The 8th biennial European Users’ meeting was Manchester United FC with a record number of attendees representing 35 institutions. The meeting was opened by our Managing Director Kozo Shimazu giving an overview of the history and development of scientific instrumentation by Shimadzu Corporation. This was followed by two presentations of results from the AXIS Supra including an excellent review of ‘GCIS and UPS studies of organic photovoltaic materials’ from our user at Swansea University.
The meeting continued with a session on imaging XPS with an informative contribution from Dr Emily Smith of the University of Nottingham titled ‘imaging XPS of electrochemically modified surfaces’. The meeting’s poster session was preceded by a brief 5 minute ‘pitch’ from each poster presenter with posters from University of Warwick, Brno University of Technology, University of Nottingham, and MEET Battery Research Centre.
The final session of the day was monopolised by our Swedish Users including a talk titled ‘Al capping layers for non-destructive x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses of transition-metal nitride thin films’ from Dr. Greczynski of Linköping University.
After a number of years of trying, we were finally able to host our Users’ Dinner at Jodrell Bank, home to the world famous Lovell Telescope. A rather wet (it is in Manchester!) walking tour of the telescope and a quick stop for a group photo preceded an excellent dinner.
Day two of the Users’ meeting kicked off with two presentations from industrial Users detailing the use of XPS as a tool for surface characterisation at Akzo Nobel and Tata Steel. This session was followed by Kratos presentations from Drs Boxford and Counsell on the theory and application of the gas cluster ion source for optimised depth profiling and sample cleaning. Dr Barlow, from NEXUS at the University of Newcastle finished the session with a ‘Study of ion beam etch craters using He ion microscopy’.
Before lunch the group was taken for a visit to see the impressive 76,000 seater Theatre of Dreams. We were given a brief introduction to the football club and the stadium. There was also the opportunity to visit the MUFC museum.
The last two sessions of the Users’ Meeting saw presentations by Users from University Nantes, University of Munster, Leibniz University Hannover and University of Warwick on subjects as diverse as battery research and wetting properties of soil particles determined by XPS.
We ended the day and the meeting with the now traditional visit to Akbar’s curry house with the highlight as always being the duvet-sized naan breads. The consensus amongst the attendees was that this was possibly the best Users’ Meeting yet. If you were unable to attend the meeting but would like to review the presentations many of them are available to download in the Members’ area of this website. It’s certain that the bar has been set very high for the next meeting in 2018.