I just returned from this year’s EFNS in Amsterdam. Dean (Dawson) and Erik (Van Heumen) put together a great meeting. This was a my first time at this kind of meeting and it definitely was one of the more lively meetings I have been to.
In contrast to the bigger conferences, that are more diverse in topics, this one was very focused on nanoscale spectroscopy (not sure if the IR will be part of the title permanently, since all techniques presented at the conference are pretty independent of the wavelength).
Talks and posters
As always, Simone had a great talk on his work with bio-molecules and micro-organisms.
Selwin Hageraats gave a very nice talk about paint degradation. He recounted running into pretty much the same challenges that Xiao Ma and I encountered for our publication on paint degradation. However, while we looked at artificial samples (aged paints on a canvas), Selwin has chosen to look at actual paintings - that certainly won’t make it easier, but definitely more exciting. Good luck!
Application of AFM-IR to bitumen was presented by two groups, Lily Poulikakos from EMPA and Ayse Koyun from Hinrich Grothes group at TU Wien. It seems that tapping mode AFM-IR is the way to go for these samples. However, even then they are still quite challenging to measure because of their stickiness.
New sources
BRUKER officially debuted their DFG based broad band laser for mid-IR s-SNOM. Its wavelength coverage is significantly broader than the EC-QCL sources we have used so far (from slightly below 1000 cm -1 to 4000 cm -1), but on the other hand it not able to collect images rapidly. Not sure if that is immediately useful to me right now, but certainly a good option if your main focus lies on s-SNOM. It can also be used for AFM-IR (at a lower spectral resolution).
Social Events
Sadly, the main social event - a boat tour through the Grachten of Amsterdam - was unfortunately rained on a bit, but was nice nonetheless. The large boat offered a great chance for networking and discussions. The boat tour was followed by delicious BBQ at the Tropen Hotel.
In the end my flight back home had a few hours delay. So I spent quite a bit of time at Schiphol airport. I had a beer from a local brewery at the airport bar. Decent taste. They might make it big, if they decide to export internationally.