History

The American Conference on Neutron Scattering (ACNS) is organized under the auspices of the Neutron Scattering Society of America (NSSA), and is sponsored by the North American neutron centers. It is hosted by one of the American neutron centers every other year, in years that do not coincide with either the International Conference on Neutron Scattering (ICNS) or the European Conference on Neutron Scattering (ECNS).

ACNS is intended to showcase recent scientific results in neutron science in a wide range of fields, including soft and hard condensed matter, liquids, biology, magnetism, engineering materials, chemical spectroscopy, crystal structure, fundamental physics, and developments in neutron instrumentation. This is accomplished through a combination of invited and contributed talks, along with poster sessions. The conference also features the presentation of the Cliff Shull Prize for Neutron Science and some student prizes.

The conference is also intended to fulfill many of the objectives of a facility "users' meeting" but on a national scale. Hence the conferences feature presentations that highlight the capabilities of the instrumentation available for users at the major neutron centers in North America and provide a forum for users to ask questions and raise issues that relate to using these facilities.

The conference particularly encourages the participation of graduate students, postdocs, and new faculty, as well as established researchers in neutron scattering and allied disciplines. For the former groups, funds are available to help defray travel expenses.

The second conference ACNS 2004 was hosted by the NIST Center for Neutron Research in College Park, MD June 6-10, 2004. The first conference ACNS 2002 was sponsored by the Spallation Neutron Source and was held in Knoxville, Tennessee.