yifeng Ling, Lara Maldanis, Scott McCormack, Adelita Mendoza, Sixberth Mlowe, Jing Zhang, He Zhang. The 2016 Hanawalt Award was presented to Matteo Leoni and Paolo Scardi, University di Trento, Trento, Italy. Dr. Leoni was present to receive the award. Dr. Scardi accepted his award and presented his Hanawalt Award Lecture at the XTOP2016 Conference, Brno, Czech Republic, 4-8 September 2016. The 2016 Jerome B. Cohen Student Award did not have a recipient. For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.dxcicdd.com/

The three free XRF posters offered by Professor James P Willis (James Willis Consultants cc, South Africa) have become one of the most popular, high-impact topics in the XRF-L mailing list. His posters are as follows: (i) The WDXRF spectrometer, illustrated with appropriate wavelength scans and pulse height distributions, (ii) Some factors affecting XRF sensitivity (Kα lines Sn to Na), and (iii) Theoretical intensities for Sn, Cu, Ti, K and S K lines excited by an end-window Rh tube operating at 60, 50, 40, 30 and 25 kV and 4kW. Information for downloading the PDF files is available at the Web site, http://xrfguidelines.co.za/

The recipient of the 10th Asada Award, which is presented by the Discussion Group of X-ray Analysis, Japan, in memory of the late Professor Ei-ichi Asada (1924-2005) to promising young scientists in X-ray analysis fields in Japan, is Dr. Shigetomo Shiki (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba), "Advances in X-ray absorption fine structure apparatus utilizing superconducting tunnel junction detector"). The ceremony was held during the 51th Annual Conference on X-Ray Chemical Analysis, at Jibasan Building , Himeji.

During the plenary session of the 64^th Annual Denver X-Ray Conference, three awards were presented. The 2015 Barrett Award was presented to Brian Toby, Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA; the 2015 Jenkins Award was presented to Cev Noyan, Columbia University, New York, NY; and the 2015 Jerome B. Cohen Student Award was presented to Peter Metz, Alfred University, Alfred, NY for his manuscript, "X-ray and Neutron Total Scattering Analysis of Hy (Bi_0.2Ca_0.55Sr_0.25)(Ag_0.25Na_0.75)Nb₃O_{10 x}H₂O Perovskite Nanosheet Booklets with Stacking Disorder". For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.dxcicdd.com/

Ms. Laura Bush, who is an editorial director of Spectroscopy, has recently published an article on the present and future of X-ray fluorescence on the occasion of Spectroscopy's celebration of 30 years. It is a summary of her interviews with experts. For more information, see the article, "Analysis of the State of the Art: XRF", Laura Bush, Spectroscopy, 30 (6) 86-94 (2015), which can be found online at http://www.spectroscopyonline.com/analysis-state-art-xrf A PDF file can also be downloaded from iTunes.

The recipient of the 9th Asada Award, which is presented by the Discussion Group of X-ray Analysis, Japan, in memory of the late Professor Ei-ichi Asada (1924-2005) to promising young scientists in X-ray analysis fields in Japan, is Dr. Susumu Imashuku (Kyoto Univ.), "Portable electron probe microanalyzer using pyroelectric crystal". The ceremony was held during the 50th Annual Conference on X-Ray Chemical Analysis, at Tohoku University, Sendai.

During the plenary session of the 65^th Annual Denver X-Ray Conference, two awards were presented. The 2014 Birks Award was presented to George Havrilla, Los Alamos National Laboratory for his many contributions to microXRF, especially the development of the confocal XRF microscope. Dr. Havrilla has been a leader in the field of analytical XRF; including 19 years on the Denver X-ray Conference Organizing Committee; nine years as North American Editor of X-ray Spectrometry; and six years as Co-Editor-in-Chief for Advances in X-ray Analysis. The ICDD Fellow Award was presented to John Getty, Instructor in Geophysical Engineering and Principal Investigator in the Proppant Research Group at Montana Tech. John has played a key role in the planning and execution of the Denver X-ray Conference for more than 30 years. For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.dxcicdd.com/

The International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) has announced that Professors A. Janner and T. W. J. M. Janssen (both from the Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands) have been awarded the tenth Ewald prize for the development of superspace crystallography and its application to the analysis of aperiodic crystals. The presentation of the Ewald Prize will be made during the Montreal Congress Opening Ceremony on 5 August 2014. The Ewald prize consists of a medal, a certificate and an award of USD 30,000. Former recipients are E. Dodson (UK), C. Giacovazzo (Italy), G. M. Sheldric (Germany) in 2011, D. Sayre (USA, 2008), P. Coppens (USA, 2005), M. M. Woolfson (UK, 2002), G. N. Ramachandran (India, 1999), M. G. Rossmann (USA, 1996), N. Kato (Japan, 1993), B. K. Vainshtein (Russia, 1990), J. M. Cowley (USA) and A. F. Moodie (Australia) in 1987. For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.iucr.org/people/ewald-prize/10th-ewald-prize

The recipient of the 8th Asada Award, which is presented by the Discussion Group of X-ray Analysis, Japan, in memory of the late Professor Ei-ichi Asada (1924-2005) to promising young scientists in X-ray analysis fields in Japan, is Dr. Hironori Ohashi (Kyushu Univ.), "Characterization of gold catalysts by the combined use of X-ray and Mossbauer spectroscopy"). The ceremony was held during the 49th Annual Conference on X-Ray Chemical Analysis and the 15th International Conference on Total Reflection X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis and Related Methods (TXRF2013), at Osaka City University, Osaka.

During the plenary session of the 63^rd Annual Denver X-Ray Conference, three awards were presented. The 2013 Barrett Award was presented to Vaclav Petricek of the Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Praha, Czech Republic, for developing the theory of incommensurate/modulated/composite crystal structures and its implementation in the computing system Jana2006 (the most widely-used system for solving and refining aperiodic structures), and for making possible the correct archival of such structures in the Powder Diffraction FileTM". The 2013 Jenkins Award was presented to Rene Van Grieken of the University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium, for contributions to the development and application of X-ray methods to a wide variety of topics, from aerosols in the environment to conservation and from new techniques and microanalysis to biomedical applications. He has been a leader in the X-ray community and has served it in many capacities over the years, including Editor-in-Chief of X-ray Spectrometry as well as being a member of various national and international commissions involved in analytical and environmental chemistry. He has disseminated his knowledge in an impressive list of papers, books, and invited lectures. The 2013 Hanawalt Award was presented to Robert B. Von Dreele of Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, USA, for his insight, courage and creativity in bringing powder diffraction to the macromolecular community. For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.dxcicdd.com/

The Advanced Photon Source (APS) and APS Users Organization have announced that the 2013 Arthur H. Compton Award has been presented jointly to David E. Moncton, John N. Galayda, Michael Borland, and Louis Emery. The award recognizes the recipients' visionary leadership and technical ingenuity in introducing "top-up" operation to the synchrotron radiation community. The award consists of a plaque and $2500. Former recipients of this award are: Edward Stern, Farrel Lytle, Dale Sayers (posthumously), John Rehr (2011); Simon Mochrie, Mark Sutton, Gerhard Grubel (2009); Andrzej Joachimiak, Gerold Rosenbaum (2007); Gunter Schmahl and Janos Kirz (2005); Martin Blume, Doon Gibbs, Kazumichi Namikawa, Denis McWhan (2003); Wayne A. Hendrickson (2001); Sunil K. Sinha (2000); Donald H. Bilderback, Andreas K. Freund, Gordon S. Knapp, Dennis M. Mills (1998); Philip M. Platzman, Peter M. Eisenberger (1997); Nikolai Vinokurov, Klaus Halbach (1995).

The Science and Technology Foundation of Japan has announced that three US scientists have been named as laureates of the 2013 (29th) Japan Prize. Professors Grant Willson (University of Texas at Austin) and Jean Fre'chet (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) have received the prize in this year's category of "Materials and Production" for their development of chemically amplified resist polymer materials for innovative semiconductor manufacturing process. Professor John Frederick Grassle (The State University of New Jersey) was selected in the other prize category of "Biological Production and Biological Environment" for his contributions to marine environmental conservation through research on ecology and biodiversity of deep-sea organisms. They will receive certificates of merit, and commemorative medals. There is also a cash award of fifty million Japanese yen for each prize category. The presentation ceremony is scheduled to be held in Tokyo on Wednesday 24^th, April, 2013. The prize categories for the 2014 (30th) Japan Prize will be "Electronics, Information and Communications" and "Life Science". For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.japanprize.jp/en/index.html. Selected scenes from the 2012 ceremony can be viewed on You Tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6PhvtTdgt8&feature=youtu.be

The recipient of the 7th Asada Award, which is presented by the Discussion Group of X-ray Analysis, Japan, in memory of the late Professor Ei-ichi Asada (1924-2005) to promising young scientists in X-ray analysis fields in Japan, is Dr. Shinsuke Kunimura (Tokyo Univ. of Science, "Development of a portable TXRF spectrometer with pg detection limits and its applications"). The ceremony was held during the 48th Annual Conference on X-Ray Chemical Analysis, Japan, at Nagoya University, Nagoya.

Professor Chi-Chang Kao has been named as the fifth director of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, USA, which is one of the world's largest facilities for experimental particle physics. This reflects its change of mission from a dedicated particle physics lab to a multipurpose laboratory with an emphasis on X-ray studies. Similar policy can be a world trend - at DESY, Germany, Prof. Helmut Dosch, who is a world leader in X-ray surface physics and condensed matter physics, has already been a director since 2009. For more information, visit the Web page,

http://www6.slac.stanford.edu/news/2012-10-24-DirectAnnounce-CCK.aspx

During the plenary session of the 61st Annual Denver X-Ray Conference, 2012 Birks Award was awarded posthumously to John Criss, and 2012 Jerome B. Cohen Student Award was given to Magnus Menzel, Institut für Anorganische und Angewandte Chemie, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, for his work, "Confocal μ-XRF XANES Analysis of the Cathode Electrolyte Interface of Lithium-ion Batteries". For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.dxcicdd.com/

The 15th international conference on X-ray absorption fine structure was recently held in Beijing, China, from July 22 to 28, 2012. In addition to many applications of the XAFS technique in a variety of scientific fields, reports and discussions were held on progress in theory and software, as well as some advanced experiments such as time-resolved XAFS. The next conference will take place at Karlsruhe, Germany in summer 2015. For further information, visit the web page, http://www.ixasportal.net/ixas/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=90&Itemid=134

The 2012 workshop on buried interface science with X-rays and neutrons was held at KEK, Tsukuba, Japan, on June 26-28, 2012. This was the latest in a series of 18 workshops held since 2001. There are increasing demands for sophisticated metrology in order to observe multilayered materials with nano-structures (dots, wires, etc), which are finding applications in electronic, magnetic, optical and other devices. X-ray and neutron analysis is known for its ability to observe in a nondestructive manner even 'buried' function interfaces as well as the surface. In addition to such inherent advantages, recent remarkable advances in micro analysis and quick time-resolved analysis in X-ray reflectometry are extremely important. The latest progress in novel quantum beam technologies, such as XFELs, ERLs, as well as many other table-top laser-like machines could push such techniques towards further sophisticated applications. The present workshop gathered together those with different research backgrounds, i.e., from semiconductor electronics to chemical bio materials, and even theoretical groups were invited to give insights into unsolved problems on buried interfaces.

W. Rontgen took the world's first X-ray photo on November 8, 1895, thereby creating the very famous X-ray image of his wife's fingers. Ker Than has written a short article in National Geographic News on this X-ray photo. For more information, see the article, " 115-Year-Old X-Ray", http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/11/photogalleries/101108-x-rays-google-doodle-115th-anniversary-years-science-pictures/?now=2010-11-08-00:01

The recipient of the 6th Asada Award, which is presented by the Discussion Group of X-ray Analysis, Japan, in memory of the late Professor Ei-ichi Asada (1924-2005) to promising young scientists in X-ray analysis fields in Japan, is Dr. Takashi Yamamoto (Tokushima Univ., "Studies on pre-edge peak in XANES spectra of transition metals for empirical chemical state analysis"). The ceremony was held during the 47th Annual Conference on X-Ray Chemical Analysis, Japan, at Kyushu University, Fukuoka.

The following awards were presented during the plenary session of the 60th Annual Denver X-Ray Conference: The 2011 Barrett Award was presented to Dr. Juan Rodriques-Carvajal, Institute Laue-Langevin, Grenoble, France to honor his exceptional contributions to the field of X-ray diffraction, in particular for his work on characterization of the structural and magnetic properties of strongly correlated oxides using diffraction techniques and for writing and freely disseminating FULLPROF, the most widely used Rietveld refinement program for analysis of crystallographic and magnetic structures. The 2011 Jenkins Award was given to Dr. Paul K. Predecki to honor his contributions to the development of X-ray methods for a wide variety of materials, and his generosity in teaching and inspiring others in X-ray materials analysis both at the University of Denver and through organization and management of the Denver X-ray Conference. The 2011 Jerome B. Cohen Student Award was given to Vallerie Ann Innis-Samson, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan, for her work, X-ray Reflection Tomography: A New Tool for Surface Imaging. For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.dxcicdd.com/

The International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) has announced that Professor E. Dodson (Department of Chemistry, University of York, UK), Professor C. Giacovazzo (Institute of Crystallography-CNR, Bari, Italy) and Professor G.M. Sheldrick (Lehrstuhl fur Strukturchemie, Gottingen, Germany) have been awarded the ninth Ewald Prize for the enormous impact they have made on structural crystallography by designing new methods and providing these in algorithms and constantly maintained, renewed and extended user software. Their invaluable contributions to the computational side of the field have led to leadership with the program suites CCP4, SIR and SHELX, respectively. The presentation of the prize will be made during the Madrid Congress Opening Ceremony in August 2011. The Ewald Prize consists of a medal, a certificate and an award of USD 30,000. Former recipients are D. Sayre (USA, 2008), P. Coppens (USA, 2005), M. M. Woolfson (UK, 2002), G. N. Ramachandran (India, 1999), M. G. Rossmann (USA, 1996), N. Kato (Japan, 1993), B. K. Vainshtein (Russia, 1990), J. M. Cowley (USA) and A. F. Moodie (Australia) in 1987.

The Science and Technology Foundation of Japan has announced that Japanese and US scientists have been named as laureates of the 2011 (27th) Japan Prize. Dr. Dennis M. Ritchie, 69, Distinguished Member of Technical Staff Emeritus, Bell Labs, and Dr. Ken Thompson, 67, Distinguished Engineer, Google Inc., have received the prize in this year's category of "Information and Communications" for developing the operating system (OS), UNIX, in 1969. Dr. Tadamitsu Kishimoto, 71, Professor Emeritus, Osaka University and Dr. Toshio Hirano, 63, Dean of the Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, were selected in the other prize category of "Bioscience and medical science" for their discovery of interleukin 6 (IL-6), a cell-signaling molecule in the immune system and its application in treating diseases. They will each receive a certificate of recognition and a commemorative gold medal at an award ceremony during Japan Prize Week in Tokyo on April 20, 2011. A cash award of 50 million Japanese yen (approximately US$600,000) will also be given to each field - this year the two laureates in each field will split the prize equally. The prize categories for the 2012 (28th) Japan Prize will be "Environment, Energy, Infrastructure" and "Healthcare, Medical Technology". For further information, visit the web page, http://www.japanprize.jp/en/index.html

In Issue 47, vol. 22 (2010) of Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, a special section features a compilation of articles on exploring surfaces and buried interfaces of functional materials by advanced X-ray and neutron techniques. Many of the authors are members of a group established in the Japan Applied Physics Society, and this is their 9^th collection of articles since 2001. Unlike many other surface-sensitive methods, these techniques do not require ultra high vacuum, and therefore, a variety of real and complicated surfaces fall within the scope of analysis. It must be particularly emphasized that the techniques are capable of seeing even buried function interfaces as well as the surface. Furthermore, the information, which ranges from the atomic to mesoscopic scale, is highly quantitative and reproducible. Such features are fairly attractive when exploring multilayered materials with nanostructures (dots, tubes, wires, etc), which are finding applications in electronic, magnetic, optical and other devices. Visit the Web page to download the papers in this collection, http://iopscience.iop.org/0953-8984/22/47

The recipient of the 5th Asada Award, which is presented by the Discussion Group of X-ray Analysis, Japan, in memory of the late Professor Ei-ichi Asada (1924-2005) to promising young scientists in X-ray analysis fields in Japan, is Dr. Tsutomu Kurisaki (Fukuoka Univ., "Development of a novel soft X-ray absorption spectroscopic measurement apparatus and structural analysis of various metals ions and metal complexes in aqueous solution"). The ceremony was held during the 46th Annual Conference on X-Ray Chemical Analysis, Japan, at the Hiroshima Prefectural Information Plaza, Hiroshima.

The following awards were presented during the plenary session of the 59th Annual Denver X-Ray Conference: The 2010 Birks Award was presented to Victor Buhrke, Consultant, Portola Valley, CA to honor his significant contributions to the field of X-ray spectrometry. The 2010 Hanawalt Award was given to Takeshi Egami, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN and Simon Billinge, Columbia University, New York, NY. This award is presented every three years for an important, recent contribution to the field of powder diffraction.

Professor Rene Van Grieken (University of Antwerp, the chief editor of X-Ray Spectrometry journal) received the European X-ray Spectrometry Association's "Outstanding Career in X-Ray Spectrometry" award during the European X-Ray Spectrometry Conference in Figueira da Foz, Portugal, on June 24, 2010.

Kyoto University Museum is staging a special exhibition called "What are X-rays?" from April 28 to August 29. For more than 100 years, X-rays have contributed significantly to many sciences and technologies including medicine, astronomy, archaeology and even forensic science. The exhibition presents a full history of X-rays and their wide variety of applications, as well the future outlook, in a comprehensive manner that is aimed at non-specialists. Some interesting X-ray images are displayed, such as scans of a 400-year-old picture of so-called hidden Christians (who continued to practice Christianity in secret despite suppression by the government of Japan at that time) and the mummy of a bird (Crested Ibis) from ancient Egypt. During this special event, 4 lectures will be given. The museum's web page is http://www.museum.kyoto-u.ac.jp/index_e.htm

Since 2004, NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers Opportunity and Spirit have continued to transmit a wealth of exciting images and extremely valuable analytical data on the surface of Mars, including several pieces of evidence pointing to the existence of water in sedimentary rock. Unfortunately, Spirit recently got stuck in a sand trap, from which it was helpless to extricate itself because two of its six wheels are not working any more. Scientists hope that, even in its marooned state, Spirit will be able to measure Martian gravity to determine if the planet is solid or liquid at its core. For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.nasa.gov/rovers

The Science and Technology Foundation of Japan has announced that Japanese and US scientists have been named as laureates of the 2010 (26th) Japan Prize. Dr. Shun-ichi Iwasaki, 83, Director of Tohoku Institute of Technology in Japan, and also Professor Emeritus, Tohoku University, has received the prize in this year's category of "Industrial production and production technology" for his contributions to high-density magnetic recording technology by developing a perpendicular magnetic recording method. Dr. Peter Vitousek, Professor of Biology, Stanford University in the United States, 60, was selected in the other prize category of "Biological production and environment" for his contributions to solving global environmental issues based on the analysis of nitrogen and other substances' cycles. They will receive certificates of merit, and commemorative medals. There is also a cash award of fifty million Japanese yen for each prize category. The presentation ceremony is scheduled to be held in Tokyo on Wednesday 21st April, 2010. The prize categories for the 2011 (27th) Japan Prize will be "Information and communications" and "Bioscience and medical science". For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.japanprize.jp/en/index.html

The UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) has announced its withdrawal from the European XFEL project. Due to financial restrictions, the Council had to reprioritise its budget of ca. 2.7 billion Euro over the next five years. For more information, visit the UK's science programme prioritisation 2010-2015 web page,

http://www.scitech.ac.uk/About/Stats/Rev/intro.aspx

The recipient of the 4th Asada Award, which is presented in memory of the late Professor Ei-ichi Asada (1924-2005) to promising young scientists in X-ray analysis fields in Japan, is Dr. Akiko Hokura (Tokyo Denki Univ., "Study on accumulation of heavy metals in phytoremediation plant by synchrotron radiation micro XRF imaging and XAFS analysis"). From this year, the Discussion Group of X-ray Analysis, the Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry decided to establish the special award to recognize scientists who exhibit outstanding achievement and make a substantial contribution to the advancement of the X-ray analysis field. The recipient of the special award 2009 is Dr. Toshio Shiraiwa, who contributed greatly in the early days of X-ray absorption spectroscopy by means of his short-range order theory ("The theory of the fine structure of the X-ray absorption spectrum", J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 13, 847 (1958)) and also provided the basis of the fundamental parameter method in X-ray fluorescence by Fujino-Shiraiwa's formula ("Theoretical calculation of fluorescent X-ray intensities in fluorescent X-ray spectrochemical analysis", Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 5, 886 (1966)) The ceremony was held during the 45th Annual Conference on X-Ray Chemical Analysis, Japan, at Osaka City University, Osaka.

From right to left: A. Hokura, T. Shiraiwa, S. Ikeda, H. Wakita and H. Hayashi.

The discovery of X-rays was named the most important modern scientific achievement in a poll conducted for the Science Museum London, beating the Apollo spacecraft and DNA. Nearly 50,000 members of the public voted in the museum or online. The emblem of the London museum's centenary is now an X-ray machine. For further information, visit the museum's Web page, http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/

A recent edition of Nature News featured the international race to build X-ray free electron laser facilities. At the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), Stanford, USA, scientists have succeeded in lasing 8 keV X-rays and started to use them in their research since April, this year (2009). Meanwhile, soft X-ray laser FLASH, which is a pilot facility for XFEL at the European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser (XFEL), Hamburg, Germany, has been open for scientific use since 2005, and the main XFEL will be completed in 2014. Nature News interviewed various people both in Stanford (Joachim Stohr, Jerome Hastings and John Bozek) and Hamburg (Heinz Graafsma, Helmut Dosch and Massimo Altarelli). For more information, see the article, "X-ray free-electron lasers fire up", Eric Hand, Nature 461, 708-709 (2009).

Chandrayaan-1 was a lunar probe launched by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). It was equipped with advanced X-ray spectrometers for investigation. After suffering from several technical problems including failure of the star sensors and insufficient thermal shielding, Chandrayaan stopped sending radio signals on August 29, 2009 shortly after which the ISRO officially declared the mission over. Chandrayaan operated for 312 days from October 2008. For more information, visit the Web page,http://www.isro.org/Chandrayaan/htmls/home.htm

The following awards were presented during the plenary session of the 58th Annual Denver X-Ray Conference:

The 2009 Barrett Award was presented to Robert Von Dreele, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL.

The 2009 Jenkins Award was presented to Tim Fawcett, International Centre for Diffraction Data, Newtown Square, PA.

There was no winner for the 2009 Jerome B. Cohen Student Award.

The Advanced Photon Source (APS) and APS Users Organization has announced that the 2009 Arthur H. Compton Award has been presented jointly to Simon Mochrie, Mark Sutton, and Gerhard Grubel for their pioneering efforts in X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS), which exploits the coherent properties of synchrotron X-rays to study the slow dynamics of condensed matter at short length scales. For more information on their pioneering work, see the paper, "Observation of speckle by diffraction with coherent X-rays", M. Sutton, S. G. J. Mochrie, T. Greytak, S. E. Nagler, L. E. Berman, G. A. Held, and G. B. Stephenson, Nature 352, 608-610 (1991). Former recipients of this award are: Andrzej Joachimiak and Gerold Rosenbaum (2007); Gunter Schmahl and Janos Kirz (2005); Martin Blume, Doon Gibbs, Kazumichi Namikawa, Denis McWhan (2003); Wayne A. Hendrickson (2001); Sunil K. Sinha (2000); Donald H. Bilderback, Andreas K. Freund, Gordon S. Knapp, Dennis M. Mills (1998); Philip M. Platzman, Peter M. Eisenberger (1997); Nikolai Vinokurov, Klaus Halbach (1995).

In Issue 4, vol. 8 (2009) of Nature Materials, the Insight section features a compilation of articles on recent electron and X-ray microscopy. The aim is to illustrate what are the most outstanding capabilities of modern imaging techniques based on electrons and X-ray photons, which have been often treated separately. The 6 articles in the compilation are as follows: "Is science prepared for atomic-resolution electron microscopy?", Knut W. Urban (p.260-262); "Structure and bonding at the atomic scale by scanning transmission electron microscopy", David A. Muller (p.263-270); "Electron tomography and holography in materials science", Paul A. Midgley & Rafal E. Dunin-Borkowski (p.271-280); "Near-edge X-ray absorption fine-structure microscopy of organic and magnetic materials", Harald Ade & Herman Stoll (p.281-290); "Coherent X-ray diffraction imaging of strain at the nanoscale" Ian Robinson & Ross Harder (p.291-298); "X-ray imaging beyond the limits", Henry N. Chapman (p.299-301). Visit the Web page to download the full Insight as PDF file (4.77MB), http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v8/n4/pdf/nmat-insight-microscopy.pdf

Tomoya Arai, a renowned specialist in X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and an adviser to Rigaku Corporation, has died at the age of 77 in Osaka, Japan. Dr. Arai was born in 1931 in Tokyo. He was a student at Tokyo Metropolitan University. Immediately after finishing school, he joined Rigaku, where he devoted his life to the development of innovative X-ray fluorescence technologies. In 1962, Dr. Arai developed the first automatic sequential wavelength-dispersive spectrometer in Japan. In 1967, he oversaw the commercialization of an on-line X-ray coating thickness gauge. This was an important industrial application of X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. In 1969, Dr. Arai proposed the use of an end window Rh tube in an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer. This innovation opened up new opportunities in light element analysis. In 1981, he established a way of analyzing boron. In 1998, Dr. Arai obtained a PhD from the University of Tokyo, where his supervisor was Professor Y. Nihei. Dr. Arai was a recipient of the Birks Award at the 2004 Denver Conference. Some of his valuable experiences have been published in scientific journals. One interesting paper is the "Intensity and distribution of background X-rays in wavelength-dispersive spectrometry", X-Ray Spectrometry, 20, 9-22 (1991). Dr. Arai often spoke of the need to take heed of the raw data. Even in his later years, he never stopped looking at the raw data with his own eyes.

The Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) has announced that Dr. Alfred Bader (Cofounder of Aldrich Chemical Company, former chairman of Sigma-Aldrich Corporation) has received the 2009 annual Pittcon Heritage Award. Jointly sponsored by the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy (Pittcon) and CHF, this award recognizes outstanding individuals whose entrepreneurial careers have shaped the instrumentation community, inspired achievement, promoted public understanding of the modern instrumentation sciences, and highlighted the role of analytical chemistry in world economies. Dr. Bader founded the Aldrich Chemical Company, a fine chemicals company that later would become the Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, the 80^th largest chemical company in the United States. In 1995, he published his autobiography, "Adventures of a Chemist Collector", which details his experiences from Nazi-era refugee to chemist magnate to fine arts connoisseur. In 2008, the second autobiography has been published, "Chemistry & Art: Further Adventures of a Chemist Collector".

An international symposium on micro and trace X-ray analysis was held in Osaka, Japan, on February 12-14, with financial aid from the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). Professor K. Tsuji (Osaka City Univ.) organized the symposium, which had 102 participants including 12 scientists from outside Japan. In addition to highly sophisticated analytical experiments with brilliant synchrotron radiation, recent progress regarding the instrumentation and applications of laboratory/mobile X-ray sources was extensively discussed. The speakers were as follows; P. Wobrauschek (Atominstitut, TU Wien), K. Janssens (Antwerp Univ.), A. Hokura (Tokyo Univ. of Sci.), K. Nakano (Osaka City Univ.), A. von Bohlen (ISAS Institute for Anal. Sci.), S. Maeo (Osaka Electro-Comm. Univ.), Y. Kataoka (Rigaku), G. Havrilla (Los Alamos National Lab), C. Numako (Tokushima Univ.), K. Hayashi (Tohoku Univ.), T. Sakae (Nihon Univ.), K. Sakurai (National Inst. for Materials Sci.), S. Hayakawa (Hiroshima Univ.), K. Tsuji (Osaka City Univ.), S. B. Dabagov (INFN, Frascati), N. Gao (X-Ray Optical Systems, Inc.), H. Soejima (Shimadzu), K. Taniguchi (Inst. of X-ray Tech. Co., Ltd), J. E. Fernandez (Bologna Univ.), H. Kumagai (Osaka City Univ.), A. Bando (Horiba Ltd.), K. Yamauchi (Osaka Univ.), B. De Samber (Ghent Univ.), Y. Kagoshima (Hyogo Univ.), C. Streli (Atominstitut, TU Wien), P. Pianetta (SLAC, Stanford), S. Shimoyama (Kibi International Univ.), R. Van Grieken (Antwerp Univ.). The proceedings booklet is available from the organizer, Phone/Fax: +81-6-6605-3080, tsuji@a-chem.eng.osaka-cu.ac.jp

The Science and Technology Foundation of Japan has announced that two US scientists have been named as laureates of the 2009 (25th) Japan Prize. Dr. Dennis L. Meadows, 66, Professor Emeritus of Systems Policy, University of New Hampshire and one of the authors of the report, "The Limits to Growth," for the Club of Rome in 1972, has received the prize in this year's category of "Transformation towards a sustainable society in harmony with nature". Dr. David E. Kuhl, 79, Professor of Radiology, University of Michigan Medical School, was selected in the other prize category of "Technological integration of medical science and engineering". They will receive certificates of merit, and commemorative medals. There is also a cash award of fifty million Japanese yen for each prize category. The presentation ceremony is scheduled to be held in Tokyo at the National Theatre on Wednesday 23rd April, 2009. The prize categories for the 2010 (26th) Japan Prize will be "Industrial Production and Production Technology" and "Biological Production and Environment". For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.japanprize.jp/en/index.html

Toshihisa Horiuchi, the co-author of the first total-reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) paper, has died from colorectal cancer at the age of 66 at a hospital in Fukuoka, Japan, where his son is a doctor. Horiuchi was a student at Kurume National College of Technology. Immediately after finishing school, he started work as a technical staffer at Professor Y. Yoneda's lab, Kyushu University. He became convinced that the use of a new detector would be crucial for opening up new opportunities in X-ray spectroscopy, and he eagerly proposed that his supervisor purchase Si(Li) and Ge detectors, although they were too expensive for the university lab at that time. One of the most important applications for the then new detectors was TXRF. The paper, "Optical Flats for Use in X-Ray Spectrochemical Microanalysis", Rev. Sci. Instrum. 42, 1069 (1971) is a very famous work. This reported the first successful results of TXRF. Horiuchi was aware of the significance of trace analysis of bio-medical specimens such as blood etc, and he wanted to employ TXRF for such applications. After the death of Professor Yoneda, he moved to another lab and worked in the field of organic thin films for electronic devices. He contributed substantially to both research and teaching students. On February 14, 2009 at Osaka City University, Japan, Professor K. Matsushige (Kyoto University), who had supervised Horiuchi for more than 18 years, gave a memorial speech, taking advantage of the opportunity of the international symposium on micro and trace X-ray analysis. The participants offered a silent prayer for Horiuchi.

Eugene P. Bertin, author of the most famous XRF textbooks and a very popular instructor in XRF courses, has died at the age of 86, in his apartment in Harrison, NJ, USA. Dr. Bertin was a student at the University of Illinois, in Urbana and received his B.S., M.S., and finally PhD in 1952, in Analytical/Inorganic Chemistry. He worked at the RCA Research Center in Princeton, NJ for many years. Dr. Bertin made many contributions to X-ray spectroscopy. He was the principle lecturer at the "Short summer course in X-ray spectrometry" (organized by Professor Henry Chessin, State University of New York at Albany), and also at ICDD XRF courses. His textbooks, "Principles and Practice of X-Ray Spectrometric Analysis" (Plenum, 1970 (first edition), 1975 (second edition)) and "Introduction to X-Ray Spectrometric Analysis" (Kluwer Academic Pub, 1978) were recognized as the best in the world and were hallmark texts used by thousands of people all over the world. Reviews of these books have been published in X-Ray Spectrometry journal (See, 1, 45 (1972), 4, A18 (1975), 8, v (1979)). Another interesting review is found in J. Appl. Cryst., 5, 387 (1972). Dr. Bertin was a recipient of the Birks Award at the 1988 Denver Conference. One of his best friends, Dr. V. E. Buhrke has posted an article, "Testimonial and Obituary - in honor of Dr. Eugene P. Bertin, PhD" to the XRF-L mailing list, which can be also read at (http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0812&L=xrf-l&T=0&F=&S=&P=1003).

A new website dedicated to job offers at synchrotron radiation sources has been started by a joint initiative of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) and Institute of Physics (IOP). So far, job seekers have had to regularly scan the websites of many different facilities in the world. The objective of the new website is to cluster as many offers as possible into a single resource. It will also allow those interested to subscribe to weekly mailings of new positions. Visit the following site, http://www.synchrotronjobs.com/

Chandrayaan-1 is the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) mission to the moon, with the main scientific objectives of photo-selenological and chemical mapping of the lunar surface. It was successfully launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota on October 22^nd, 2008. The total mission is expected to last for two years. One of the most important activities is X-ray measurements by the Chandrayaan-1 X-ray spectrometer (C1XS). The primary goal of the C1XS instrument is to carry out high-quality X-ray spectroscopic mapping of the Moon, in order to constrain solutions to key questions on the origin and evolution of the Moon. C1XS will use X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (1.0-10 keV) to measure the elemental abundance, and map the distribution, of the three main rock-forming elements: Mg, Al and Si. To record the incident solar X-ray flux at the Moon, which is needed to derive absolute lunar elemental surface abundances, C1XS also includes an X-ray Solar Monitor (XSM), which is provided through collaboration between the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) and University of Helsinki. With its wide field-of-view of ± 52 degrees, XSM provides observation of the solar X-ray spectrum from 1-20 keV with good energy resolution and fast spectral sampling at 16 s intervals. The total mass of C1XS and XSM is 5.2 kg. For more information about Chandrayaan-1, visit the Web page, http://www.isro.org/chandrayaan/htmls/Home.htm Wikipedia gives further info as well, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrayaan-1

The joint recipients of the 3rd Asada Award, which is presented in memory of the late Professor Ei-ichi Asada (1924-2005) to promising young scientists in X-ray analysis fields in Japan, are: Dr. Shuji Maeo (Osaka Electro Communication Univ., "Development of multi excitation type X-ray tube") and Dr. Hajime Tanida (Japan Synchrotron Radiation Institute, SPring-8, "Instrumentation on total-reflection XAFS for liquid-liquid interface studies"). The ceremony was held during the 44th Annual Conference on X-Ray Chemical Analysis, Japan, at Japan Women's University, Tokyo.

The J-PARC (Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex, Tokai, Japan) is a new facility with MW-class high power proton beams at both 3 GeV and 50 GeV. At the end of May 2008, the first neutron was produced successfully by proton-beam induced spallation reaction at the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility (MLF). Furthermore, very recently, the facility succeeded in commissioning high-power operation. Its 3-GeV rapid cycling synchrotron (RCS) is said to have achieved a beam power of 210 kW for a period of 70 seconds at 25Hz, and 315kW-equivalent power in one-pulse operation. For more information, visit the Web page, http://j-parc.jp/index-e.html

The following awards were presented during the plenary session of the 57th Annual Denver X-Ray Conference:
The 2008 Birks Award was presented to Professor Rene Van Grieken (the chief editor of X-Ray Spectrometry journal), University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
The 2008 Jerome B. Cohen Student Award was presented to Mr. Sterling Cornaby, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, for work entitled, "Bifocal miniature toroidal shaped X-ray mirrors
The 2008 McMurdie Award was presented to Dr. Jeffrey Dann, Osram Sylvania, Towanda, PA

Proferssor Rene Van Grieken was awarded the Birks Award.

Andrew Lang, Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Bristol, has died. Born in 1924 at St Annes-on-Sea in the UK, Professor Lang obtained a First-Class Honours London External BSc in Physics at Exeter in 1944, a London External MSc in 1947 and a Cambridge PhD in 1953. He worked in industrial research in the UK (Lever Brothers and Unilever Ltd) and in the USA (Philips Laboratories, Irvington-on-Hudson, NY). He was Assistant Professor of Physical Metallurgy at Harvard University (1954-1959) before moving to the University of Bristol. He became Professor of Physics in 1979. Professor Lang achieved fame for his pioneering studies in X-ray diffraction physics, especially his original technique of X-ray topography, i.e., the 'Lang method' or 'Lang Camera', which displays the internal imperfections in a crystal, such as dislocations, stacking faults, growth-sector boundaries and ferromagnetic domains. The method has been widely used in the non-destructive assessment of crystals for the electronics and diamond industries, among others. Professor Lang studied many types of X-ray diffraction phenomena, including variations from Bragg's law, X-ray moire patterns and other types of fringes. One of his most important discoveries (in collaboration with Professor N. Kato (1923-2002)) was the presence of interference fringes in wedge-shaped perfect crystals, leading to a precise measure of absolute structure amplitude from a unit cell (See the paper, "A study of pendellosung fringes in X-ray diffraction", Acta Cryst. 12, 787 (1959)). Professor Lang is also known for his research using other techniques, such as electron microscopy and cathode-luminescence. In 1964, he was awarded the Charles Vernon Boys Prize of the Institute of Physics and the Physical Society. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1975 and was awarded the Royal Society Hughes Medal in 1997. An obituary by Professor M. Moore can be found in the Journal of Applied Crystallography, 41, 825 (2008). The Independent (August 25, 2008) carried an obituary as well.

Vadim Ivanovitch Nefedov, a member of the Russian Academy of Science (RAS), has died in Moscow due to cancer at the age of 70. Born in Magnitogorsk in the USSR, Professor Nefedov graduated from the Physicochemical Institute of Leipzig University in 1962. At Leipzig, he was one of the first research students of Armin Meisel at the Laboratory for X-Ray Spectroscopy. In 1965, he completed a post-graduate course at the Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry, RAS, where he continued to work and later became head of a laboratory. Nefedov's main scientific work concerns physical chemistry by electron and X-ray spectroscopy, in particular, chemical binding and the structures of many types of materials and compounds. He published more than 400 papers and 10 monographs, which are very useful as comprehensive handbooks in this field. Professor Nefedov formulated an original theory of electron density transfer between ligands and predicted a cis-effect in compounds of nontransition metals, which was confirmed later in experiments. He developed a method for determining the effective charge of atoms in compounds and Madelung energy, which offered a new way of calculating the energy of chemical bonds. He provided a theoretical basis and developed an experimental procedure for quantitative X-ray photoelectron analysis of the surface of solids and depth profiling. Nefedov was awarded the 1985 USSR State Prize, 1989 RSFSR State Prize, the international title of X-ray Professor (1998), and the 2000 and 2005 Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Prizes. An obituary by Professors R. Szargan, E. Z. Kurmaev and C. E. Fadley can be found in the Journal of Electron Spectroscopy and Related Phenomena, 168, 47 (2008).