Donosti/San Sebastián, Euskadi, Spain
| The Purpose |
The purpose of this workshop is to gather a group of international scientists interested in complex materials such as spinel, to discuss our current knowledge of structure and property relationships in spinel compounds, most especially regarding the roles that defects play in dictating materials' behavior. We intend to concentrate on spinel compounds so as to provide a very specific focus to our discussions. Many new and exciting developments, both theoretical and experimental, have emerged in recent years regarding structure and property relationships in spinel compounds. We would like to entertain a myriad of structure/property relationship topics:
- thermodynamics
- atomic mobility
- non-stoichiometry
- electrical, magnetic, mechanical and optical properties
- radiation effects; and
- interrelationships between spinel compounds (including oxides, sulfides, etc.) and related polymorphs (olivines, phenacites, etc.)
Our goal is to assemble an intimate group of 20-30 researchers, either actively working on spinel compounds or otherwise sharing interests in this topic, for a focused workshop on spinel. Our idea is to meet for 2 days. There will be no invited talks, but everyone is invited to submit an abstract for a presentation (guaranteed presentation - we are all invited!).
| The Venue |
The Donostia International Physics
Center has graciously agreed to help us run this workshop. They
will provide us with a small conference room and the audio/visual
supplies needed for the workshop. The Center is located in
Donostia/San Sebastián.
Donostia/San Sebastián is located in the northeast of the Spanish Basque Country: 110 km from Bilbao, 500 km from Madrid, and 800 km from Paris. This charming medium-size city is set in a picturesque countryside, on the edge of the Gulf of Biscay and surrounded by mountains.
Useful external links about the city and the Basque Country are, respectively:
- www.sansebastianturismo.com (Basque, Spanish, English, French)
- www.euskadi.net (Basque, Spanish, English, French)
Hotels Residencia Olarain (Paseo de Ondarreta 24, 20018 San Sebastián) and the Hotel Costa Vasca (Avenida Pío Baroja 15, 20018 San Sebastián) are both within walking distance (10-20 min) from the conference venue (Donostia International Physics Center, DIPC, Manuel de Lardizabal 4, 20018 San Sebastián) and linked through the bus line #27.
San Sebastián is a small city. Hence, taxi is not too expensive. A service from/to any of the stations to/from your hotel should not cost more than 5 Euro. C.T.S.S. provides good public bus services (fare: 0.85 Euro).
Maps and travel information are available here.
| Other Items of Interest |
The icon in the upper-left corner is a representation of spinel created by Jonathan Ball. It is a framework representation of a single unit cell of normal MgAl2O4 spinel constructed from the bonds between lattice ions, which also shows a single tetrahedral Mg2+ ion (yellow) coordinated by four O2- ions (red) linked to a cube composed of four octahedral Al3+ ions (green) and four O2- ions.
| Organizers |
For more information or to express your desire to attend this workshop, please contact either Kurt or Blas at
- Kurt Sickafus kurt@lanl.gov
- Blas Uberuaga blas@lanl.gov
Los Alamos National Laboratory
