On October 10-11, 2012 the KIT facilities ANKA and KNMF hosted the fourth annual user meeting at Ettlingen castle. In the extraordinary ambiance of the baroque palace, both presidents Prof. Clemens Heske (ANKA) and Prof. Jürgen Mohr (KNMF) gave their welcome speeches to almost 200 internal and external participants. During a wide range of academic talks, the participants had the opportunity to discuss this year's research results at ANKA and KNMF in detail. Particularly pleasant were the discussion sessions conducted by the User Committees of both facilities, during which users notably appreciated the fast implementation of the optimization measures that were suggested during last year's user meeting. Hence in 2012, both user facilities again offered high standard conditions for internal and external research projects.
In the beautiful Asamsaal of the Ettlingen palace, a poster session with altogether 84 posters displaying the newest scientific findings at ANKA and KNMF completed the program of the successful user meeting. In the scope of this year's "Best Poster Award", three prizes were granted:
The first prize was given to E. Edengeiser, M. Mischo, E. Bründermann, D. A. Schmidt, J. Steinmann, B. Gasharova, Y.-L. Mathis, D. Moss and M. Havenith for their poster "Chemical Micro- and Nanomicroscopy Applications for ANKA-IR2 Nanoscope". The second prize was granted to Marie Albéric, Oliver Scharf, Katharina Müller, Andrea Wähning, Anjouar Bjeoumikhov, Ivan Ordavo, Rolf Simon and Ina Reiche für their project “Discovering the Vanished Polychromy and Gilding of Phoenician Ivories Using the Colour X-ray Camera”. Honorably mentioned was furthermore the poster "Utilizing XAS to Uncover the Structure and Oxidation State of Pt-based Diesel Oxidation Catalysts" of the KIT research team around Andreas Gänzler, Alexey Boubnov, Sabrina Conrad, Maria Casapu and Jan-Dierk Grunwaldt.
All research highlights of 2012 will shortly be published in the annual reports of both facilities.