Synchrotron Charge Density School at ChemMatCARS

The aim of the school is to provide young researchers with a hands-on experience enabling them to utilize new crystallographic instruments and techniques, especially the combination of X-ray and neutron diffraction, to investigate the structure of matter at the atomic level. The school will provide an opportunity to integrate the relationship between experiment and theory when addressing real world problems of chemical, biological and technical importance. The end result will be to ensure the next generation of researchers develop an awareness of dynamic, cutting edge experimental techniques.
Participants are invited to submit a beam time proposal and four proposals will be selected to carry out hands-on data collection and analysis during the workshop. Both new and experienced users of the APS are invited to attend.

• Beamtime begins at 8:00 am on Saturday March 9, 2013 (by proposal application).
• Formal program held March 11-15, 2013.
• Class size limited to 40.
• Meals, onsite lodging, and partial travel support provided (more info »).
• Registration fee $75 for students and postdocs, $300 for senior scientists and faculty, due upon acceptance to the workshop.
• Application deadline is December 31, 2012.

Foreword

The department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences and Techniques, University Cheikh Anta Diop, in collaboration with the University of Trento, Italy, following the success of the second African School and Workshop on X-rays in Materials, held in Dakar, in January 2009, organizes the third edition of such school-workshop.

Aims

• promoting the scientific cooperation between African researchers in the material science area
• introducing the principal techniques of structural investigation of materials using X-rays, with particular attention to X-ray diffraction from powders and X-ray scattering from non-crystalline materials
• training young researchers by means of practical exercises of x-ray powder diffraction measurements and data analysis on computer
• presenting the actual research advances on material characterisation using advanced X-ray techniques.

Topics

• Basic crystallography
• Interaction of X-rays with matter
• X-ray sources and instrumentation
• X-ray powder diffraction
• X-ray scattering from non-crystalline system
• Applications of X-ray diffraction to Material Science
• Other techniques: X-ray diffusion; X-ray absorption and photemission spectroscopies and their application to Material Science

International Advisory Committee

• Gilberto Artioli, University of Padova, Italy
• Alastair N. Cormak Alfred University, Usa
• Karimat El-Sayed Ain-Shams University, Egypt
• Paolo Fornasini, University of Trento, Italy
• Pierre Lagarde, SOLEIL, Paris, France
• Silvano Lizzit, Elettra Trieste, Italy
• Takafumi Miyanaga, University of Hirosaki, Japan
• Settimio Mobilio University Roma 3 Italy
• Francesco Rocca, IFN-CNR and FBK, Trento, Italy
• Paolo Scardi, University of Trento, Italy
• Adrian Wright, Reading University, UK

Local Organizing Committee

• Chairman: Djibril Diop
• Members: Aboubaker C. Bèye, Issakha Youm,  Ahmadou Wagué, Arame B. Faye, Coumba Thiandoume, Abdou Ciss Wade, Bridinette Thiodjio Sendja, Ibrahima Diouf

Technical and Scientific Assistant

• Roberto Graziola, University of Trento, Italy

International Union of Crystallography Commission on Mathematical and Theoretical Crystallography

International School on Fundamental Crystallography

followed by a one-day Workshop day on the Representation Theory of Space Groups

Second MaThCryst School in Latin America

Montevideo, Uruguay, 29 November - 4 December 2010
The Commission on Mathematical and Theoretical Crystallography is strongly committed to promote education in all the fundamental aspects of crystallography that nowadays are overlooked in common University courses. This mission is accomplished through a series of meetings in a wide range of regions. In fall 2010 we organized a school in Montevideo, Uruguay, that continues our activity in the region after the previous school in Havana.

MaThCryst Workshop on Crystallographic Software

Tokyo, 12-16 December 2011

Program

The workshop presented lectures and practical exercises on the following crystallographic software packages.

• Vesta
• MoPro
• Bilbao Crystallographic Server
• Jana 2006
• Geminography
• Chardi

Lecturers

• Dr. Koichi Momma, Tsukuba
• Prof. Michal Dusek, Prague
• Dr. Benoît Guillot, Nancy
• Prof. Massimo Nespolo, Nancy
• Prof. Mois Aroyo, Bilbao

Local Organizing Committee

• Dr. Kenjiro Fujimoto, Chair
• Prof. Shigeru Ito
• Prof. Yasushi Idemoto
• Miss Chihiro Yamakawa

International Program Committee

• Prof. Massimo Nespolo, Nancy (Chair)
• Prof. Izumi Nakai, Tokyo
• Prof. Mois Aroyo, Bilbao
• Prof. Michal Dusek, Prague

Venue

The workshop was held at the Tokyo University of Science, Noda campus. It was postponed from the original scheduled dates of 22-26 May 2011 because of the tsunami.

Improving the Data Quality and Quantity for XAFS Experiments (Q2XAFS)

IUCr XAFS Commission, IUCr SR Commission and International X-ray Absorption Society are organising a workshop in Japan (Photon Factory, KEK, Tsukuba), on 8-9 December 2011. The workshop title is "Improving the data quality and quantity for XAFS experiments". The aim is to establish experimental protocols for XAFS measurements and the standardisation of XAS set-ups, including biological applications. Newly developed XAFS beamlines and future prospects will also be discussed. Young investigators will be involved by a session dedicated to their presentations and by on-site training sessions for data analysis. This workshop was originally scheduled for April 12-13, 2011 but was cancelled due to the earthquake in Japan.

The Latin American Seminar of Analysis by X-ray techniques (SARX) is a meeting that takes place in the countries of Latin America, bringing together the best researchers in the world to promote the exchange of experiences in the development of science and technology, using X-ray techniques. Since 1997, SARX has taken place in many countries throughout Latin America, with researchers from around the world. The seminar is held every two years and the next will be in 2010, in Mexico. This year SARX 2010 will be organized by the Autonomous University of Puebla. The seminar will be held at the University Cultural Complex of the UAP in the city of Puebla, Pue., Mexico. SARX The 2010 organizing committee is pleased to invite you to participate in the event and join our group.

AsCA'10

Dear Colleagues:

The Asian Crystallographic Association is very pleased to invite delegates to attend the triennial scientific meeting to be held in Korea in 2010. The 10th Conference of the Association (AsCA'10) will be held in Busan, the second largest city of Korea, from October 31st to November 3rd 2010.

The meeting will bring together scientists, from the region and beyond, representing all aspects of the broad range of crystallographic research. It is my special pleasure to invite you to attend and participate in what promises to be a scientific and cultural delight.

J. Mitchell Guss,
President
Asian Crystallographic Association

Dear Colleagues:

We are very pleased to invite you to attend the AsCA'10 meeting, which will be held in Busan, Korea, from October 31st to November 3rd 2010. As is traditional at AsCA meetings, the program will be designed to cover diverse aspects of crystallography, ranging from structural chemistry to diffraction physics, from electrons to neutrons, from membrane proteins to drug design, from hot topics to cool results and, as they say, much much more.

We are delighted to chair the International Program Committee and the Local Organizing Committee. We extend a very warm welcome to you to join us in Busan, Korea, for what promises to be a terrific meeting.

Jennifer L Martin,
Chair
International Program Committee
Se Won Suh,
Chair
Local Organizing Committee

7th International Conference on Inelastic X-ray Scattering

11-14 October 2010, World Trade Center, Grenoble

Programme

The IXS2010 conference will bring together researchers from all over the world working in the field of inelastic X-ray scattering. It is intended to provide a forum for the presentation of novel results, discussion on present and future trends and for an intense exchange between participants utilising the various IXS techniques for a wide variety of different applications.
The conference will cover electronic resonant and non-resonant scattering (in the soft- and hard X-ray regime), emission spectroscopy, meV-resolved atomic dynamics, nuclear inelastic scattering, Compton scattering, and thermal diffuse scattering.
Presentations will consist of invited and contributed talks and two poster sessions. The schedule will allow ample time for informal discussions.

The fifth BioCrys course will be focused on Macromolecular Crystallography, by developing the fundamental concepts of Crystallography and illustrate these by tutorial and practical sessions.
This is particularly important due to the rapid development of the field and also due to the fact that many young researchers do not receive a formal education in Crystallography. Additionally, with the introduction of high-throughput methods, the need to understand and grasp the theory behind modern methods will certainly be critical to overcome the difficult problems that will arise and will not be solved by the automated procedures.
Topics of the course will run from fundamentals such as symmetry, point groups and crystal systems, basic diffraction physics, reciprocal space and the Ewalds sphere, radiation damage, data processing, symmetry in the diffraction pattern, structure factors, Patterson function to modern methodologies including molecular replacement, SAD, MAD, MIR and maximum likelihood phasing, direct methods, density modification, refinement, model building, twinning and structure validation.
The course will be organized with lectures in the mornings and interactive practicals and tutorials in the afternoons. Evening lectures on current topics will be presented by the invited speakers. Participants will be limited to 36, aimed primarly at people at the beginning of their crystallographic research activity as PhD students or others. Selected applicants are invited to present a poster during the course.

Aperiodic crystals are long range ordered structures which lack translational invariance. They are found in a large variety of systems (minerals, organic compounds, single element under pressure, oxides, ferro-electrics, intermetallic compounds) and encompass incommensurately modulated structures, incommensurate composites and quasicrystals.Â

The structure determination of aperiodic crystals and the influence of the aperiodic order on their physical properties have made tremendous progress in recent years. However the high dimensional description and superspace approach used to describe the atomic structure of aperiodic crystal remains difficult to grasp for the non specialist.Â

This is why the Commission on Aperiodic Crystals and the Commission on Teaching Crystallography of the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) have decided to organize a school on Aperiodic Crystals.Â

The targeted audience is clearly a non-specialist one: Phd students or experienced scientists working in the field of crystallography, chemistry, material science or solid state physic and willing to have a basic understanding of aperiodic crystals.Â

The school will be organized on 5 days in Carqueiranne, south of France. Experts in the field of aperiodic crystal will give lectures, in a tutorial way and on a step by step basis. The number of participants will be limited to 65 in order to facilitate exchanges.Â

After an introduction to the high dimensional concept on simple 1D or 2D toy model examples, the basis of the structure determination of aperiodic crystal will be introduced for each class of aperiodic crystals. Various examples will then be presented, together with overviews on phase transitions, phonon and phasons, simulations and aperiodic crystal stability.Â

Tutorial in small groups (20) will also be organized in order to practice the notion learned in the lectures.

School location

The school will take place in Carqueiranne, on the Mediterranean sea nearby Toulon. The weather is expected to be nice and mild at this season. Housing will be on-site in a 2 star type hotel. Double occupancy will be organized for student participants.

More

Organisers and sponsors IUCr commission on Aperiodic crystals under the responsibility of M. de Boissieu (chairman), G. Chapuis and S. van Smaalen, with the support of the IUCr commission on teaching crystallography, the IUCr, CNRS, SIMAP, OUP, UJF XENOCS, OD and C-MAC.

Purpose of the Course

Structural crystallography is often thought to be synonymous with single-crystal crystallography, yet for several decades, powder diffraction has made important contributions to the understanding of materials structure and behaviour.

However, it is perhaps the last decade that has seen some of the most remarkable breakthroughs in experimental powder diffraction and in the analysis of powder diffraction data, to the extent that it is no longer considered to be an analytical technique of last resort.Â

Instrumentation at both the laboratory and facility level has become increasingly versatile to the extent that throughput and resolution are no longer mutually exclusive. In the field of data analysis, ingenious algorithms that take full advantage of modern computing power have meant that inorganic, molecular and even protein structures are being solved and refined relatively routinely.

This course is intended to serve as a complete introduction to the diverse field of powder diffraction, and will provide a firm grounding from which attendees can build future research achievements.

Purpose of the Course

In the era of nanoscience, the size of particles to be investigated gets smaller and smaller but the traditional techniques used for characterization of materials are becoming inadequate. Electron Crystallography (EC) is a powerful and sometimes the unique tool to study crystal structure and properties of nano sized materials. It is a broad branch of science comprising both academic research and industrial needs. Materials studied using EC methods vary in size and nature, ranging from inorganic nanoparticles to biological samples.Â

Exciting developments such as aberration correctors, dedicated specimen-holders, highly sensitive cameras, new data acquisition techniques, automated routines for data collection and new data processing softwares allow electron crystallographers to solve crystal structures from nano particles at atomic resolution.

The Course intends to review the structure solution using electron crystallography methods as well as novel applications; it will be divided into three major fields:

1. provide a strong background on crystallography in general and electron crystallography in particular
2. introduce students to upcoming techniques for data acquisition and data processing as well as to the state-of-the-art electron microscopy
3. cover different approaches for structure solution and derive structure-property relationship

The emphasis will be given on the following subjects: structural and charge density studies of organic molecules like pigments and drugs, protein structures, complicated inorganic and metallic materials in the amorphous, nano-, meso- and quasi-crystalline state, minerals and magnetic materials.

Meeting Round-up

The 2011 Annual Meeting was held in New Orleans, LA, in May. About 650 participants presented 216 posters and 394 lectures within the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel. Thirty-five exhibitors participated in the Exhibit Show, beginning with the Opening Reception on Saturday and running through Tuesday evening. Â Attendees traveled from 27 different counties with 20% of the total participants coming from outside the USA. Young scientists (students and post-docs) represented 32% of the total meeting attendance. Â Twelve posters were selected for poster prizes, sponsored by the ACA and seven other groups. Eight students were selected to receive the Margaret C. Etter Student Lecturer Award. Each was invited to give a lecture and was presented with a certificate and monetary award. Â The meeting was financially sponsored by 22 organizations whose contributions were used to support young scientists, speakers and social events. We gratefully acknowledge the generosity of our meeting sponsors whose support sustains the high caliber of our meetings that our attendees have come to expect. Â The ACA Council proudly announced the inaugural class of ACA Fellows at the Awards Banquet.

ISBC 2011 - Overview

The Laboratory of Crystallographic Studies (CSIC-UGR) organised the 3rd International School on Biological Crystallization under the auspices of the International Union of Crystallography through the Commission of Crystal Growth. The event took place in the Centre of the beautiful City of Granada, an ideal place to promote close scientific and social interactions between the attendees.
ISBC covered five days of lectures and practical demonstrations carried by 27 selected experts in the fields of crystallisation of biological macromolecules and biomineralisation.
The first day, Sunday, served as an introduction to the School and also provided the first lectures on the purification and preparation of protein solutions.
The second day, Monday, focused on explaining the fundamentals of crystallisation from solution to protein crystals; covering a wide range of topics from the physicochemical properties of solutions, through nucleation and light scattering techniques to finish with crystal growth methods and handling of protein crystals.
Tuesday was devoted to special hot topics that included talks on the crystallisation of large crystals, complexes and membrane proteins.
The fourth day of the School was dedicated to a 'Demonstration Fair', at which 22 specialists offered short (20-40 minutes) practical sessions periodically at scheduled times. Participants were able to choose what sessions they wanted to attend and in the order they wished, so that they selected their own learning programme "a la carte". The Demonstrations' Fair proved to be an excellent teaching tool as it provided students with plenty of opportunities to interact on a personal basis with the teachers and to watch closely how to perform crystallisation experiments.
Finally, the last day of the School focused on the subjects of biomineralisation and biomimetic materials.

The symposium intends to bridge the gap between the available modern X-ray techniques and innovative materials research and it aims to foster the dialogue between the two communities. The active participation of many scientists and the high number of contributions to the previous edition of the symposium have demonstrated the great demand for such a forum within materials sciences.

Scope:

Great progress is currently being made in the application of X-ray methods to materials science due to an improved control of the space-time structure of the probing X-ray photons and the development of sophisticated experimental set-ups and data analysis schemes. Ever decreasing small areas like single grains from a polycrystal sample may be investigated by beam sizes in the µm range and below. Also studies on thin film growth, chemical reaction kinetics and other dynamical processes have become possible thanks to the availability of time-resolved radiation facilities. Great progress in source characteristics and X-ray instrumentation has enabled a new level in the quality of research.
Materials microstructure: X-ray diffraction and subsequent line profile analysis is the only non-destructive technique giving estimates of crystallite size, size distribution function, defects and microstrains; these all have a large impact on materials functionality. Moreover, X-ray diffraction has become one of the most powerful tools to study the structural properties of nanocomposites, which nowadays receive a great interest for their numerous potential applications.
Texture and residual stress both introduce pronounced anisotropy in the properties of polycrystals. The physical causes for these phenomena are intensively under discussion in the community and offer a pathway to improve our understanding of materials processing.
The availability of micron and sub-micron beams makes possible micro-diffraction and nano-spectroscopy with unprecedented resolution, which is important in nano and surface science as well as in many industrial and environmental issues. Furthermore, such small beams allow one to probe very small sample volumes under extreme conditions of pressure and temperature.
The coherence of synchrotron X-ray beams enables use of phase sensitive techniques. Phase imaging is providing new insight in structures which have limited, or similar, absorption contrast. The development of fast 3D imaging techniques with synchrotron radiation allows real time experiments for example in the field of metal solidification. Diffraction based imaging gives access to 3D crystallographic arrangements of grains in undeformed materials opening vast avenues of research.
Established techniques such as photoemission, absorption and diffraction are taking advantage of the properties of advanced synchrotron radiation sources by improving resolution and detection limits (e.g. in fluorescence X-ray absorption or trace element analysis applied to impurities, defects and dopants or surfaces).
X-ray Free Electron Laser sources are currently in construction in a number of laboratories world-wide. These sources will provide unprecedented possibilities in x-ray science and this symposium aims at discussing their application to materials science.
The proceedings of the symposium will be published in a special issue of Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms by Elsevier.