2012 ICDD Annual Spring Meetings

Members of the International Centre for Diffraction Data met during the week of 19 March 2012 for the Annual Spring Meetings. Members from 12 countries gathered, along with staff and guests, at ICDD headquarters, Newtown Square, PA, to learn about ICDD’s educational events, database, and product development over the past year, and to reconnect with one another. Throughout the week, various committees, subcommittees, and task groups met for special-interest discussions. For the second year in a row, the ICDD successfully offered a live, online broadcast of the Technical Committee Meeting and the Annual Meeting, which took place on Thursday, 22 March. All were in attendance for the plenary session, which was held on Tuesday, 20 March. This year’s plenary featured four international speakers: Dr Masatomo Yashima, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, gave a talk titled, Precise Structure Analysis of Inorganic Crystalline Materials through Neutron and Synchrotron Powder Diffractometry up to 1830 K; Dr Timothy Fawcett, International Centre for Diffraction Data, U.S.A. , spoke on Database Tools for the Study of Nanomaterials; Dr Chan Park, Seoul National University, South Korea, gave a talk titled, The Crystal Structure and the Thermoelectric Properties of (Ca2CoO3)xCoO2; and Dr. Jeffrey Deschamps, Naval Research Laboratory, U.S.A. , gave a talk titled, Chitin Preparation and Characterization. After the plenary session, members, staff, and guests traveled to Philadelphia for an informative afternoon at the Mütter Museum. The Mütter Museum is America’s finest museum of medical history and is housed by the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Guests enjoyed an afternoon viewing the preserved collections of anatomical specimens, models and medical instruments in a 19th century “cabinet museum” setting. Besides touring the museum, a Mütter Lesson: Bone Detectives, allowed guests to learn what happens when a human skeleton is discovered, and the role of forensic anthropology in a criminal investigation. The day concluded with a poster session, in which 27 posters were on display, followed by a reception in the Gold Ballroom at the Concordville Inn. The evening gave ICDD members and staff the opportunity to display their research and discuss with one another their studies and findings. This year also served as an election year for the ICDD Officers and Board of Directors. In accordance with the bylaws, the following were duly elected: Chairman (2012– 2014), Scott Misture; Vice-Chairman (2012–2014), Davor Balzar; Chairman, Technical Committee (2012–2014), Matteo Leoni; Directors-at-Large (2012–2016), John Anzelmo, Vanessa Peterson and Jordi Rius. The ICDD congratulates all the newly elected Board members, and thanks earlier officers and directors who served the organization well. The week’s end brought to conclusion another successful and productive Annual Spring Meeting for all who were in attendance. Full details of the ICDD meetings are available at www. icdd.com. Below, please find the abstracts submitted for the Poster session. Further information about each abstract can be obtained by contacting the author whose name is underlined.