During the week of September 30th 2013, five Yale conservators and one Yale conservation scientist volunteered to help XRF Boot Camp organizers rehearse portions of the XRF Boot Camp workshop that will be held at West Campus November 5-8, 2013. Volunteers spent a “warm-up” day with Anikó Bezur (CCAP) during which they participated in radiation safety training and learned how to operate Bruker Tracer handheld x-ray fluorescence spectrometers. With this experience under their belt, they spent the next day and a half performing practical exercises that are planned for the first two days of the formal XRF Boot Camp. The volunteers offered very helpful feedback to the instructors, Lynn Lee (Getty Conservation Institute) and Anikó Bezur, regarding the content and sequence of the proposed exercises. The volunteers also rated the snacks and refreshments highly and thought that they learned a lot during the XRF Boot Camp rehearsal. What a great win-win situation!
