First Moroccan School of Crystallography

[Morocco]
The faculty of sciences of Marrakesh organized the first school of Crystallography from January 29 – February 1, 2002. About 100 participants from Morocco, France, Spain, Italy and Netherlands took part in this school. The entire Moroccan university was represented by its teachers and young researchers. The IUCr and the European Crystallography Assn (ECA) were represented by their respective presidents Henk Schenk and Claude Lecomte who described the history, function and activities of the IUCr and the ECA and also presented talks.

Various topics were covered in the school including direct and reciprocal lattice theory, X-rays, electrons and neutrons diffraction and electron density analysis. N-dimensional crystallography and quasicrystals were taught by the pioneers of this discipline. Practical work sessions concerning the structure solution computer programs were organized during the school and recent diffraction equipments was described.

The school ended with a round table where the organizational committee described the state of crystallography in Morocco and noted the importance of the creation of the Moroccan Crystallography Association. The presidents of the IUCr and the ECA explained how the new Moroccan Association could join their organizations.

After the round table, the 80 Moroccan crystallographers coming from all the Moroccan universities approved unanimously the statutes of the AMC. An executive committee composed by 15 members was elected for 4 years as it’s mentioned in the statutes.

Lecturers and topics included Single crystal diffraction (P. Becker, France); Crystal symmetry (M. Berraho, Morocco and A. Vegas, Spain); Electronic density (M.N. Bouhmaida, Morocco), Direct and reciprocal lattices (A. Boukhari, Morocco); N-dimensional crystallography (M. Duneau, France); Examples of the structural resolution (L. EL Ammari, Morocco, A. Alvarez, Spain, and A. Boukhris, Morocco); Refinement of the structure and software presentation (N. Ghermani, France); Structure determination methods (C. Giacovazzo, Italy); Quasicrystals (D. Gratias, France); Powder Diffraction and Rietveld Method, (P. Gravereau, France); Data collection and reduction (M. Pierrot, France); and Electron diffraction (R. Portier, France)

Abdelmalek Thalal, Teasurer; AMC