The NSRRC 24th Annual Users' Meeting and Workshops, held from September 11 to 13, 2018 gathered 496 synchrotron radiation (SR) experts, users and prospective users to learn about NSRRC’s recent progress and scientific research directions, current/future facility capabilities and the latest user research. Participants also had a chance to discuss science face-to-face with colleagues from the community. The event was jointly organized by the UEC Chair, Steve Sheng-Fa Yu (Academia Sinica), and the NSRRC scientist, Yu-Jong Wu.
This annual meeting began on the morning of September 11, with the opening remarks given by the UEC Chair. After the brief of NSRRC's current status and future development by Director Gwo-Huei Luo, this year's keynote speaker, Academician Fu-Tong Liu delivered his speech titled “Damaged Organelles and Autophagy: The Galectin-glycan Connection,” and talked about his studies on the intracellular function of galectins through binding to glycans exposed to the cytosol when intracellular organelles are damaged. Later Ming-Chyuan Lin (Head of Light Source Division), and Yu-Shan Huang (Head of Experimental Facility Division) reported on the current and future development of NSRRC, light source status, and experimental facilities' updates, respectively. It was followed by the Users' Town Meeting, hosted by the UEC Chair and NSRRC Director.
Five users were invited to present their recent distinguished work using the NSRRC facilities – study of phase transformation pathway of amorphous calcium carbonates by Jerry Chun-Chung Chan (Natl. Taiwan Univ.); the temperature dependent VUV spectra shifts: Wannier-Mott excitons in nanoscale CO ices by Yu-Jung Chen (Natl. Central Univ.); recognition of single-based mismatch by echinomycin in favor of the detecting MMR-deficient cancers by Ming-Hon Hou (Natl. Chung Hsing Univ.); selective hydrogen etching for characterizing topological phases by Jung-Chun Andrew Huang (Natl. Cheng Kung Univ.); tracing the structural evolution during spin-coating of polymer/fullerene thin films by U-Ser Jeng (NSRRC).
In the poster session, 239 posters were presented; including 146 registering for poster contest, and 12 selected for oral contest presentations in the groups of Materials Science, Physics/Chemistry Science, and Biological Science. The "Glory of Taiwan Award" was presented to the winner of each group at the banquet the next day; the winners were Tu-Ngoc Lam (Natl. Chiao-Tung Univ., Advisor: E-Wen Huang), Li-Chung Yu (NSRRC., Advisor: Yao-Jane Hsu), and Hsuan-Jen Liao (Natl. Taiwan Univ., Advisor: Nei-Li Chan), respectively. Five interest group meetings were held on the first day too. They were Protein X-ray Crystallography (PX), Powder X-ray Diffraction (PXRD), Synchrotron Radiation-based Microscopy (SRM), X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS), and X-ray and Neutron Scattering (XNS). The day-program ended with a reception dinner.
Four topic-specific workshops were held on September 12 and 13. Workshop I: Applications of Modern Spectroscopic Methods of Inorganic Chemistry to Biology and Chemistry Using Synchrotron Radiation was jointly organized by Steve Sheng-Fa Yu (Academia Sinica) and Chih-Wen Pao (NSRRC). The techniques discussed in this Workshop included the X-ray absorption near edge fine structure (XANES), extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS), quick EXAFS (QEXAFS), and microbeam X-ray fluorescence microscopy (mXFM). EXAFS and Microprobe, the two new beamline stations at TPS, are under construction, which allow exploration of the intrinsic properties around the metals in real time in various inorganic chemical reactions. Besides, mXFM is able to produce high-resolution images of various transition metals and elements in biological samples used in biomedical diagnostics, distributions of soil nutrients, plant metal homeostasis and trafficking, etc. Co-organized by Chia C. Wang (Natl. Sun Yat-sen Univ.) and Chen-Lin Liu (NSRRC), Workshop II: VUV Experiments in Molecular and Aerosol Sciences brought several international and domestic speakers together. They shared the latest trends in application of VUV to molecular and aerosol sciences, as well as interstellar chemistry, atmospheric chemistry and environmental chemistry. The future perspective of VUV science was also discussed. Workshop III: Full-Field Hard X-ray Microscopy and Its Applications, organized by Chun-Chich Wang (NSRRC) mainly aimed to X-ray 3D computed tomographic techniques employed at TPS 31A (Projection/Transmission X-ray Microscopy) at TPS. Topics like software and hardware developments, and applications on biomedical, material, paleontological, geological, and energy sciences were covered. Workshop IV：Complementary Applications of X-rays and Neutrons was organized by Shih-Chun Chung (NSRRC). A couple of instrument scientists from Australian Nuclear and Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) talked about the neutron facility operation and the theories and applications of neutron scattering instruments, while some experienced users shared their experiences performing neutron experiments.
The three days of this annual meeting indeed a great opportunity for users to bring up issues concerning their experiments, user services and future development of NSRRC with Director Luo and the NSRRC scientists. This year's Users' Meeting and Workshops pointed up various experimental techniques to be bridged across diverse disciplines at NSRRC. In total, 46 domestic and international speakers were invited to talk on their areas of interest. All sessions and workshops were well attended; the presentations encouraged creative brainstorming, and the attendees were able to refresh their knowledge about the latest SR-related technology and research that is significant to the scientific community.