The European Powder Diffraction Conference (EPDIC) Award for Young Scientists was given to Kirsten Jensen (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) at the opening ceremony of EPDIC15 in Bari, Italy, on 12-15 June 2016. The award is assigned at each EPDIC Conference and honors outstanding scientific achievement by young scientists in the field of powder diffraction. The award winner is invited to present a plenary lecture at the European Powder Diffraction Conference. X-ray Science Division beamline 11-ID-B was used for parts of the work being recognized with this award.

Jensen’s lecture at the conference was on “Total Scattering and Nanostructure Analysis for Materials Chemistry.” She presented recent work illustrating how they have used total scattering to study advanced nanomaterials and their formation. She discussed how they have used pair distribution function analysis to elucidate the atomic arrangements in even the tiniest of nanoparticles and nanoclusters and how total scattering techniques have helped in the understanding of the reactions and processes taking place during crystallization of materials under harsh conditions or in complex sample geometries. She also showed how total scattering combined with computed tomography can open for a range of new in situ studies, as nanostructure can now be positionally resolved.