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Certosa di Pontignano, University of Siena, Tuscany, Italy, Sunday 27th August to Saturday 2nd September 2006.
IUCr School on Basic Crystallography - Sunday 27th August to Saturday 2nd September 2006
Participants of the 2006 IUCr Computing Commission Siena School on Basic Crystallography
Welcome to the homepage of the Siena 2006 School on Crystallographic Teaching, which will be run
at the Certosa di Pontignano, 10 km
outside the town of Siena, in Tuscany, Italy.
The school organisers are extremely appreciative
of the generous support from the University of Siena in
providing such facilities.
The Teaching Commission (TC) of the International Union of
Crystallography (IUCr) proposes to organise an International School on
Basic Crystallography. Recognising that basic crystallographic curricula
is regressing in the academic bachelors and masters formation, the TC
expects to fill this formation gap by organising an intensive one week
course possibly on a periodic basis.
The organisation of the school will be close to the
successful model
adopted by the British Crystallography Association (BCA), which has
acquired an excellent popularity since its existence.
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The topics will be presented to students in two equally distributed
forms, namely ex cathedra teaching during the morning and tutoring
during the afternoon. The lecturers are experienced crystallographers
with excellent international reputation and a long experience in
teaching. Following the presentation of each topic, tutors will lead the
students by working in small groups with the aim to solve practical
exercises.
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After a general introduction to crystallography, the student will first
acquire elementary notions on matrices and group theories in order to
get familiar with the concept of crystal symmetry. The concept of
isometry will lead to point and space group symmetries. The student will
be able to understand the description of crystalline structures on the
basis of its space group, lattice constants and atomic coordinates.
The students will then be introduced to diffraction, which is fundamental
for the study of matter at the atomic level. The various X-ray and
neutron diffraction techniques, based on single crystal and powder
methods, will be introduced. The techniques of data acquisitions,
structure solutions and refinements will be followed by the derivation
and the interpretation of the results. Finally, the student will be
introduced to information retrieval from the numerous crystallographic
databases, which are of prime importance for any research in the field
of crystallography.
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With its origins as a 14th century monastery, the
Certosa di Pontignano provides
a wonderful environment for teachers and students alike. It is now run
by the University of Siena. Attractively placed on the top of a hill, it
is surrounded by vineyards; with a direct view to the town of Siena, and
a famous Chianti winery.
We hope to have a productive school worth remembering
both for its teaching content, and its surroundings.
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