This special June issue of Powder Diffraction comprises selected papers presented at the 2011 60th annual Denver X-ray Conference (DXC). At DXC 16 workshops, 2 poster sessions, a plenary session Food and Drugs, and 16 special sessions were held, covering the following topics:
Energy Storage and Harvesting, New Developments in XRD/XRF Instrumentation, X-ray Imaging, Advances in Nanobeam Optics, Nanomaterials Characterization, Line Profile Analysis, Rietveld Analysis, Stress Analysis, Industrial Applications of XRD, Fusion and Industrial Applications of XRF, Micro X-ray Analysis, Past, Present and Future of Field-Portable XRF, Quantitative Analysis XRF, Environmental and Handheld XRF, and Trace Analysis XRF. In addition to the traditional XRD and XRF topics, a specialized session on Core Shell Spectroscopy was also featured at the conference.
As part of the Denver Conference, proceedings are published and from these proceedings, select papers covering XRD, XRF, and other high-energy scattering methods were chosen for publication in Powder Diffraction. This issue of Powder Diffraction will provide readers with the opportunity to learn about current topics in a variety of material characterization applications.
The talents of many people are required to make this special issue possible. Besides the authors, we thank current and emeritus DXC organizing committee members for reviewing these articles. We thank the DXC conference coordinators Denise Flaherty and Tess Kozul, Powder Diffraction managing editor Nicole Ernst-Boris, and Powder Diffraction Editor-in-Chief Ting Huang for all their hard work in making this publication possible. We hope you enjoy this publication and we look forward to seeing you at the 2012 Denver X-ray Conference in Denver, Colorado 6–10 August 2012 (http://www.dxcicdd.com).
We conclude with the sad news that our friend and Denver Conference Organizing Committee Chairman, Bob Snyder, passed away about one month after last year's conference. All who knew Bob will agree that he was a dynamic man, passionate about life, and a dynamic leader not only of DXC but also the X-ray analysis community. Bob will be missed but not forgotten.
