Another IAEA Training School — This Time, Extreme Paleo-Histology, 66 Million Years Ago!
From May 26th to 30th, 2025, the sixth edition of the IAEA Training Workshop on Synchrotron Technologies and Techniques and their Applications took place at Elettra. This annual event, organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Elettra, offers a fantastic opportunity to dive deep into the world of synchrotron radiation and its many scientific uses.
This year’s workshop attracted 14 students: 9 supported by the IAEA from 9 different countries, plus 5 others involved through Elettra collaborations and projects such as OPVStability and NEPHEWS. The program covered a wide range of cutting-edge techniques using X-rays and infrared radiation, with applications spanning environmental science, archaeometry, energy materials, and materials science.
Participants enjoyed hands-on tutorials guided by expert staff from Elettra and CERIC-ERIC on the XAFS, XRF, and SISSI beamlines, and had the chance to visit the XRD1 beamline. The program also included a valuable lecture on proposal writing, giving students dedicated time and support to draft their own synchrotron research proposals.
I was honoured to be invited as one of the instructors, delivering both classroom sessions on theory and applications, as well as a practical session at the XRF beamline. For this training, I used samples from my Non-academic Placement at ZOIC, where we are imaging ancient Triceratops tendons using various techniques—including XRF. During the sessions, I discussed with students key considerations such as sample preparation, defining research questions, choosing multimodal and multiscale imaging strategies, selecting regions of interest, and managing the trade-offs that inevitably arise during experimental design.
Elettra and the IAEA have a long-standing collaboration: since 2005, Elettra has been an official IAEA Collaborating Centre, actively supporting the agency’s mission to promote scientific knowledge and international cooperation. Since 2012, Elettra and the IAEA have jointly managed the XRF beamline, further strengthening this partnership.
For more information, visit the official IAEA event page or the Elettra workshop webpage.
