In December we took part in the Joint PhD Seminar (Radeburg, Germany) and Nano-scale materials and advanced characterization techniques – European advanced training course (Dresden, Germany).
During the former we had an opportunity to exchange our scientific experience and consult results of our recent investigations with PhD students from Fraunhofer Institute for Nondestructive Studies. During the seminar I gave a speech on “Aluminium matrix nano-composites reinforced with aluminium nitrides”.
The latter gave us an overview of number of advanced techniques used in materials characterization, including Scanning Electron Microscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy, Atom Probe Tomography, Nanoindentation, etc..

This month was short due to Christmas break. I was preparing to the exam of French language.

I have been working on a paper to be sent to a scientific journal. The paper concerns the structural properties of Ni-Mn-Sn based ribbons. Some TEM, SEM, XRD and DSC results are shown. Some initial magnetization versus temperature curves are also presented.

In the beginning of this month I took part in a “Joint PhD Seminar” meeting and “Nano-scale Materials and Advanced Characterization Techniques” course. They were both held in Germany near Dresden. During the seminar I presented results of measurements carried out so far. The title of my presentation was “Application of 3D-EBSD technique to microstructure characterization of zirconia ceramics”.

In december (2-7.12) I have participated in two related events that were held in Radeburg and Dresden, Germany. First one was so called "Joint PhD seminar", which was kind of informal meeting, between PhD students form our Institute and from ENano young research group from Institute for Materials Science of Technical University of Dresden. During the seminar each of participants had chance to present his or her research during 25 minutes talk, and then discuss all kind of issues related to scientiffic and non-scientiffic aspects of work and life. Since event was host to researchers from many different areas of materials science it was very good environment to exchange thoughts, problems and experiences related to scientific research.
Second event took place in two days following the Seminar, and was organized in Fraunhofer Institute in Dresden. It was basically series of lectures given by specialists in materials sciences and the scope was mostly focused on advanced research techniques. Among others, techniques such as SEM, TEM, SPM, APT were covered and their application in materials science were presented in great detail. The lectures were followed with visit to specialist laboratories where more equipment have been presented and more questions have been answered.
Overall whole trip to Germany turned to be both fruitful in scientific and pleasant in social experiences, undoubtedly enhanced by great measure with proper German lager and cuisine.