NSLS-II Seminar

Over the past 10 years, Eric Dooryhee has been using Synchrotron Radiation Diffraction (SRD) to examine ancient objects and artifacts from the Louvre museum collections. Nowadays he is concerned with SRD's future frontiers as group leader for the x-ray powder diffraction beamline at what will be the most advanced synchrotron light source in the world, NSLS-II at Brookhaven Lab. Dooryhee is a physicist who has specialized in powder diffraction at most of the research facilities where he has worked. These include the Synchrotron Radiation Source at Daresbury, UK; the Interdisciplinary Research Center with Ions and Lasers in Caen, France; the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France; and the Neel Institute, also in Grenoble. He has a master's degree in hard condensed matter physics and crystallography, and a Ph.D. in radiation physics, both from the University of Paris. Subsequently, Dooryhee's work has included studies on a range of artifacts: cosmetic products, ancient ceramics and fresco paintings of the Mediterranean from the Greco-Roman times, gilded medieval Islamic glazed ceramics and easel paintings of the Renaissance. More recently, he did more diffraction and spectroscopic work on the Maya Blue pigment, renowned for its remarkable resistance in the forests of Meso-America for the last centuries. Since 2005, Dooryhee has run a series of international conferences called SR2A, for Synchrotron Radiation in Art and Archaeology.