Newsletter From AONSAThe Asia-Oceania Neutron Scattering Association

Volume 2, No.1 (February 2010)

EC Meeting at Tsing-Hua University in Beijing, October 23, 2009

Contents

 Contents……………………………………………………………………p.1
 President’s Message……………………………………………………….p.2
 Vice President’s Message…………………………………………………p.2
 Secretary’s Message……………………………………………………….p.3
 Treasurer’s Message………………………………………………………p.4
 Report from AANSS………………………………………………………p.5
 AONSA Calendar………………………………………………………….p.6

Volume2, No.1, 2010

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Newsletter from AONSAThe new AONSA Presidency started as follows(Jan. 2010 – Dec. 2011):

President’s message
Prof. John W. White

By Prof. John White
President and Professor
AONSA and ANU

Growing our Collaborations
I first thank Prof Mahn Won Kim for his graceful andenergetic Presidency at the beginning of AONSA. We
look forward to working with him as past-President.
Our Association is truly launched and has exciting
things to do.
In January, your Board and some Executive members
prepared a submission to the International Council of
Science (ICSU) - the overarching body of all of thescientific unions worldwide. Our submission (seeAONSA website) was to their 20-year Foresight
Exercise whose charge embodied:•Two decades from now, how will international
collaboration in science help progress in science andbenefit society?
The great potential for new science, technology withinternational collaboration our region was emphasized.
I also made a submission to the AustralianGovernment's inquiry into international collaborations.
We have contacted the ICSU regional office in
Malaysia and will meet with Professor Reiko Kuroda(ICSU Vice President - External Relations) in Tokyo.
After chairing the International Advisory Committee
for J-PARC on March 15 and 16 we will attend theAsia-Europe Physics Summit (ASEPS) at Tsukuba
between 24 and 26 March.
Methods to improve communication of AONSA
business, including actions, between face to facemeetings of Board and Executive will be considered at
the 13 March Board.
I look forward to working with you all as President
and will be glad to receive your personal views.
Volume 2, No.1, 2010

Professor John White is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of
Science, the Royal Society (London), The Royal Australian
Chemical Institute and the Australian Institute of Physics.
John graduated from the University of Sydney with a BSc(Hons) and from Oxford University with DPhil. He was a Fellowof St John’s College, Oxford University (1963-1985) He was
first Adjoint Director then Director of the Institut Laue Langevin,
Grenoble (1975-1980). Since 1985 he has been Professor of
Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at the Research School ofChemistryattheAustralian
National
University.
http://chemistry.enu.edu.au/chem/people/john-white/
He has fostered neutron science in Australia with links tointernational facilities including ISIS (UK) and ILL (France) andcontributed to policy formation through his Presidency of AINSE(the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering).
http://www.ainse.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/41141/whit
ecitation.pdf
For the past ten years, he has chaired the International Advisory
Committee of Japan’s J-PARC facilities.
John’s current research is in thin films and emulsions, using
neutron scattering and other techniques to elucidate basic scienceof these systems.

Vice President’s message

By Prof. Yasuhiko Fujii
Quantum Beam Science
Directorate,
Japan Atomic Energy
AgencySmall Science at Large Facility
Neutron scattering research is a typical “Small Scienceat Large Facility”. “Small Science” does not imply lessimportant science at all, but science which a relatively
small number of researchers or even a single person can
carry out. However, it necessitates a “Large Facility”
such as reactor and accelerator. In contrast “Large
Science” should be conducted by a very large groupconsisting of several hundred researchers to pursue
2
Newsletter from AONSA

their common aim such as discovery of an unknown
elementary particle. Experimental high-energy physics
is a typical one. A large facility inevitably requires a
big money not only for its construction but also for its
annual operation. Therefore we are strongly required togive an easy-to-understand presentation about its
necessity to the general public, tax payers andgovernment.

Secretary’s message
By Prof. Sung-Min Choi
Department of Nuclear andIn Japan last fall several large facilities in operation orunder construction were seriously and publicly
reviewed by the new Government through an official
televised internet. A serious discussion with too muchstress on economic efficiency will result in a serious
damage on science. On the other hand, however, suchan argument seriously exchanged on a public table
made us to learn a lot how to protect our “Small
Science at Large Facility”. How to plainly explain thenecessity of our “Large Facility for Small Science” tothe general public must be a global issue. Therefore,
our AONSA must take an initiative in quick andsuccessful response to such a review to be demanded
at any time by any Government.

Quantum Engineering,
Korea Advanced Instituteof Science and Technology

Neutrons Making Differences into a
Beautiful Harmony
Whether we like it or not, we live in the world which
has many small and large barriers or differences
including political and cultural ones. However, we,scientists who try to learn principles of nature andapply those to benefit human life, overcome or try to
overcome all these barriers to do our job efficiently
and successfully.

Prof. Yasuhiko Fujii

As we all know, neutron is one of the most essential
tools for science. This makes neutron an excellent
vehicle for scientists to get together regardless ofwhatever barriers or differences they may have. We
also know that neutron is a very expensive tool aswell. The best way to take full advantage of such
expensive neutron is to share it. In that sense, the roleof AONSA, which aims to promote neutron sciencein the Asia-Oceania, is very important.

Prof. Fujii’s career after leaving Graduate School of Science,
Osaka Univ. in 1969 is as follows: 1970-78 Research Associate,
Institute for Solid State Physics (ISSP), Tokyo University; 79-82
Associate Physicist, Dept. of Phys., Brookhaven National
Laboratory; 83-87 Associate Professor, Faculty of Engineering
Science, Osaka University; 88-91 Professor, Institute of Materials
Science, Tsukuba University; 92-2003 Professor, ISSP, Tokyo
University; 93-2002 Chair, Neutron Scattering Lab. of ISSP;
2001-04 President, The Japanese Society for Neutron Science; 04
Emeritus Professor of Tokyo University; 03-05 Director, Neutron
Science Research Center, Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute(JAERI); 05-07 Deputy Director General, Quantum Beam Science
Directorate, Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA); 07-present
Director General, Quantum Beam Science Directorate, JAEA; 08present Secretary of C10, IUPAP (Commission on Structure andDynamics of Condensed Matter). He has been a JapaneseRepresentative for the US-Japan Cooperative Research Program on
Neutron Scattering between DOE and MEXT since 1992.
His major research field is neutron and synchrotron radiation x-ray
scattering study of condensed matter particularly under highpressure.

Volume 2, No.1, 2010

The Asia-Oceania region has much larger diversity inmany ways than European and Americancounterparts. For AONSA, this can be a big
challenge but, I think, it can be a big opportunity as
well. We have neutrons! ‘Excellent vehicles forscientists to get together regardless of whateverdifferences they may have’. Neutrons may allow us
to put the differences into a beautiful harmony.
In the last two years, AONSA has been set up very
successfully thanks to the great efforts ofparticipating colleagues, especially those who servedin the AONSA Board. I think we already hear someharmonious sounds. We should continue to increase
the sound of harmony and make it more beautiful.

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Newsletter from AONSATWNSS held a three-day workshop, focused thistime on condensed matter science, in November
2009 in a recreation Nan-Tou. In this workshop
general scattering theory, neutron scattering
facilities in the region, science behind diffraction
and reflection, and associated data analysis tool andtechniques were introduced. It attracts 121
participants. More importantly, it attracts 54 newmembers to join TWNSS in the end. TWNSS now
gathers 119 members, among them scientists, postdoctors, and graduated students are more or lessevenly distributed. TWNSS will continue to holdsuch workshop twice every year, one focused oncondensed matter science, the other on soft matterscience.

Prof. Sung-Min Choi
Professor Sung-Min Choi studied at Seoul National University for his
BS and MS, and received his PhD at MIT in 1998. He was an SANS
instrument scientist at the NIST Center for Neutron Research from1998 to 2001. Since 2001 he has been a faculty member ofDepartment of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering at KAIST and
Director of Basic Atomic Energy Research Institute (from 2005)
supported by the MEST, Korea. (http://neutron.kaist.ac.kr)
Over the last years, he has served in various positions to promote
neutron science in Korea, which include Secretary General of the
Korean Neutron Beam Users Association (2003 - ), Member of the
HANARO Steering Committee (2006 - ), Principal Investigator of the
40M SANS instrument development at HANARO (from 2003) and
Organizer/Co-organizer of neutron science workshops and schools.
He chaired the International Organizing Committee of the 1st
AONSA Neutron Summer School (2008) held at KAIST and has
been a member of the J-PARC Neutron Science Proposal Review
Committee (2008 - ).

TWNSS will also hold the very first annual Taiwan
Neutron Scattering Science Conference (TWNSSC)
in this coming June. TWNSSC formats differently
from the talk-and-listen style. Opportunities forattendances to speak out their “dream experiments”
will be planned and for students to express theirneeds will be arranged as well. For now 150
participants are expected.

His recent research activity has been focused on the use of SANS,
Neutron Spin-Echo, SAXS and GISAXS techniques to investigate themolecular self-assembling phenomena in soft matter to develop new
nanostructured functional materials.

Treasurer’s message
Prof. Wen-Hsien Li
By Prof. Wen-Hsien Li
President, Taiwan Neutron
Science Society
Director, Center for Neutron
Beam Applications, National
Central University, Jhongli,
TaiwanProfessor Wen-Hsien Li is a Full Professor of the Physics
Department, National Central University, Taiwan. He has been
the Director since the Center for Neutron Beam Applications(CNBA) of National Central University was found in 2006.
http://www.neutron.ncu.edu.tw
Wen-Hsien graduated from Soochow University, Taiwan witha BSc in physics and from Northeastern University, USA witha PhD in Physics. He has fostered neutron science in National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), USA. He
contributed to the birth of Taiwan Neutron Science Society(TWNSS) and is now the President of TWNSS.
http://www.neutron.ncu.edu.tw/TWNSS/Current Activities from TWNSS
Taiwan Neutron Science Society (TWNSS) is ayoung organization found in early 2010, after a long
one-year official registration. As a national society,there are 38 initiators from all over the geologicalregions of Taiwan when submitted registration. She
attracted 62 members when was officially found. The
current objective of this young society is to attract
more participants.
Although research activity has been very popular in
Taiwan science community, nevertheless neutron
scattering science has yet gained a relatively low
recognition or impact among the communities. One
way to broadcast the techniques and sciences behindis through educational workshop.
Volume 2, No.1, 2010

Wen-Hsien’s current research is in quantum nanoparticle andmultiferroic, using neutron scattering and other techniques to
elucidate superconductivity and magnetism of these systems.

4

Newsletter from AONSAThe 8th AINSE/ANBUG Neutron Scattering Symposium, December 2009

The 8th AINSE/ANBUG Neutron Scattering
Symposium (AANSS 2009) was held from December
7th to 9th at the Australian Institute of Nuclear
Science and Engineering (AINSE), Sydney, Australia.
Most attendees were researchers working in Australia,
but speakers came from New Zealand, the USA andGermany as well. Three plenary talks, ten invited
talks and twenty-eight contributed talks made for avaried program.
Talks covered a very wide range of topics,
from ‘Myosin Binding Protein C Decorates F-actin: A
Small Angle Scattering study’ (Cy Jeffries, University
of Sydney, Australia) to ‘Residual Stress in Turbine
Discs and its Effect on Fatigue Crack Growth’ (JohnThornton, Defence Science and Technology
Organisation, Australia). Other talks dealt withfunctional oxide structures, magnetism, chemical
crystallography
andneutroninstrumentation,
particularly in relation to the second round of
instruments being constructed by the Bragg Institute at
the OPAL reactor.

Delegates discuss a poster describing Platypus,
the polarized neutron time-of-flight reflectometerat the Bragg Institute.

Over forty posters were presented on an
equally broad range of topics. At the close of theconference, awards were presented for best student
poster and best student talk. The poster prize waspresented to Richard Clements (University of Sydney,
Australia) for his poster ‘A Neutron and Synchrotron
Investigation Of The Electronic Structure Of
Lanthanide Zirconates’ and the talk prize was awarded
to Jimmy Ting (University of Sydney, Australia) for
his presentation ‘Synthesis and Structural Study of theTransition Metal Doped Rhodium Perovskites’.

Other News. ANSTO has obtained funding has beenobtained to significantly up-grade the SampleEnvironment apparatus at OPAL, including a new
cryomagnet/dilution refrigerator combination and ahigh-end gas-handling system. This funding will
also include a new purpose-built NeutronRadiography/Tomography/Imaging Station.
The
cold source at OPAL is now operating anddelivering beam to both PLATYPUS reflectometer
and QUOKKA small-angle neutron scattering
instrument.

The meeting benefited from the support of
AINSE, the Australian Neutron Beam User’s Groupand the Molecular and Materials Structure Network,
anAustralian
Research
CouncilResearch
Network.Please follow the format and style describedin this template. It should not be exceeding one A4
page, including figures. Use font type Times New
Roman, with single spaced lines.

(Brendan Kennedy)

Volume2, No1, 2010

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Newsletter from AONSACalendar of Major Events
2010
3/8-3/12

International Collaboration on Advanced Neutron Sources (Grindelwald,
Switzerland)

3/13

AONSA Board Meeting(Tokyo, Japan)

4/？

The 1st AONSA EC Meeting

6/26-6/30

American Conference on Neutron Scattering (Ottawa, Canada)

7/5-7/8

8th International Workshop on Polarised Neutrons in Condensed Matter
Investigations(Delft, Netherlands)

8/29-9/3

26th European Crystallographic Meeting(Darmstadt, Germany)

10/4-10/9

AONSA Summer School(India)

10/31-11/3 10th Conference of the Asian Crystallographic Association (Bussan, Korea)
11/1-11/2

The 2nd AONSA EC Meeting(Korea) : tentative2011
1/17-1/21

European Conference on Neutron Scattering (Prague, Czech)

8/23-8/31

XXII Congress and General Assembly of the International Union of
Crystallography(Madrid, Spain)

11/？

AOCNS(Japan)
AONSA Summer School(Japan)

2012
12th Conference of the Asian Crystallographic Association(Adelaide, Australia)
2013
7/7-7/11

10th International Conference on Neutron Scattering (Edinburgh)

AONSA Office (Secretary: Yukari Sugikawa)
Neutron Science Section, Materials & Life Science Facility Division,
J-PARC Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency,
2-4 Shirakata-Shirane, Tokai
Ibaraki, JAPAN, 319-1195
Phone: +81-29-284-3752
Fax: +81-29-284-3889
For more information: http://jparc.jp/MatLife/en/AONSA/index.html

Volume2, No.1, 2010

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Newsletter from AONSA