McStas-course
The Third School "Simulation methods of instrument design: McStas-course" (NICONS 2020) was held in St. Petersburg on 14-18 September 2020.
III School Simulation methods of instrument design
The Third School "Simulation methods of instrument design: McStas-course" (NICONS 2020) was held in St. Petersburg on 14-18 September 2020. The school was organized by NRC "Kurchatov Institute"-PNPI and co-sponsored by the CREMLINplus project of the European Commission and NRC "Kurchatov Institute". The Faculty of Physics, Department of Nuclear Physics Research Methods of St. Petersburg University (SPbU) welcomed young students to gain and broaden knowledge of neutron scattering techniques in physics and condensed state studies through the prism of numerical simulation of neutron instruments using the McStas package. Overall, for this event we hosted 32 students and researchers from St. Petersburg University, NRC "Kurchatov Institute"-PNPI and IPP RAS. In addition, the school was attended by those responsible for the construction of the five first-day neutron stations at the PIK reactor in 2020.
The opening session was addressed by Dr. Sergey Grigoriev from NRC KI PNPI who welcomed the participants and thanked them for their interest in this fruitful topic. The school included an intense program of lectures and presentations and dynamic McStas demonstrations and practicals focusing on the wide range of neutron applications. The lectures were given both by young but experienced scientists of NRC KI PNPI – K. Pavlov, Yu. Kireenko, N. Kovalenko, L. Azarova, as well as by well-known international experts from the research centers of Germany MLZ and France ILL who made online presentations in the field of neutron reflectometry, spectrometry and diffraction.
The tea and lunch breaks represented a great networking opportunity for the participants of the school to discuss the lectures and presentations and ask the presenters a few questions, to exchange ideas and mingle with the lecturers and with each other.
According to the feedback we received from the participants, the school was a great success. We hope that the lectures helped the participants to become engrossed with neutron scattering and they will continue to be engaged with us at our forthcoming schools and conferences.
The NIKONS-2020 School is an event within CREMLINplus WP3 Collaboration with PIK, Task 3.7: Instrument specific education and training programs for engineers and scientists. Lead beneficiary: FZJ. Related CREMLINplus Deliverable: MS3.1 Plan for the workshops and schools.