CSIRO Student project for 2015-16
CSIRO offers opportunities for students to undertake applied physics research projects at our Lucas
Height laboratories. Honours projects are normally undertaken on a part-time basis over a period of
about 6-7 months during the academic year.
A daily stipend is paid to all students.
Honours projects
H1. Measurement and characterisation of X-ray tube output
H2. X-ray Diffraction Modelling
About the CSIRO Lucas Heights group
Our research group develops novel instruments for minerals and security industry applications. We
focus on carrying new ideas from the basic research stage through to industrial demonstration and
commercialisation. Our group comprises a mix of students, postdoctoral fellows, scientists, and
mechanical, electronic and software engineers.
Students would join the nucleonics team, who focus on inventing, designing and building X-ray and
nuclear-based measurement and imaging systems. Projects involve a diverse range of skills,
including:
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Computer modelling of radiation, using Monte Carlo tools;
Designing, building and operating experimental equipment;
Using radiation sources and detectors, including X-ray tubes and high-resolution solid-state
detectors;
Data collection and analysis using packages such at Matlab; and
Report writing.
Students would be based at CSIRO’s Lucas Heights laboratories.
There are excellent opportunities for interested students to continue their studies by undertaking a
PhD project with the group.
Honours Project H2 – X-ray Diffraction Modelling
Supervisor: Dr Joel O’Dwyer (joel.odwyer@csiro.au)
Skills required: This project would suit a student with a strong physics and mathematics background.
Experience with Matlab would be an advantage.
CSIRO develops analysis systems that measure the mineral components of ores fed into minerals
processing plants. These systems use a special version of the X-ray diffraction method to identify the
variety and amount of key minerals in the process stream. This information is gathered in real-time
and fed back to the plant, allowing the plant operators to optimise the plant conditions based on the
mineralogy of the material being processed.
This Honours project will aim to develop a computer model to calculate the diffraction pattern of
any mineral from an X-ray diffraction instrument. The student will first learn the physics of X-ray
diffraction and how this can be used to calculate theoretical diffraction patterns from any crystalline
material. The student will then learn how instrument factors affect the quality of a diffraction
pattern. This knowledge will be applied to develop a computer code that simulates the diffraction
pattern collected by a simple X-ray diffraction instrument.
The student will then design and build a simple laboratory X-ray diffraction instrument. A series of
experiments will be conducted, and the diffraction patterns of several minerals collected with the
apparatus. These patterns will be benchmarked against calculated patterns for the same minerals to
test the validity of their modelling code.