- Hugo Rietveld
Hugo M. Rietveld is a Dutch crystallographer and one of the most prominent crystallographers of the 20th century. He is famous for his invention of the Rietveld refinement method, which is used for the characterisation of crystalline materials from powder diffraction data. The
Rietveld refinement uses a least squares approach to refine a theoretical line profile (calculated from a known or postulated crystal structure) until it matches the measured profile. The introduction of this technique was a significant step forward in the diffraction analysis of powder samples.Biography
[http://home.planet.nl/~rietv025/ Hugo M. Rietveld] was born in
The Hague ,The Netherlands , on 7 March1932 . After completing Grammar School he went toAustralia and studied physics at theUniversity of Western Australia in Perth.In
1964 he obtained his PhD degree with a thesis entitled "The Structure of p-Diphenylbenzene and Other Compounds", a single crystalneutron andX-ray diffraction study. This investigation was the first single crystalneutron diffraction study inAustralia and was conducted at the nuclear reactor, HIFAR, inSydney .In 1964 he became a research officer at the
Netherlands Energy Research Foundation ECN at Petten,The Netherlands , and was mainly involved in neutronpowder diffraction studies of uranates and otherceramic compounds.After a scientific and managerial career with ECN he retired in1992 .Awards
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Hugo M. Rietveld, the Aminoff prize inStockholm , 31 March1995 .Barrett Award on behalf of the
Denver X-ray Conference Organizing Committee inDenver , U.S., 6 August2003 .The Royal Award of Officer in the Order of Oranje-Nassau, for his outstanding contribution to the field of
chemistry . Alkmaar,The Netherlands , 28 October2004 .External links
* [http://home.wxs.nl/~rietv025/]
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