Dr. Nikolay Kardjilov is a researcher at the Institute of Applied Materials of the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (HZB), Germany. He is beamline scientists responsible for the neutron imaging instrument CONRAD-2 at the research reactor BER-2.His research interests relate to development of new experimental techniques for investigation of the structure and property of materials from the science and the industry with the help of neutron radiation. Dr. Kardjilov has designed and build the neutron imaging instrument at HZB and has worked on the development of methods using different contrast mechanisms like phase- and diffraction-contrast imaging, visualizing of magnetic fields by polarized neutrons and high-resolution applications. These methods are implemented nowadays at different facilities worldwide and are provided to the user community for addressing a broad spectrum of scientific and industrial problems.In the field of archaeological research he worked together with guest researchers on different subjects related to investigation of underwater logged objects from sheep wrecks near Sicily, Italy, structure analysis of ancient Egyptian bronze statues and material characterization of old Japanese swords and armor components.Dr. Giulia Festa is an experimental physicist. Her research interests relate to the development of neutron instrumentation for applications on materials and, in particular, applied to the study of materials of archaeological and cultural interest. Dr. Festa has been working on the development of various neutron instrumentation and devices for gamma and neutron detection (Silicon Photo-Multiplier technology, neutron radiative capture-based counting techniques, gamma spectroscopy). She has been involved in European Research projects developing ancillary equipment to be used for emerging neutron imaging techniques on historical objects as well as software for data analysis. In the field of archaeological research Dr. Festa carried out several multidisciplinary studies such as an integrated neutron analysis of the Ghiberti East Door from the Florence Baptistery determining state of conservation and manufacturing technique, and the characterisation of construction methods in musical instruments from the‘Fondo Antico della Biblioteca del Sacro Convento’ in Assisi.
