JCNS Workshop 2019: Structure and Dynamics in Soft Matter
by Thomas Gutberlet, JCNS
16 October 2019
The JCNS Workshop “Trends and Perspectives in Neutron Instrumentation” was this year devoted to the topic of “Probing Structure and Dynamics in Soft Matter”. The workshop, which is annually organized by the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS), was held at the Evangelische Akademie in Tutzing at Lake Starnberg, south of Munich, from 7-10 October 2019 and attracted an international group of more than 50 scientists from various areas and scientific backgrounds.
The presentations by the scientists covered a large variety of activities and research in soft matter, including microgels, responsive polymers, colloidal crystals, fuel cells, lipids and surfactants, liquid crystals, protein structure as well as dynamics, microcapsules and self-assembly.
Furthermore, novel trends in techniques and instrumentation, including those related to polarization analysis, micro-fluidics and rheology, grazing incidence neutron spin echo spectroscopy and data analysis tools in SANS and reflectometry, were presented.
The resulting lively, in-depth discussions ensured that the workshop had a highly motivating influence on the participants, which in turn will help to further improve science with neutrons in this field.
