"Lasers in Art Conservation" Workshop (July 2000)

Life Sciences Division Section head, John C. Miller, organized and chaired a workshop entitled "Lasers in Art Conservation" in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Institute of Conservation. The one-day workshop, held June 8th in Philadelphia, featured seven internationally recognized speakers from the US and three European countries. They discussed their research into novel uses of lasers for the characterization and cleaning of artworks. Successful laser cleaning of a wide variety of artistic and historic media was presented. These included paintings, statues, cathedral facades, paper, parchment, stained glass, ivory objects, photographs, coins, and bones. Dr. Miller presented his work on laser analysis and cleaning of 150-year-old daguerreotypes. The audience consisted of about 85 participants comprising art conservators and curators or museum administrators.. (Contact: John Miller, 574-6239, millerjc@ornl.gov)