The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) hosted the 2nd XRF Boot Camp at the Getty Villa November 18-21, 2014. The workshop is part of the GCI’s Research into Practice Initiative and was co-organized by the IPCH and the GCI under the leadership of Anikó Bezur (IPCH), Lynn Lee (GCI), and Karen Trentelman (GCI). The XRF Boot Camp provided in-depth training in the principles of x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy through interactive lectures paired with laboratory activities involving hands-on instrument use, data processing, and interpretation. The eighteen participants included conservators, archeologists, and conservation scientists from the USA, Denmark, England, Italy, and Brazil. Focusing on the qualitative analysis of core material groups found in cultural heritage collections, participants honed their skills using mock-up samples designed to simulate typical analytical challenges and also analyzed objects from collections at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the UCLA Fowler Museum. This year’s XRF Boot Camp focused on the challenges commonly encountered in the analysis of archeological and ethnographic objects, in particular dealing with inhomogeneous compositions and/or multilayer coatings such as corrosion products on metal alloys, heavy metal elements and composition of degraded glass matrix.
Maggi Loubser, Group Chief Chemist, PPC Cement Ltd., South Africa
Alexander Seyfarth, Senior Global Product Manager for Handheld XRF, Bruker AXS
Nancy Odegaard, Professor, University of Arizona, and Head of Preservation, Arizona State Museum
Stefan Röhrs, Senior Scientist & Deputy Head of Laboratory, Rathgen Research Laboratory, National Museums in Berlin