The 9th European Summer School on “Scattering Methods Applied to Soft Condensed Matter” was held from 07 – 14 June 2008 at RelaiSoleil “Les Bruyères” in Carcans-Maubuisson

Scope of the School

From 7 to 14 June 2008, the 9th European Summer School on “Scattering Methods Applied to Soft Condensed Matter” was organized through ILL and held at the remote vacation centre RelaiSoleil “Les Bruyères” in Carcans-Maubuisson. This series of « Bombannes » summer schools proposes since 1990, with a period of 2 years, advanced training for young European researchers and for researchers with a working place in European laboratories, at post-graduate and post-doctoral level. It is devoted to a practical « state-of-the-art » approach to scattering methods, using neutrons, as well as X-ray and light sources – today’s key techniques to study structure and dynamics in systems containing colloids, polymers, surfactants and biological macromolecules. The scope of the « Bombannes » school is to introduce on a fundamental level the current methodology of static and dynamic scattering techniques and their application to soft matter systems. In this year’s event 16 well-recognized soft matter experts presented their lectures to 40 PhD-students from all over Europe, with a gender mix of 53% female/ male and a peak of the age distribution at 27 years.

Teaching Scattering and Soft Matter

Introductory sessions during the first half of the week cover the areas of general introduction to scattering experiments, basic concepts of data treatment, the notion of contrast, general theorems, instrumentation and resolution effects. In the second half of the week, applications of static and dynamic scattering techniques to investigate typical soft matter systems such as colloidal suspensions, microemulsions, micelles and surfactant solutions, polymeric and biological systems, turbid suspensions as well as the use of scattering techniques in industry are presented. A second important feature of the « Bombannes » school is to give the opportunity to the students to present their own research work during the evening sessions. These short mandatory oral contributions stimulate the interaction between students and teachers and create from the beginning of the event an open and fruitful discussion atmosphere.

An ambitious scientific programme coupled with recreational activity

The scientific program of the 2008-summer school took 35 hours. 25 hours for 22 general lectures (1 hours or 2 hours in the morning and late afternoon) were given by the 16 different teachers. During the evening sessions, after dinner, 10 hours in total were devoted to the students’ compulsory oral contributions (10 min each) on their individual fields of research.
The successful concept of the summer school provides, however, some recreational activity : a bicycle had been given to each participant for the whole duration of the school in order to reach the beach for the afternoon sailing activity, beach volleyball and for short excursions. The early afternoon sailing (2 hours catamaran or windsurfing) had been chosen by the majority of participants. This activity was organized at the UCPA sailing centre on Lake Hourtin, about 2 km away from the vacation centre.

Further information on the « Bombannes » school is to be found under URL http://www.ill.fr/Events/bombannes.
The next event is planned for June 2010.

Peter Lindner