IWPD 2025 – International Workshop on Powder Diffraction

IWPD 2025

International Workshop on Powder Diffraction
September 29 – October 1, 2025
Politecnico di Bari, Italy

Post-Workshop Powder Diffraction Analysis Competition

Put your new skills to the test! Following our recent workshop, we invite all participants to apply the techniques learned in a friendly analysis competition. This is your opportunity to work with a diverse set of real-world data and showcase your analytical expertise.

The Challenge

Your task is to perform a thorough analysis of one or more powder diffraction datasets from the official Momentum Transfer sample repository. All submissions are welcome, from phase identification to quantitative analysis or structure solution.

Data & Resources

All datasets for this competition must be from the repository linked below. Information regarding the source and composition of the samples is provided in the sample-list.csv file within the repository.

Access Sample Data Repository

Analysis & Software

You may use any of the software and analytical techniques demonstrated during the workshop. The goal is to produce the most accurate and insightful analysis possible.

Submission Guidelines

To ensure our judges can review your work, please export your final results in a format that clearly presents your analysis as well as the data you analysed. The required format depends on the software used:

TOPAS: A .PRO or .INP file
EXPO: An .EXP file
ICDD PDF-5+: An exported .xml report file
QualX2.0: The project file

Submission Deadline 19. October 2025

Submission is closed

Programme Schedule

Day	Start	End	Session	Speaker(s)
29 September Basics & Qualitative Analysis	08:30	09:00	Registration and Welcome
	09:00	09:15	Opening Remarks & Introduction	Cinzia Giannini, Director of the Institute of Crystallography - CNR; Piero Mastrorilli, DICATECh, Poliba
	09:15	10:00	Powder X-ray Diffraction: Theoretical Basic Concepts	Rosanna Rizzi
	10:00	10:40	Powder X-ray Diffraction: Practical Aspects & IRF	Paolo Scardi
	10:40	11:10	Coffee Break
	11:10	11:50	Qualitative Phase Analysis: Theory and Databases	Aurelia Falcicchio
	11:50	12:30	ICDD PDF5+ and JADEPro	Tom Blanton
	12:30	13:30	Lunch Break
	13:30	15:00	Demo: Profile Fitting	Robert Dinnebier
	15:00	15:30	Coffee Break
	15:30	16:30	Practical Exercises on Qualitative Phase Analysis: QualX2.0 software in action	Aurelia Falcicchio
	16:30	18:00	Practical Exercises on Qualitative Phase Analysis: ICDD PDF5+ and JADEPro	Tom Blanton
30 September Quantitative Analysis & Structure Solution
08:30	09:30	Quantitative Phase Analysis Methods	Arnt Kern
09:30	10:30	Structure Solution & Rietveld Refinement	Robert Dinnebier
10:30	11:00	Coffee Break
11:00	12:00	Hands-on: TOPAS v.7 Exercises	Robert Dinnebier
12:00	12:30	Using PETRA III for Science	Johannes Blum
12:30	13:30	Lunch Break
13:30	14:30	Quantitative Analysis	Arnt Kern
14:30	15:00	Correction Factors & LLMs for XRD	Bernd Hinrichsen
15:00	15:15	Coffee Break
15:15	17:00	EXPO Software Overview and guided Structure Solution and Refinement Exercises	Corrado Cuocci
20:00	22:00	Course Dinner	Piccinni 28 Restaurant - Via Nicolò Piccinni 28, Bari
1 October PDF & Size-Strain Analysis
	09:00	10:00	Introduction to Total Scattering and Pair Distribution Function (PDF) Analysis	Maxwell Terban
	10:00	10:30	Coffee Break
	11:00	11:30	Obtaining and Interpreting the Pair Distribution Function from Total Scattering Data	Maxwell Terban
	11:30	12:30	Size-Strain Analysis – Isotropic and Anisotropic Microstructural Parameters	Paolo Scardi
	12:30	13:30	Lunch Break
	13:30	15:00	Hands-on: PDF Analysis and Crystal Structure Refinement	Maxwell Terban
	15:00	15:15	Coffee Break
	15:15	16:45	Modelling Nanoparticle Structures and Particle Size Distributions	Paolo Scardi
	16:45	17:00	Closing Remarks and Certificate Distribution	Rosanna Rizzi, Annamaria Mazzone