4th AONSA Neutron School 2011
The 4th Asia-Oceania Neutron Scattering Association(AONSA) Neutron School was held from November
12 to 17, 2011 at the Australian Nuclear Science andTechnology Organisation (ANSTO) in Sydney,Australia. This School brought together 32 PhD
students and early-career researchers from Australia,
China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia andTaiwan.
Following the disaster of the Great East Japan
Earthquake in March 2011, the two major neutron
scattering facilities in Japan, the JRR-3M research
nuclear reactor and J-PARC spallation neutron source
were disabled for some time. As a consequence of thisevent, the Japanese neutron-scattering facilities did nothave the capacity to train students of AONSA member
nations using local facilities. The 2011 AONSA
Neutron School, which was scheduled to occur at thesefacilities in Tokai, Japan 13 to 18 November, was thus
re-located to the neutron scattering facilities of theBragg Institute at the OPAL 20 MW research reactor.
Over five days, the School program consisted oftwenty-three scientific talks that provided an
introduction to the theory of neutron scattering and its
applications to the materials sciences, and four days ofneutron scattering beamtime with hands-on experienceand data analysis on the instruments at the BraggInstitute.
Lectures on the first day provided a general
introduction to neutron scattering with John Stride andClemens Ulrich (University of New South Wales)
covering the basic theory, applications and available
facilities world-wide, followed by more specific talks
by Wen-Hsien Li (National Central University,Taiwan) on elastic neutron scattering techniques, byJe-Geun Park (Seoul National University, Korea) on
inelastic scattering, and by Richard Mole (ANSTO) on
quasi-elastic neutron scattering techniques. Vanessa
Peterson (ANSTO) then discussed the role of neutrons
as a probe for sustainable-energy materials.

preparing and setting-up a neutron scatteringexperiment, and whose data could be readily analysedin the timeframe of the school. These experiments
included Lithium battery studies using the powder
diffractometers Echidna and Wombat; analysis ofresidual stresses and texture using the Kowari
diffractometer; analysis of bio-functional plasma
coatings using X-ray and neutron reflectometry(Platypus); a Small-Angle Neutron Scattering study of
sodium dodecyl sulfate micellar growth driven byaddition of a hydrotropic salt; and the study of yttriastabilised zirconia using the Taipan three-axis
spectrometer.
In addition to the formal program, the participants
were provided with guidance on applying for
beamtime, experienced an educational Australian wine
tasting, a Sydney harbour cruise and tour of the Sydney
CBD, as well as an early morning bushwalk wherewild kangaroos and some of Australia’s beautiful
native flowers were seen.
Overall, the 4th AONSA Neutron School has helped
those attending early-career researchers build expertiseand confidence in the application of neutron scattering
techniques. We hope that one day these researchers
are similarly educating future generations. ANSTO has
received very positive feedback following the schoolfrom participants, their supervisors and the attending
lecturers for which we are grateful.
We wish to thank the speakers and instrument
scientists for their fine efforts in stimulating theinterests of the participants; as well as AONSA,AINSE, IAEA and the Australian Prime Minister’sEducation Assistance Program (EAP) for Japan for
their financial assistance provided to attending students.

On Monday, Duncan McGillivray (University ofAuckland, New Zealand) presented applications of
Small-Angle Neutron Scattering, and Mike James(ANSTO) presented applications of Neutron
Reflectometry before students split up into groups
based on their instrument selection to hear instrumentspecific talks and begin their overnight data collection.
Students were divided into five groups, each group
participating in an experiment designed to complement
the lectures and to focus on particular skills for

Joseph Bevitt
Scientific Coordinator, ANSTO Bragg Institute