Celebrating the International Year of Crystallography in Argentina

The Argentinian Association of Crystallography (AACr; www.cristalografia.com.ar), founded in 2004, is dedicated to promoting crystallography all over the country as well as to bringing together groups working in this area of knowledge and/or groups employing it as a tool in their research. To celebrate IYCr2014 and also its 10th anniversary, the AACr organized not only academic activities, but also educational, promotional and dissemination ones.

10th Annual Meeting of the AACr.

The academic activities included the 10th Annual Meeting of the AACr and two satellite events, an Advanced Course on the Atomic Pair Distribution Functions Technique: Fundamentals and Applications and the 6th AACr School: Synchrotron Radiation Techniques for Materials Science, which took place in Mar del Plata in October and November 2014 (http://intema.gob.ar/cristalografia/principal.html). These had been preceded by the International School on Fundamental Crystallography - 4th MathCryst School in Latin America, held in La Plata from April 27 to May 3, 2014 (www.crystallography.fr/mathcryst/laplata2014.php).

An IUCr-UNESCO OpenLab was held in La Plata and Buenos Aires, May 5-10, 2014, in partnership with Agilent Technologies and OlexSys. A report was included in a previous issue of the IUCr Newsletter (www.iucr.org/news/newsletter/volume-22/number-2/argentina-open-lab).

Final round of the 2014 Argentinian Crystal-Growing Competition and some winning projects.

The AACr invited high-school students in the country to participate in its first crystal-growing contest (www.cristalografia.com.ar/index.php/concurso-de-crecimiento-de-cristales). The contest's Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ConcursoCrecimientoCristalesArgentina) has attracted >2300 likes! Previously, teachers of the establishments concerned were invited to participate in free Crystallography and Crystal Growth training sessions (www.cristalografia.com.ar/index.php/concurso-de-crecimiento-de-cristales/jornadas-para-docentes). In total the AACr organized 38 days, trained 1106 teachers and visited all the provinces. The award ceremony was held during the opening ceremony of the 10th Annual Meeting of the AACr. Out of a total of 139 entries to the Worldwide Crystal-Growing Competition 2014, 29 were from Argentina, winning three gold, two silver and one bronze medal and receiving five honorary mentions.

The first prize in the adult category was awarded to Gabriela Aloras, an artist from El Bolsón, Río Negro.

A National Art Contest - cristalizARTE - was launched to inspire artists of all ages by crystallography. Several radio stations and newspapers featured the contest and published interviews with the organizers. To see the winning entries please visit http://fisica.cab.cnea.gov.ar/cristalizarte/index.php/novedades.

A National Photo Contest was held, open to photographers and researchers/scholars from the disciplines of physics, chemistry, biology, geology and materials science (www.cristalografia.com.ar/index.php/concurso-fotografia). Photo contests were also organized in Ushuaia ('Getting close to crystallography and discovering a new world') and (for schoolchildren) Bariloche ('Crystallography in action').

Diego Lamas participates in a radio show.

Numerous fairs, exhibitions, celebrations and dissemination talks took place all over the country (www.cristalografia.com.ar/index.php/actividades/divulgacion), including an International Book Fair in Buenos Aires and a Week of Science in Santa Rosa (Province of Santa Fe) and Santiago del Estero (Province of Santiago del Estero).

Brochure for promotion of the IYCr and our national crystal-growing contest.

The IYCr was promoted in Argentina using a website (www.cristalografia.com.ar/2014) and Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ForoArgentinoCristalografia2014). A brochure to promote the Year and the national crystal-growing competition was produced, along with material on crystal growing for teachers and students. National and regional newspapers, national science journals and radio and TV shows featured interviews with Argentinian crystallographers.

The IYCr in Argentina was an unforgettable experience. Many members of our association participated enthusiastically in all the activities and in this way it was possible to bring crystallography to all the provinces of our country. We would like to express our sincere appreciation to the IUCr for its auspices and financial support. Finally, we would like to mention that many of the above-mentioned dissemination activities are being conducted again this year 2015: talks all over the country, the national crystal-growing competition for high-school students, the short training courses for teachers, participation in fairs and exhibitions, etc.