29th Slovenian–Croatian/Croatian–Slovenian Crystallographic Meeting

The 29th Slovenian–Croatian/Croatian–Slovenian Crystallographic Meeting (SCCM 2023) was held on 14–18 June 2023 in Topolšica, Slovenia. There were 60 registered participants from Austria, France, Germany, Morocco, Ukraine, UK, Croatia and Slovenia.  

Four plenary lectures were presented: 'Crystal engineering of organic and metal-organic multicomponent halogen-bonded solids' by Dominik Cinčić, University of Zagreb, Croatia; 'Order from disorder: towards molecular architecture of the muscle Z-disk assembly' by Kristina Djinović-Carugo, EMBL Grenoble, France; 'High-pressure phase transitions in molecular crystals' by Simon Parsons, University of Edinburgh, UK; and 'DFT modelling of materials and crystal structures using periodic-boundary conditions' by Anton Kokalj, Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia.

In addition, 45 short oral presentations were given, which addressed contemporary topics in crystallography: structure determination of organic, inorganic and coordination compounds, crystal architecture, engineering and design, phase transitions, structure–property relationships, synergy of diffraction and complementary techniques etc. One of the advantages of the Slovenian–Croatian meetings is that all participants present their work as short oral contributions, which is especially important for young scientists who therefore have the possibility to deliver their results in a friendly but professional atmosphere. At this year's meeting, the young scientists were offered the possibility to enter the best presentation award competition – it turned out that there were 28 competitors in three different categories (MSc students, PhD students and postdoctoral researchers who defended their theses not more than five years ago). Although all presentations were excellent, the jury unanimously awarded the following presentations:

MSc student Lea Čolakić (University of Zagreb, Croatia) for 'Picky halogen bonding in isocyanate-based Werner complexes'; PhD student Erik Uran (Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia) for 'Salts, adducts and cocrystals formed in reactions of SO₂ with organic amines'; and postdoc researcher Ivica Cvrtila (Ruđer Bošković Institute, Croatia) for 'Chiral crystallization of hippuric acid from carvone'.

From left: Ilaria Gimondi (CCDC); best presentation award winners Ivica Cvrtila, Erik Uran, Lea Čolakić and Klemen Motaln; and the chairs of the meeting, Professor Anton Meden and Professor Marijana Đaković. Photograph taken by Mirela Dragomir.

Another special award for an outstanding presentation on contemporary topics in chemical crystallography and advances in small-molecule crystallographic information sponsored by the CCDC was awarded to Klemen Motaln (Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia) for 'The elusive crystal structure of XeOF₂'.

The representatives of the CCDC also held a hands-on workshop focusing on Mercury and its new features, such as CSD-Particle.

The meeting was co-organized by the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology at the University of Ljubljana, and the Croatian Crystallographic Association under the auspices of the University of Ljubljana and promoted by the Slovenian Chemical Society. There was no registration fee; therefore, we thank the sponsors and advertisers: CCDC, Renacon, Rigaku, Aparatura, Mettler-Toledo, Vigor, Mitegen, Technobis, Dectris, Optik Instruments, Lek-Sandoz, Krka and Scan.

More information about the meeting can be found here.