8th Heart of Europe meeting

Karlovy Vary, Czech Rep., September 29 - October 1, 2005 It has become a tradition that the “Heart of Europe Crystallography (HEC)” meetings bring crystallographers from Central Europe together for three days. This year, the meeting was organized by Juraj Sedlacek under the auspices of the Czech and Slovak Crystallographic Assn and held in Karlovy Vary. As in previous meetings, the purpose was to give Ph.D. students and younger scientists a forum to discuss their results and ideas. In line with HEC traditions, group leaders were banned from giving presentations, except for heads of newly participating groups. This year, the HEC community welcomed the first group from Austria, when Kristina Djinovic Carugo introduced her team from the U. of Vienna. Altogether, about 100 people took part in the meeting and over 30 participants presented 15 minute lectures. Most talks focused on new crystal structures, but there were also two sessions devoted to methods development and instrumentation. Zbiginiew Dauter (Argonne, IL) presented the keynote lecture and emphasized the jolly sides of SAD, and Thomas Wollert (Braunschweig) won the award for best lecture. All participants will have happy memories of the charming location of the meeting. Karlovy Vary has preserved much of its old glory, and the conference centre was no exception. The place felt like a luxury mansion from the 19th century, and participants were impressed to learn that this was the place were Dvorák’s “From the New World” was first publicly performed. Thanks are due to the European Crystallographic Assn, the Czech and Slovak Crystallographic Assn, and the company sponsors (www.img.cas.cz/hec/) for financial support, and of course particularly to Juraj Sedlacek for organizing such a nice meeting in such a splendid location!