Day 1 - Introduction to the Australian Synchrotron

• Emily Finch (Australian Synchrotron)

Room: Australian Synchrotron Dr Emily Finch, Group Leader of the Microscopy Group, will welcome everyone to the workshop and introduce the Australian Synchrotron and its capabilities.

X-ray Fluorescence and the XFM Beamline

• David Paterson (ANSTO)

Room: Australian Synchrotron Dr. David Paterson, Principle Scientist of the XFM Beamline, will give a talk on the fundamentals of X-ray Fluoresence and the capabilities of the X-ray Fluorescence Microscopy Beamline. He will present applications and some of the groundbreaking science that has been produced on this beamline.

Infrared Microscopy and the IRM beamline

• Keith Bambery (ANSTO)
• Jitraporn (Pimm) Vongsvivut (Australian Synchrotron)

Room: Australian Synchrotron Dr. Pimm Vongsvivut and Dr. Keith Bambery will introduce the Infrared Microscopy Beamline and the techniques available there. They will give some insights into how this beamline and techniques have been used in the past for high-impact publications and outstanding research. This talk will also include some updates of recent changes on the beamline.

Terahertz and Far-Infrared Spectroscopy at the Australian Synchrotron

• Keith Bambery (ANSTO)
• Dom Appadoo (Australian Synchrotron)

Room: Australian Synchrotron Dr. Dominique Appadoo will be introducing the Far-IR and Terahertz technique to the user community. The beamline has many environments and techniques available, so Dom will be introducing a wide variety of uses for Terahertz spectroscopy and it's application to many science disciplines.

Vibrational analysis of periodic systems at the THz beamline: from porous materials to astrochemistry

• Courtney Ennis (University of Otago)

Room: Australian Synchrotron Courtney Ennis completed his PhD on planetary surface geochemistry at The University of Western Australia before completing Postdoctoral positions at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, University College London, and at the Australian Synchrotron on projects related to astrochemistry. He is now a Senior Lecturer of Chemistry at Otago and has expanded his research interests toward the vibrational spectroscopy of porous crystalline materials, such as metallic- and hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks. He performs spectroscopy experiments using the intense infrared light provided by the THz beamline and he uses the synchrotron’s ASCI advanced computing resource to perform periodic DFT frequency calculations for characterisation of the physicochemical properties of the crystal-phase.

The MEX Microprobe - Low Energy Microscopy at MEX1

• Simon James (ANSTO Australian Synchrotron)

Room: Australian Synchrotron Dr. Simon James will present the progress on the MEX1 Microprobe and it's performance. This is an additional instrument on a mainly spectroscopy-focused beamline that can provide futher insights on materials when scienstists are interested in Low-Z elements.

The Nanoprobe Project

• Cameron Kewish (ANSTO)

Room: Australian Synchrotron Dr. Cameron Kewish will present on the current progress towards the installation of the Nanoprobe beamline at the Australian Synchrotron and its expected capabilities.

Piezo-controlled micro-ATR for detecting real-time interfacial reactions inside a battery

• Sailin Liu (University of Wollongong)

Room: Australian Synchrotron Dr. Sailin Liu is an ARC-funded Industry Early Career Research Fellow (IE24) at the University of Adelaide. She is also an associate investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Green Electrochemical Transformation of Carbon Dioxide. She is an emerging leader in materials science and electrochemistry, demonstrating productivity and influence throughout her career since completing her PhD in 2021. Her research focuses on developing non-flammable electrolytes and stable electrode/electrolyte interfaces for lithium metal, potassium ion, and zinc ion batteries. Dr. Liu has expertise in electrolyte research, fostering industrial skills and research collaborations. She has extensive experience utilizing Synchrotron PD and FT-IR beamlines and had been awarded the AINSE-PGRA and AINSE-ECRG for her work with in-situ Synchrotron FTIR in Australia, enhancing her research in the battery field.

Prospecting with the Synchrotron – from hunting for rare minerals to exploring for new nickel deposits

• Louise Schoneveld (CSIRO)

Room: Australian Synchrotron Dr. Louise Schoneveld is a Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO in Perth. She is currently investigating the changes in trace element signatures in minerals as possible indicators for magmatic nickel-copper-cobalt-platinum group element (Ni-Cu-Co-PGE) mineralisation. She has been at CSIRO since 2017 and has been using the XFM beamline at the Australian Synchrotron to aid in her research since 2018.

Probing fine structure and phase change of hybrid materials using THz spectroscopy

• Jingwei Hou (University of Queensland)

Room: Australian Synchrotron Dr. Jingwei Hou received his Ph.D. degree in School of Chemical Engineering from the University of New South Wales in 2015. He then joined the UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology (2015-2017) and University of Cambridge (2017-2019, affiliate of the Trinity College) for this post-doctoral research. He moved back to Australia in 2019 as an ARC DECRA Fellow and then ARC Future Fellow in School of Chemical Engineering, University of Queensland. He is currently an Associate Professor. Dr. Jingwei Hou’s main research focus is on the design and engineering of membrane processes for water treatment, gas separation and energy-related applications. He also focuses on surface and interfacial engineering technique for nanocomposite membranes like metal organic framework, ionic liquid Janus membrane and biocatalytic membranes.

Bio-interfaces and Nanostructure in Liquid Metal Systems

• Aaron Elbourne (RMIT)

Room: Australian Synchrotron Associate Professor Aaron Elbourne is a Mid Career Research Fellow, and Australian Research Council DECRA fellow within the School of Science at RMIT University. He currently holds a Jack Brockhoff Foundation Early Career Medical Research Fellowship, ARC DECRA and DP, and is a leader within RMIT’s ECR network. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry in 2017 from The University of Newcastle, Australia under the supervision of Professor Erica J. Wanless. He began his postdoctoral fellowship in February of 2017. His early research focused on molecular-resolution atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging, with an emphasis on fundamental ion adsorption at the solid-liquid interface. His current research has 'shifted-gears' focusing on anti-microbial surface and particle technologies, bio-interfacial studies, and liquid metal systems. He has a passion for research with real-world application and for industrial translation.

Making the most of your XFM beamtime

• Will Bennett (Griffith University)

Room: Australian Synchrotron Assoc. Professor Will Bennett is an environmental analytical chemist with a focus on trace element geochemistry in aquatic environments. Will received his PhD in 2012 from Griffith University, Australia, and subsequently continued there as an ARC DECRA Fellow (2014-2017) to work on the geochemistry of antimony in contaminated sediments. Will is currently Associate Professor at Griffith University and recently served as Chair of the Program Advisory Committee for the X-ray fluorescence microscopy (XFM) beamline at the Australian Synchrotron (2020-2024). Will’s current research focuses on understanding the complex chemistry of vanadium in marine sediments via the application of novel Synchrotron-based approaches for investigating solid-phase speciation at bulk- and micro-scales.

Preparing for Synchrotron Experiments - The Beamline Perspective

• Andrew Langendam (Australian Synchrotron)

Room: Australian Synchrotron Andrew Langendam will give some advice about the dos and don'ts beamline staff have seen with proposals.

Expert user Q&A

• Will Bennett (Griffith University)
• Louise Schoneveld (CSIRO)
• Aaron Elbourne (RMIT)
• Jingwei Hou (University of Queensland)
• SAILIN LIU (University of Wollongong)

Room: Australian Synchrotron An hour to ask your questions of our expert users about how best to prepare, advice on how to write successful proposals, and how to get the best out of your time on the beamlines.

How to apply for beamtime

• Annaleise Klein (ANSTO)
• Andrew Langendam (Australian Synchrotron)
• Keith Bambery (ANSTO)

Room: Australian Synchrotron This talk will cover the different ways to apply for beamtime, advice on developing your proposals, important information around beamtime, and information on the International Synchrotron Access Program run through the Australian Synchrotron.