Infra-Red Analyses from Macro to Nano Scales. From Novel Self-healing Materials to Jurassic Dinosaur Bone Cells

Recently, several departments (SKAR, AMGC & SURF) initiated the development of an analytical multi-disciplinary and interfaculty platform (Hercules 2013) through the acquisition of a complementary set of X-Ray based equipment. It has enabled many inter-disciplinary projects ranging from documenting the chemical composition of Antarctic micrometeorites all the way to that of the “Manneken Pis”, which even attracted attention of the BBC! A new dynamic has arisen between the teams as illustrated by the Archaeology, Conservation, Palaeontology Interdisciplinary Group (ArCPIG) recently created by PhD's and Post-docs uniting palaeontologists, archaeologists and chemical engineers around material analyses.This proposal takes this analytical venture one step further and leverages the multi-disciplinary research and its unique character within the VUB.