Argentinian Crystallography Association Meeting

San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina
November 2011

Participants of the 7th Meeting of the AACr.

The 7th Meeting of the Argentinian Crystallography Association (AACr) had approximately 100 participants from different provinces of Argentina in attendance, giving the meeting a truly national relevance. Other countries represented included: Brazil, Uruguay, Venezuela, Spain and France. The meeting included four plenary talks (Gabriel Cuello, Oscar Piro, Griselda Polla and Juan Manuel García Ruiz), one special talk given at the Inst. Balseiro Colloquium (Juan Rodríguez-Carvajal), 10 oral presentations, 90 posters and a panel discussion on large facilities for crystallography research. In addition, a special session was held in memory of Andrés Goeta, an outstanding Argentinian crystallographer working at Durham U. (UK), who passed away in July of 2011.

A satellite event, the 3rd School of Crystallography, focused on X-ray and neutron diffraction in polycrystalline materials, held November 7-18, was partially supported by the IUCr. It was attended by 41 students from Argentinia, Brazil, Uruguay and Colombia. This School was divided into two modules. The first module, led by Juan Rodríguez-Carvajal and Gabriel Cuello, consisted of a compact version of the well-established 'FULLPROF School' held annually at the Inst. Laue Langevin in Grenoble. The second module, led by Raúl Bolmaro, Javier Santisteban, Miguel Vicente-Álvarez, Aldo Craievich and Eduardo Granado, focused on scientific and technological applications in polycrystals, such as internal stresses and strains, texture and size effects, and synchrotron radiation techniques. The afternoons were dedicated to demonstrations and practical sessions.

The ordinary AACr Annual Assembly was held during the meeting, where new officers of the association were elected and it was confirmed that the 8th Meeting will be held in Santa Fe from October 31-November 2, 2012. The 4th School of Crystallography will focus on fundamentals and applications of X-ray powder diffraction, and will include a workshop on synchrotron light techniques for materials characterization. The 9th Meeting will be held in 2013 at Córdoba and crystallographers of other Latin American countries will be invited to organize this event as the First Latin American Congress on Crystallography.