Advances in X-Ray Analysis

The 41st Annual Conference on Applications of X-Ray Analysis was held August 2-6, 1993, at the Sheraton Denver Technical Center Hotel, Denver, Colorado. From its modest beginnings in the early 1950's, the Denver X-Ray Conference has grown to become a major venue in the national scientific calendar, with an ever-growing overseas participation. The 1993 Conference was the latest of these annual gatherings of x-ray analysts, who come together to discuss topics of current interest in diffraction and fluorescence. As the size and flavor of the Conference has changed over the years, so too have the methods and techniques of x-ray materials analysis matured. Science is advanced by the creativity of a few and the mistakes of many. It is important, therefore, that from time to time we sit back and reflect on how we got where we are, and where we are likely to go next. There has been no greater impact on the field than the introduction of the digital computer, and the Plenary Session of the 1993 Conference, "Impact of the PC in X-Ray Analysis," was designed to reflect on the role of the personal computer in the metamorphosis of x-ray instrumentation and techniques. Since the personal computer is a creation of non-x-ray specialists, we, as a group, have simply attached ourselves to the coat-tails of experts and developers in the PC field and taken advantage of new computer systems as and when they were developed.