ACA SIG Officer Candidate 2021: Keith Taddei

I am grateful for this nomination to the Neutron Scattering SIG. My introduction to the ACA (and the NS-SIG) was as a graduate student, I gave several presentations at the annual meeting and was eventually the recipient of the Margaret Etter Student Lecturer Award. As such, I understand the importance of such acknowledgements and opportunities as offered by the ACA to young researchers and would endeavor to meet its admirable vision which specifically aims to promote and engage young scientists. More broadly, as an instrument scientist on two neutron diffractometers (POWDER and WAND2 of ORNL’s HFIR) I am deeply appreciative of the power of neutron diffraction and a happy proselytizer of the technique. If elected to the NS- SIG, I will use this zeal to grow the SIG striving to bring in neutron scatterers, and those interested in neutron scattering,  from the varied fields where the technique finds application with a focus on those which historically have participated less frequently in the ACA. As a SIG based on a technique, I also see the NS-SIG as a natural crossroads which could promote collaboration and interdisciplinary conversation between different interest groups and would use this position to encourage communication between members of different SIGs.