Report from Berlin October 2010

Meeting of Chairs and Presidents of National European Crystal Growth Organizations

It was a great honor to represent IUCr on the European Activities on Crystal Growth (Kick-Off-Meeting in Berlin) on the 21st October 2010 in the Leibniz Institute for Crystal Growth (IKZ).

The purpose of this one and a half day get-together was to consolidate the crystal growth activities in Europe.

All the Chairs and Presidents of National Crystal Growth Organizations operating in Europe - representing 22 countries - took part in the meeting. For the first time they all have the opportunity to present different activities happenning in their countries and to disscuss the nesessity of having regular meetings of European crystal growth community, with the aim of creating a European Association for Crystal Growth. It is essential for this community to become more visible and to be able to succesfully apply for financing of the activities related to crystal growth in FP8 (Eight Framework Programme), which will start in about 3 years in Brussels.

The education of the future crystal growers in Europe was also strongly emphasised.

The new Master in Crystallography and Crystallization Programme, already established in Sevilla (Spain) was very much praised. It includes lectures, experiments and visits to crystal growing companies. It lasts 9 month, gives 60 ETCS and it is fully in English.

The meeting (about 30 participants) was organized by Roberto Fornari, Peter Rudolf and Wolfram Miller (IKZ). Glasgow was proposed as the location of the next meeting in 2012.

As the future of different crystal growth activities in different countries was always an important issue for the IUCr it is good to notice that our organization is regarded as a model one in the crystal growth community. Visonaries like Thierry Duffar, Roberto Fornari, Peter Rudolf, Ewa Talik, Hans Scheel, Elias Vlieg and Andrea Zappettini - all present and past CCGCM members - took an active part in this meeting, working on the better future of different aspects of crystal growth.

As a result of the aforementioned discussions it is recommended:

• to strengthen the Crystal Growth presence in calls and programmes of the European Union, e.g. in forthcoming FP8 call,
• to re-establish a stable and long-lasting European Conference on Crystal Growth (ECCG), i.e. next will be organised in Glasgow 2012 (ECCG-4),
• to nucleate new national societies on crystal growth,
• to create a European Network of Crystal Growth, represented by a Steering Committee and an Executive Committee
• to support presently established courses on crystal growth (in Spain, Czech Rep., Italy, etc.)
• to promote a new platform for education (Master Course of Crystal Growth),
• to combine ECCG with schools on crystal growth,
• to include more actively the industry in the CG Network and to hold a meeting in Brussels with EU and industry representatives (organised by Prof. Duffar),
• to have the next council meeting at ECCG-4 in Glasgow 2012.

Participating countries and persons:

• Belgium: Prof. Francois Dupret
• Bulgaria: Dr Bogdan Ranguelov
• Czech Republic: Dr Karl Nitsch
• Denmark: Dr Sune Bro Duun
• Finland: Prof. Markku Sopanen
• France: Prof. Thierry Duar
• Germany: Prof. Roberto Fornari, Prof. Peter Rudolph
• Great Britain: Dr Timothy Joyce, Prof. Kevin Roberts
• Greece: Prof. Stathis Polychroniadis
• Hungary: Dr Katalin Polgar, Dr Szusanna Szaller
• Italy: Prof. Andrea Zappettini
• Latvia: Prof. Andris Muiznieks
• The Netherlands: Prof. Elias Vlieg
• Poland: Prof. Ewa Talik
• Portugal: Prof. Florinda Costa
• Romania: Prof. Horia Alexandru
• Russia: Prof. Evgeny Zharikov
• Slovakia: Dr Jozef Novak
• Spain: Dr Jaime Gomez-Morales
• Sweden: Prof. Bo Monemar
• Switzerland: Dr Kazimierz Conder, Prof. Hans Scheel
• Ukraine: Dr Vyacheslav Puzikov, Dr Igor Pritula
• IUCr Representative to IOCG: Dr Hanna Dabkowska
• Brussels Oce Claudia Labisch (only topic 1)
• Secretary: Dr Wolfram Miller
• Assistant: Dr Maike Schroder

Owing to private reasons Dr Sune Bro Duun attended only the evening event on Tuesday, 20th October 2010.