Scope

From 2006 HERCULES will include three one week long HERCULES Specialized Courses (HSC) in May and October. This corresponds to a request from our students and colleagues of being able to go deeper on selected topics. The HSCs also respond to a demand of scientists and engineers working in industrial R&D units, aiming to acquire, within a short delay, all the knowledge necessary to solve a given applied problem.

These new courses will retain the successful scheme of the general course, by combining theoretical and tutorial courses with practical lessons performed using neutrons and/or synchrotron radiation on state of the art instruments/beamlines. The practicals will take place at the European neutron (ILL) and synchrotron radiation (ESRF) facilities located in Grenoble.

 

Format

Three one week long courses will be organized each year. They will be held in May and October, so that they do not overlap with the general HERCULES course (March). The participants will attend both lectures and practicals performed using the ILL and ESRF facilities. The attendance will be limited to twenty participants (mainly PhD students and Post-Doc scientists) to allow an actual participation in the tutorials and practicals, and the interaction between the participants and the lecturers, as well as among the participants themselves.

Lecturers with recognized expertise in the field will present the lectures, and written documents will be provided to the participants. These lectures will occupy about half of the time, practicals and tutorials covering the other half. In addition there will be a poster and discussion session in which the participants are welcome to present their own results.

The ESRF and ILL instruments used in the practicals are those that are used for the research program of these institutes, i.e. are at the cutting edge of the technique, which evolves very rapidly. The participants will therefore acquire a knowledge that includes the most recent technical developments.