The 2002 Denver X-ray Conference Summary  Antlers Adam's Mark Hotel (formerly Antlers Doubletree Hotel) Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S.A. 29th July - 2nd August 2002   The 51st Denver X-ray Conference was held in the quaint, rocky mountain town of Colorado Springs, Colorado from 29 July - 2 August 2002. Attracting nearly 300 registered attendees and over 200 exhibit personnel, it was once again a great success. Workshops: Conference week began with 16 tutorial workshops, held on Monday and Tuesday. Instructors from all over the world gathered together to share their knowledge and expertise. The chart below lists the name of the workshop, along with the organizer(s): XRD & XRF XRD  XRF W-9 Optics (Havrilla)  W-1 Texture Analysis I (Schaeben) W-2 Methods of Phase ID (Jenkins, Faber, Fawcett) W-5 Texture Analysis II (Schaeben) W-6 Advances in Data Base Technology (Faber) W-10 Rietveld Applications I (Kaduk) W-13 Rietveld Applications II (Kaduk) W-14 Line Broadening (Makinson)  W-3 Fundamentals of XRF (Gilfrich/Croke) W-4 Layered Materials (Dirken) W-7 Specimen Preparation I (Broton) W-8 Polarized X-ray Optics (Chappell) W-11 Specimen Preparation II (Broton) W-12 Mathematical Methods (Mantler) W-15 Quantitative Analysis - Standardless Methods (Anzelmo) W-16 TXRF (Zaitz)   Plenary Session: The Plenary Session, "Applications of X-ray Analysis to Forensic Materials", was held on Wednesday morning and was organized by David F. Rendle, The Forensic Science Service, Metropolitan Laboratory, London, United Kingdom and Ron Jenkins, Emeritus, International Centre for Diffraction Data, Newtown Square, PA. Dr. Jenkins, who passed away in June 2002, had been pushing for many years to run a Plenary on forensic science, and contributed a great deal of work to the session. Many attendees commented that this Plenary Session surpassed all others in excellence and appeal, and for that, we thank Dr. Jenkins for his swan song… Opening remarks during the Plenary were made by the newly elected Conference Chair, Victor Buhrke, Consultant, Portola Valley, CA and Timothy Fawcett, Executive Director, ICDD, Newtown Square, PA. Dr. Buhrke gave a touching presentation, highlighting the special contributions of two members of the Denver X-ray Conference Organizing Committee who had recently passed away - Ron Jenkins, Emeritus, International Centre for Diffraction Data, Newtown Square, PA and also Deane Smith, Emeritus, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, who passed away in September 2001. Dr. Smith's ideas and insights held the diffraction program to a level of high standards and his influence remains a prominent force in the structure of the conference. As Dr. Buhrke clearly demonstrated during his presentation, both men were invaluable assets to the conference and will be deeply missed by all. The invited talks presented during the Plenary Session were outstanding and intriguing. The presentations were as follows: X-RAY ANALYSIS IN THE U.S. CUSTOMS LABORATORIES M.H. Liberman, US Customs Laboratory, San Francisco, CA UNDERKARAT JEWELRY: THE PERFECT CRIME? INVESTIGATIONS AND ANALYSIS OF JEWELRY USING XRF D. Kloos, Industry Consultant, Westminster, CA X-RAY DIFFRACTION ANALYSIS IN THE FORENSIC SCIENCE LABORATORY OF STUTTGART, GERMANY - THE LAST RESORT IN MANY CRIMINAL CASES W. Kugler, Forensic Science Laboratory, Landeskriminalamt Baden-Wuerttemberg, Stuttgart, Germany PORTABLE XRF FOR FORENSIC INVESTIGATIONS D.C. Ward, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Microanalysis Laboratory, Washington, DC USE OF X-RAYS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM FORENSIC SCIENCE SERVICE D.F. Rendle, The Forensic Science Service, Metropolitan Laboratory, London, United Kingdom XRD AT THE FBI: THE THREE C'S OF FORENSIC SCIENCE M.C. Bottrell, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Geologist/Forensic Examiner, Washington, DC Plenary Session Awards: Several awards were presented during the Plenary Session. The 2002 Birks Award was presented to Michael Mantler, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria - Yohichi Gohshi, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan, presented the award. The 2002 Jerome B. Cohen Student Award was presented to Jay C. Hanan, The California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA - I. Cev Noyan, IBM, Yorktown Heights, NY, presented the award. The 2002 McMurdie Award was presented to Camden R. Hubbard, Oak Ridge National Laboratories, Oak Ridge, TN - Robert L. Snyder, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH presented the award. Technical Sessions: Fifteen special sessions filled the remaining two and a half days of the conference, organized by many of the top minds in the field of X-ray analysis. The program included the following sessions: XRD & XRF XRD XRF C-1 New Developments in XRD & XRF Instrumentation (Buhrke) C-2 Synchrotron Applications I (Lavoie/Ludwig) C-3 Synchrotron Applications II (Lavoie/Ludwig) C-4 Microbeam Analysis (Havrilla)  C-5 X-ray Optics (Gao/Havrilla) D-1 Rietveld Applications I (Kaduk)  D-2 Thin Films (Huang) D-3 Rietveld Applications II (Kaduk)  D-4 Industrial Applications of XRD I (Snyder/Hubbard) D-5 Industrial Applications of XRD II (Snyder/Hubbard) D-6 Neutron Diffraction (Üstündag/Bourke) D-7 Stress Analysis (Goldsmith) F-1 Quantitative XRF (Gilfrich/Vrebos) F-2 Polarized X-ray Optics (Chappell/Ryon) F-3 Problem Solving/Industrial Applications of XRF (Broton)    Poster Session Awards: Over 100 papers were presented during the poster sessions, held on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Seven of these were given the distinction of being judged the best. Winners of the 2002 Best Poster Award were: XRD Poster Session Winners: RENDERING OF CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC ORIENTATIONS, ORIENTATION AND POLE PROBABILITY DENSITY FUNCTIONS H. Schaeben, K.G. van den Boogaart, Freiberg University of Mining and Technology, Freiberg/Saxony, Germany THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PORTABLE XRF & XRD S. Maeo, S. Nomura, K. Taniguchi, Osaka Electro-Communication University, Osaka, Japan IN-SITU, IN AIR, HIGH-TEMPERATURE STUDIES OF OXIDE SYSTEMS USING THE THERMAL-IMAGING TECHNIQUE L. Siah, W.M. Kriven, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL MICROSTRUCTURE ANALYSIS OF STRAIN-FREE Y203 NANOPOWDERS FROM PATTERN DECOMPOSITION AND WHOLE PATTERN FITTING APPROACHES D. Louër, T. Bataille, T. Roisnel, Université de Rennes I, Rennes Cedex, France J. Rodriquez-Carvajal, Laboratoire Léon Brillouin (CEA-CNRS), Saclay, France XRF Poster Session Winners: A NOVEL AND EFFICIENT X-RAY TUBE USING A LOW POWER OPTICALLY EXCITED ELECTRON SOURCE J. Reichardt, Thermo MF Physics; J. Schweitzer, University of Connecticut; J. Simonetti, J. Purcell, Schlumberger EMR Photoelectric NEW IN-LINE WAFER ANALYZER, VPD INTEGRATED TXRF M. Yamagami, A. Ikeshita, Y. Onizuka, T. Yamada, Rigaku Corporation, Osaka, Japan NEXAFS SPECTROSCOPY OF ORGANIC CONTAMINATION ON Si WAFERS BY TXRF G. Pepponi, C. Streli, Atominstitut der Österreichischen Universitäten, Wien, Austria, B. Beckhoff, G. Ulm, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Berlin, Germany, T. Ehmann, S. Pahlke, L. Fabry, Wacker Siltronic, Burghausen, Germany Exhibits The forty-two companies that exhibited at the conference presented various products and services for X-ray powder diffraction and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. Although many of the exhibitors were traditional supporters of the conference, there were also a number of new vendors participating at the DXC for the first time. Fifty-eight booths and 2 table top displays were sold to the following vendors: AMPTEK, Inc.; ATPS, Inc.; Bede Scientific Inc.; Blake Industries, Inc.; Bruker AXS, Inc.; Corporation Scientifique Claisse, Inc.; Del Power Conversion Group; Eastern Applied Research; EDAX, Inc.; F.A.I.R. Corp.; GBC Scientific Equipment Pty Ltd.; Gresham Scientific Instruments LTD; Handley Analytical Services; Herzog Automation Corp.; Inel, Inc.; Initiative Scientific Products Ltd; INRAD, Inc.; ICDD; Kratos Analytical, Inc.; Laval Labs, Inc.; LND, Inc.; Materials Data, Inc.; MOXTEK, Inc.; Osmic, Inc.; Oxford Instruments; Philips Analytical; Photoelectron Corporation; Premier Lab Supply; Rigaku/MSC, Inc.; Rocklabs Ltd.; Sietronics Pty Ltd; Soft Imaging System Corp.; Spectro Analytical Instruments, Inc.; SPEX CertiPrep, Inc.; Technical Associates; Thales Components Corp.; Thermo ARL; Thermo NORAN; X-ray & Specialty Instruments, Inc.; X-ray Flux Pty Ltd; X-ray Instrumentation Associates and X-ray Optical Systems, Inc. Social Events Evening receptions were held throughout conference week. Bede Scientific, Inc., Corporation Scientifique Claisse, and SPEX CertiPrep, Inc. sponsored the Sunday evening "Welcoming Reception". Monday evening's reception was sponsored by Philips Analytical, and was held concurrently with the first XRD poster session. Materials Data, Inc. and Rigaku/MSC sponsored Tuesday evening's social, with the second XRD poster session, and Bruker AXS, Inc. was the sole sponsor of the Wednesday evening reception, which also included the XRF poster session. Special thanks are offered to all those who participated in the conference, most notably, our session organizers, invited speakers, workshop instructors, and of course, our fabulous Organizing Committee. The volunteer efforts of all those individuals, and their enthusiastic dedication to the scientific community, are the key ingredient for the continuing paramount success of the Denver X-ray Conference.