When Science meets Art…
Professor Henk Schenk (1939-2023) - In Memoriam

The information about Professor Henk Schenk's death, which appeared on the Dutch Crystallographic Society website, was very sad news for crystallographers all over the world. Professor Schenk was an outstanding scientist, active not only in pure science but also in the application of scientific techniques in new fields. His role in the creation of the CrysAC Commission is an example of his wide interests. Below we want to show his help and engagement in setting up a new IUCr Commission – the Commission on Crystallography in Art and Cultural Heritage.

The full article continues here.

Top row, left to right: Henk Schenk at the IUCr Congress in Florence in 2005; Chairs and lecturers of MS 58 at the same Congress: Rossella Arletti, Eric Dooryhée, Salvatore Siano, Carlo Mealli, Giacomo Chiari, Henk Schenk and Veronika Šímová. Bottom row, left to right: Henk Schenk and Gilberto Artioli at the “X-ray and other techniques in investigations of the objects of cultural heritage” meeting in Krakow in 2012; at ECM30 in Basel in 2016: Koen Janssens, Wieslaw Lasocha and Henk Schenk.

7th CrysAC Workshop on 'Bio-apatite, Humans, Archaeology and Environment' - POSTPONED!

19 November, 2023, Benozyio Auditorium, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

Programme available here.

**UPDATE: The tragic and sad events in the Levant forced us to postpone the workshop, hoping for peaceful times. We discarded the idea of an on-line only workshop, because under the present situation most students and potential attendants will not be able to follow and participate in the workshop. We hope to be allowed to reschedule it for the next spring, following the same programme. We sincerely hope all of you will be able to contribute as well, supporting this international scientific forum as a small step towards peace and normal life. We'll send you possible dates as soon as possible.**

The 7th CrysAC Workshop on 'Bio-Apatite, humans, archaeology and environment' will take place on 19 November 2023 in the Benozyio Auditorium, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel. It will be followed the next day by a short local workshop on carbonates. This workshop invites scientists from research institutions, museums and conservation bodies to look at apatite from various points of view from mineralogy, structure, anthropology, archaeometry or possible nano-technology.

XXVI IUCr Congress in Melbourne 2023

The CrysAC Commission played an active role in the preparation of scientific programme of the XXVI IUCr Congress in Melbourne (22-29 August 2023), sponsoring two Keynote lectures provided by Dr Silvie Švarcová (ALMA, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic; CrysAC member) and Dr Helen Green (University of Melbourne, Australia) and organising a micro-symposium on Crystallographic Approaches to Study Cultural Heritage + Artists Materials and their Spontaneous Degradation with invited lectures by Prof. Gilberto Arioli (University of Padova, Italy; CrysAC chair) and Dr Filomena Salvemini (ANSTO, Australia). Four oral presentations and five poster contributions were selected for the CrysAC session.

Dr Silvie Švarcová (ALMA, Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences) dedicated her keynote lecture (August 23, 2023) to the 20th anniversary of laboratory X-ray powder micro-diffraction in the ALMA lab, showing numerous examples of succesful application of the technique in the study of provenance and degradation of painting materials.

Dr Helen Green (School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia) presented in her keynote lecture (August 24, 2023) results of the extensive research of Australian rock art.

The microsymposium on Crystallographic Approaches to Study Cultural Heritage + Artists Materials and their Spontaneous Degradation (August 24, 2023) chaired by Dr Silvie Švarcová (ALMA, Czech Academy of Sciences) offered varied topics from cultural heritage, including metal objects, paintings, ancient ceramics, as well as techniques such as laboratory and in-situ XRPD, neutron diffraction, tomography or large-scale XRF mapping.

Lectures of the microsymposium

Prof. Giberto Artioli (University of Padova, Italy) – invited lecture

“The tin content of lead inclusions in ancient tin-bronze artefacts: A time-dependent process?”

Dr Filomena Florentina Salvemini (ANSTO, Australia) – invited lecture

“Metallurgy in Antiquity: a new insight with neutrons”

Prof. Koen Janssens (University of Antwerpen, Belgium)

“Combining microscopic and macroscopic X-ray fluorescence and X-ray powder diffraction mapping for highly specific imaging of degradation phenomena in historical paintings”

Dr Marek Kotrlý (Institute of Criminalistics, Czech Republic)

“New robotic tools for multimodal, non-destructive analysis and characterization of 2D and 3D objects”

Prof. Takashi Kamiyama (Institute of High Energy Physics, CAS, China)

“The Jomon Pottery from Fukushima 5000 years ago”

Prof. N. Benali-Cherif (Algerian Academy of Sciences and Technologies, Algeria) - cancelled

“Teaching crystallography through beauty of symmetries of Algerian old buildings, carpets and jewels”

Speakers of the CrysAC microsymposium, from left to right: Prof. Koen Janssens, Dr Silvie Švarcová (chair), Prof. Gilberto Artioli, Dr Filomena Florentina Salvemini, Dr Marek Kotrlý, Prof. Takashi Kamiyama.