Hugo Rietveld

Hugo M. Rietveld (7 March 1932 – 16 July 2016) was a Dutch crystallographer who is famous for his publication on the full profile refinement method in powder diffraction, which became later known as the Rietveld refinement method. The method was developed to refine neutron diffraction data, but is applicable to other diffraction experiments as well, like X-ray diffraction. The Rietveld refinement uses a least squares approach to refine a theoretical line profile (calculated from a known or postulated crystal structure) until it matches the measured profile. The introduction of this technique which used the full profile instead of individual reflections was a significant step forward in the diffraction analysis of powder samples.

Hugo Rietveld
Born	(1932-03-07)March 7, 1932 The Hague, Netherlands
Died	July 16, 2016(2016-07-16) (aged 84)
Education	University of Western Australia
Known for	Rietveld refinement
Scientific career
Institutions	Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands
Doctoral advisor	Edward Norman Maslen
Other academic advisors	Dorothy Hodgkin

Biography

Rietveld was born in the Hague. After completing Grammar School in the Netherlands he moved to Australia and studied physics at the University of Western Australia in Perth. In 1964 he obtained his PhD degree under Edward Norman Maslen with a thesis entitled "The Structure of p-Diphenylbenzene and Other Compounds", a single crystal neutron and X-ray diffraction study. Dorothy Hodgkin was an external examiner on his thesis. This investigation was the first single crystal neutron diffraction study in Australia and was conducted at the High Flux Australian Reactor (HIFAR) in the Lucas Heights suburb of Sydney.

In 1964 he became a research officer at the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (Energieonderzoek Centrum Nederland, ECN) in Petten, where he worked together with Bert Loopstra and Bob van Laar on the structure solution and refinement of uranates and other ceramic compounds using neutron powder diffraction. In 1967 he implemented the full profile refinement method in a computer program, which he published as his own achievement under his own name in his 1969 citation classic. After publishing this important project alone, Rietveld found his position in the small Petten group increasingly difficult. In 1974 he successfully applied for the post of head of the ECN library, a function that had been vacant for some time, and consequently he left science. He remained with the library until his retirement in 1992.

Awards

• The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Hugo M. Rietveld, the Aminoff prize in Stockholm, 31 March 1995.
• Barrett Award on behalf of the Denver X-ray Conference Organizing Committee in Denver, U.S., 6 August 2003.
• The Royal Award of Officer in the Order of Oranje-Nassau, for his outstanding contribution to the field of chemistry. Alkmaar, Netherlands, 28 October 2004.
• Award for Distinguished Powder Diffractionists, awarded by The European Diffraction Conferences, handed out on 30 August 2010 in Darmstadt.
• Hans-Kühl-Medal 2010, awarded by Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh), Fachgruppe Bauchemie, handed out on 7 October 2010 in Dortmund.

Further reading

• Young, R. A. (Ed.). (1993). The Rietveld method (Vol. 6). Oxford. Oxford University Press.
• Rietveld, H. M. (1 January 1967). "Line profiles of neutron powder-diffraction peaks for structure refinement". Acta Crystallographica. 22 (1). International Union of Crystallography (IUCr): 151–152. doi:10.1107/s0365110x67000234. ISSN 0365-110X.
• Rietveld, H. M. (2 June 1969). "A profile refinement method for nuclear and magnetic structures". Journal of Applied Crystallography. 2 (2). International Union of Crystallography (IUCr): 65–71. doi:10.1107/s0021889869006558. ISSN 0021-8898.
• Rietveld, H. M. (2010). "The Rietveld Method: A Retrospection". Zeitschrift für Kristallographie. 225 (12). Walter de Gruyter GmbH: 545–547. Bibcode:2010ZK....225..545R. doi:10.1524/zkri.2010.1356. ISSN 0044-2968. S2CID 98124155.
• Rietveld, Hugo M (1 August 2014). "The Rietveld method". Physica Scripta. 89 (9). IOP Publishing: 098002. Bibcode:2014PhyS...89i8002R. doi:10.1088/0031-8949/89/9/098002. ISSN 0031-8949. S2CID 121006332.

External links

• Personal page Archived 13 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine