The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History (SNOMNH) is hosting a FREE workshop on the applications and use of X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) for collections. This one-day workshop will be held at the SNOMNH and is set for Tuesday, September 8th, 2015 from 9am-5pm.
XRF technology has been very useful in detecting art fraud through paint analysis, but the technology also has a wide range of applications that apply to other collections such as natural history collections (ex. detecting the presence of chemicals or old pesticide treatments and sourcing materials), archival and library collections (ex. identifying papers and inks), art collections (ex. identifying pigments and painting structures), archaeological and geological collections (ex. identifying the composition of inclusions in stone and material identification), and pretty much any other collection-related application involving chemical analysis.
During the course of the workshop, we will be able to analyze some of our own materials and learn more about the technology and the software. Please see the link for more information on XRF technology as well as an example of a project completed using XRF technology. More information on the workshop can be found here: https://www.bruker.com/products/x-ray-diffraction-and-elemental-analysis/handheld-xrf/workshop/workshop-overview.html
Additionally, Houston Analytical Systems Co. (the presenters of the workshop) in conjunction with Bruker Corporation (the manufacturer of the Tracer) has generously offered to loan participants of the workshop one of their portable XRF Tracer units for a time span of two weeks each, but if your institution or department is interested in taking advantage of this offer, you must send someone to this workshop so they can be properly trained on the technology and the software.
Space is limited!! There are only 24 available spots in this workshop, so please e-mail Stephanie Allen at stephanie.allen@ou.edu with your RSVP if you are interested.