Workshop Overview and Goals
The 2022 PREM XAS Workshop was held in person from Thursday, March 31 to Friday, April 1 on the Cupey campus of Universidad Ana G. Méndez in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The goal of this workshop was to introduce the current Center for Interfacial Electrochemistry of Energy Materials (CIE2M) and High Magnetic Field (HMF) beamline students to x-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) and extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) experiments. As part of the continuing collaboration between the CIE2M partners and CHESS, this workshop built on a related workshop held virtually in 2020 and focused more extensively on practical issues of data collection, processing, and interpretation related to the complex experimental challenges often encountered by the CIE2M partners.
Outcome
On both days of the workshop, 10 – 12 students from the CIE2M / HMF programs attended, including both graduate and undergraduates from chemistry and physics departments. This was an ideal number of students for the format of the workshop and enabled one-on-one support from the organizers and also allowed all of the students to participate and ask questions as needed; indeed, the engagement of all of the participants was a highlight of this workshop. Each of the two days featured a mix of activities including didactic lectures, hands-on tutorials, and a virtual tour of the CHESS facility and ID2A beamline. The ability to hold the workshop in person allowed for much more effective hands-on tutorials than could be done remotely and, by the end, all of the students were able to process and analyze XANES and EXAFS data. Indeed, several of the students also managed to work on their own data that they had previously collected at CHESS.
Workshop organizers
- Chris Pollock, Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source, Wilson Laboratory, Cornell University
- Louise Debefve, Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source, Wilson Laboratory, Cornell University
- Lymari Fuentes Claudio, Universidad Ana G. Méndez, Cupey Campus