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Joining info

Joining Information

Check this page regularly in the run up to the school. All updates will be posted here. Some admin faq’s are here.

First lecture starts at 15.15, you must be in Durham in time for this!

The 2026 Powder Diffraction & Rietveld Refinement School will be be held at Durham University from the afternoon of Sunday 12th April to Thursday 16th of April 2026. You need to be ready to start lectures at 15:15 on Sunday afternoon. 

The school teaching timetable is linked here.

If you’re a student, please complete the pre-course questionnaire.

Accommodation, food and evening events will be at Collingwood College. The Sunday afternoon and morning sessions will involve lectures and small-group tutorial problems. On Sunday they will be in the Holgate suite adjacent to Collingwood; from Monday they will be held on the Durham science site in the Calman Learning Centre (rooms 406/407). Afternoon hands-on practical classes will be held in computer lab CC007 adjacent to the Chemistry Department. You’ll get full information when you arrive.

A collation of information about the school, travel and Durham city prepared by our conference team for the school is in the pdf file linked here.

Registration for the school will open at 14:00 in the Collingwood College foyer on Sunday 12/4. If you arrive earlier you can probably collect room keys from the porter’s lodge. If you have travel difficulties and know that you’ll be late arriving, please contact us by email. The college phone number is +44 191 334 5000. The final teaching session finishes by 12.30 on Thursday; lunch will then be provided. If you need extra accommodation before or after the school please contact Event Durham who can arrange this.

All teaching material will be provided. However you must bring:

  • A scientific calculator or equivalent phone app.
  • Notebook/paper for calculations.
  • If you want to bring your own data to analyse it would be be easiest if they are in a simple ascii format of (2-theta, Intensity) or (2-theta, Intensity, Sig(Intensity)).

You won’t need (or be able to use) a laptop for the course though it should be possible to use this in your room.

As people have very different backgrounds we won’t assume any prior knowledge of Rietveld software. We will, however, use Microsoft Excel for some exercises. It would be useful if you know how to use the “solver” tool to perform siimple fitting procedures.

Things you must review before the course:

  • Any undergraduate course you were taught on crystallography or a simple text such as the Oxford primer on crystallography.
  • Simple matrix operations such as multiplication, transpose, inverse of a 2 x 2 matrix, inverse of a 3 x 3 matrix.
  • Use of excel and its “solver” functionality.
  • You might find it helpful to read a text on powder diffractioon or Rietveld refinement. One possibility is the text by Dinnebier/Leineweber/Evans.

If you’re travelling from abroad and wondering what to pack, expect typically unpredictable British spring weather. Some years it’s warm enough to sit and have coffee outside during schools, other years we’ve had snow. You should bring a rain coat/umbrella for the walk from college to the science site (~5 minutes). The dress code is phd-casual but you might want to consider something smarter for the course dinner on Wednesday night.

All food will be provided during the course and the college bar will be open for Monday’s social event. The nearest ATM and shops to college are about a 15 minute walk so bring what you need with you.

Information on travelling to Durham is in the pdf file linked above.

If you’re arriving at Newcastle airort a taxi to Durham is around £60-£75 (numbers in pdf linked above). If you want to pre-book at taxi with one of the Durham companies it’s cheaper. You could try the shuttle service http://www.airport365.com/ which you can book online. Alternatively you can take a metro train to Newcastle city centre (~20 minutes) then a train to Durham (~15 minutes).

Parking will be available either in the college car park or a University car park near to the college, please give the college reception your car details when you arrive.

If you need a receipt for payments or a letter confirming your attendance at the course, please ask us on the first day of the school.

If there are last-minute reasons why you can’t attend the school please let us know so we can offer your place to people on the waiting list.

For more information please email [email protected] or [email protected].