You are heartily invited to take part in the Fourth National Crystal Chemical Conference held by the Crystal Chemical Section of the Scientific Council on Chemical Structure and Reactivity of RAS on June 26-30, 2006.Â

The present state, problems and prospects of crystal chemistry development will be discussed at the Conference.Â

The Conference will be held in the year of the fiftieth anniversary of the Scientific Center in Chernogolovka (SCC), RAS, and it will take place at the Institute of Problems of Chemical Physics in SCC.Â

Scientists from Russia and other countries are invited to participate in the Conference.Â
Conference languages are Russian and English.Â
Conference Topics:

1. Organic crystal chemistry
2. Crystal chemistry of coordination and organometallic compounds
3. Inorganic crystal chemistry
4. Crystal chemical aspect in materials science. Relation between structure and properties
5. Chemical bond in crystals
6. Structural aspects of reactions in crystals
7. Dynamic crystal chemistry
8. Structural investigations by means of synchrotron and neutron irradiations and electron diffraction
9. Modern features of powder diffraction
10. Modern problems of education in the field of crystal chemistry
11. New experimental methods in crystal chemistry

Plenary lectures, oral and poster communications will be presented at the Conference. Selection of reports will be based upon a review of the abstracts that should not exceed one page of typewritten text.Â

ISBC 2006 - Overview

The International School on Biological Crystallization (ISBC) was held in Granada (Spain) May 22-26, 2006 under the auspices of the International Union of Crystallography through the Commission of Crystal Growth.
Enrollment was 119 and participants came from 24 different countries from Asia, Africa, Europe and both Americas, North and South.
ISBC spanned five days of lectures and practical demonstrations performed by 22 selected experts in the field of crystallization of biological macromolecules, crystallisation of drugs, small-molecule biological compounds, polymorphic precipitations and biomineralization.
The first day of the School dealt with the fundamentals of crystallization from solutions. Starting with an overview of the history of protein crystallization, the lectures covered the physicochemical properties of solutions, nucleation and crystal growth theories and mass transport processes, finishing with a video selection of in situ observations of crystal growth.
The second day of the School focused on protein crystallization. The students and participants learned from a number of vivid and lively lectures covering all aspects of protein crystal growth from the handling of solutions to the handling of crystals, including high-throughput methods, additives, post-translational modifications, crystallization strategies and new windows on crystallizability. A highlight of the day was the "hands-on" demonstration put on by the ISBC "ensemble" (Alex McPherson, Madeleine Ries, Terese Bergfors, and myself) showing how to set up batch, vapor diffusion, dialysis or counter-diffusion experiments. After a busy day we walked to the Alhambra for a romantic night tour of the Moorish Palacios Nazaríes.
The third day of the ISBC was devoted to hands-on experiments and the way it was done was an experiment in its own right. Practical training during ISBC was organized in an innovative and lively format called a Demonstration Fair. During the whole day, 15 specialists offered short (5-20 minutes) practical sessions periodically at scheduled times. Participants were free to choose what sessions they wanted to attend and in the order they wished, so that they selected their own learning program "a la carte". There were sessions on polymorphism, chocolate crystallization, membrane protein crystallization, seeding of crystals, robotics, light scattering, and, of course, all sessions and techniques were repeated as many times as needed to satisfy the motivated students. The Demonstrations' Fair proved to be an excellent teaching tool: it provided students opportunities to interact personally with the teachers, to watch at finger distance how to perform experiment and do them themselves, to plan their teaching schedules on the fly, to devote more time and attention to a particular demonstration, even to attend a session a second time if desired. The Demonstration Fair was very demanding for organizers, of course, and special thanks go to the Laboratorio de Estudios Cristalograficos team led by Dr. José Gavira, Dr. Fermin Otálora and Luis Gonzalez-Ramirez, whose experience in setting up microgravity flight experiments at Cape Canaveral and Baikonur made the installation and removal of lab benches on the Hotel premises within few hours seem like child's play.
The blending of the protein crystallization, small molecule crystallization and biomineralisation communities over common issues and shared challenges was another initiative tested at ISBC for the first time. The risk, of course, was a possible phase separation or "demixing" of the two or three traditional communities. However, to the surprise of many, the lecture hall on the fourth day, which was devoted to small molecule crystallization, was as full of participants as it was on previous days. According to the comments of students and teachers, the cross-interaction was very intense and it was agreed to be a major achievement of the ISBC. The day started with protein crystallization on industrial scales and moved to crystallization of pharmaceuticals, polymorphism, high-throughput screening with pharmaceutical compounds, crystallization of lipids and computational methods, ending with a tasteful flourish, talks on the crystallization processes of ice cream and chocolate. That night, dinner time in Spain, the participants visited the famous gypsy district of Sacromonte, renowned for its flamenco music. There, in the cave of Venta del Gallo, participants enjoyed a tapas' dinner followed by a Flamenco Fiesta until we decided to walk back to the Hotel, meandering the streets close to the river Darro and the Alhambra.
The last day started with a talk on functioning crystallization databases, a crucial tool for understanding crystallization in the future, and then moved to the field of biomineralization and biomimetic materials. Models for the formation of biominerals were reviewed as well as tools for studying textural characterization, the precipitation of calcium carbonate, calcium oxalates and phosphates in living organisms, and as a study case, the wonderful mineralization process of eggshell formation. Next were lectures on the synthesis and production of materials inspired by biomineral structures and on self-assembly of hierarchical mineral structures. The School closed with the presentation of prizes offered by the International Union of Crystallography (International Tables Volume A, F, and the Teaching Guide to Volume A) and Triana Science & Technology (GCBs and Crystallization mushrooms) to the presenters of the six posters judged to be the best at the school. Winners from Italy, Japan, Spain, France, Chile and Belgium were selected for award by an international panel chaired by Howard Einspahr. Responding to strong demand from teachers and students, a CD containing all the lectures and demonstrations has been prepared that includes posters and pictures provided by the participants.

Crystallization: Focus on Membrane Proteins

June 19-23, 2007

Four day practical course in crystallization and characterization of macromolecules.

Location: Brookhaven National Laboratory

Purpose & Scope of Workshop:

The purpose of this course is to provide participants with hands-on experience of a variety of crystal growth methods for obtaining high quality crystals. The course will address both conventional and non-conventional methods in membrane protein crystal growth. Optimization methods will include application of oils, novel nucleating agents, detergents, crystallization in lipid cubic phase, crystallization with gels, and more... Introductory lectures will precede the eight practical sessions planned for the course. Time for discussions and informal meetings with the tutors is scheduled.
A special session on cryogenic protection and crystal quality assessment will be conducted at the X6A beam line on the last day.

Intended Audience

Graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and research scientists interested in learning about different approaches to crystallization.

Purpose of the Course

Crystallography and electron microscopy are pre-eminent techniques for obtaining the structure of biological macromolecules at atomic resolution. These structures, components of living organisms and viruses, are central to understand the detailed mechanisms of biological processes, and to discover novel therapeutics using a structure-based approach. Almost weekly, international journals such as Nature, Science, Cell show striking drawings of large biological molecular assemblies, and the articles therein explain the role and function in their biological environments. To counter the myriad modern threats of disease and their consequences for the living organisms, there is an urgent need to interpret the significance of the hundreds macromolecular structures published nowadays. This meeting will train upcoming generations of scientists to undertake this important task.

The present scientific programme will focus on the most recent achievements in structural studies of large molecular assemblies. Formal lectures in the main hall will be integrated with discussion and hot-question time sessions. The most recent advances in Information Technology -including speedy internet connection and most modern computers - will be available at the Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture. Subject to agreeement by each speaker, the proceedings in the lecture hall will be web-broadcasted as a "Virtual Course".

The Virtual Course is available at http://erice2006.docking.org/vcourse/

Purpose of the Course

The course main aim is to revise the state-of-the-art in design of new materials with properties of technological interest, to allow a faster progress towards the rational design of these materials in academia and industry. Besides, The course will attempt to establish a common language between disciplines that are not traditionally in close contact (materials chemistry, solid state reactivity, nanotechnology and biotechnology). The scientific programme is focused on the modelling, design, synthesis and applications of crystalline solids and on the methods to understand and to exploit the resulting collective properties. Top notch scientists will cover the most relevant aspects on molecule-based materials, and discuss frontier problems for applications in magnetism, conductivity and superconductivity, non-linear optics, drug delivery, bio- and nano-technology. The course aims mainly at showing the potential developments of molecule-based materials (magnetic, conducting, superconduction, non-linear optical, bioltechnological…) and to foster new lines of research aimed at the rational synthesis of these materials. An example is the increasing amount of structural research on fullerenes and their elongated (nanotube) derivatives, as they promise to play a major role in several areas of modern technology from medicine to molecular electronics and civil engineering; new molecule-based materials can also play a key role in electronics and computers; another example is lithium batteries and the importance of structure in their design, to satisfy the demand for reliable and safe high energy-high power tools by the medical, transportation, space and defense sectors.

The Fifth International Conference on Solid State Crystals and Eighth Polish Conference on Crystal Growth (ICSSC-5 & PCCG-8) continues traditions of both ICSSC and PCCG Conferences. PCCG-8 is a national meeting of the crystal growth community of Poland and is organized by the Polish Society for Crystal Growth (PSCG). The Conference is directed toward exchange of recent developments in crystal growth in Poland and in other countries. Therefore, PCCG-8 has many lecturers and participants from abroad. At the same time, the Conference follows the tradition of the International Solid State Crystal Conferences which, being international, is directed toward development of basic research and applications in optoelectronics. Therefore it has strong bias toward optoelectronics with emphasis on the exchange of recent results and the latest developments in this area worldwide.

Crystal (cl)Year will celebrate 2014, the International Year of Crystallography, by bringing together some of the most important crystallographers of the world.
The conference will also contribute to broaden the scientific contacts among researchers and between the youngs and the most established scientists.

Keynote Speakers

• Prof. David Blake â€" Crystallography on Mars
• Prof. Paul J. Steinhardt â€" Impossible crystals
• Prof. Ada Yonath (Nobel Laureate) â€" Crystallizing macromolecular complexes: the ribosome
• Prof. John Walker (Nobel Laureate) â€" Crystals, energy and life
• Prof. Eddy Arnold â€" Crystals for drugs: Hiv-RT inhibitors
• Prof. Brian Kobilka (Nobel Laureate) â€" The structural basis of G protein coupled receptor signaling

Mission

Modern crystallography is entering its 2nd century of life, being as vital and challenging as a young discipline. In the last decades, crystallography has experienced a rapid advance concerning not only the fundamental knowledge but also the instrumentation and the automation of software and tools for structure solution, refinement and analysis. Such innovations have produced an enormous impact towards a deeper understanding of the properties of matter and of the functionality of materials and molecular entities of all dimensions, as witnessed by well-recognized novel findings.

On the other hand, automated techniques typically discourage critical thinking and constitute a serious risk for young crystallographers, who may lose the capability of evaluating the accuracy and goodness of data and critically analysing the results. This risk has been increased by the reduction of fundamental Academic courses in crystallography all over Europe.

The ECS1 is directed to young researchers and Ph.D. students involved in different fields of structural sciences, including physics, biology, chemistry, mineralogy, materials science, cultural heritage. It aims at diffusing and sharing the idea of crystallography as a unique discipline: "crystallography is an excellent example of the universality of science", to cite the Proclamation of 2014 as International Year of Crystallography. The School will provide the students with instruments for acquiring a deep know-how and a strong background on the fundamentals of crystallography. Students will also gain consciousness of progresses, limitations and perspectives of the crystallographic theories and methods, and of how they can be adapted to the different "flavours" of structural science, ranging from small molecule to large macromolecular assemblies. The fil-rouge of the multi-faceted methods to be delivered in this School is to provide students with fundamental interpretative and predictive information and ideas for further scientific developments.

Different facets of crystallography will be explored, and expectations for research in the next century discussed and analysed through a series of reviews from renowned teachers. Such contributions will be collected in the Educational Book associated to the School, with the aim of inspiring and suggesting ideas for novel research projects in crystallography.

International Union of Crystallography

Commission on Mathematical and Theoretical Crystallography

Second South African School on Fundamental Crystallography

Satellite meeting of the 21st Meeting of the International Mineralogical Union

Bloemfontein, South Africa, 25-29 August 2014
To celebrate the International Year of Crystallography, the 21st Meeting of the International Mineralogical Union (IMA-2014) will put special emphasis and on the crystallographic sessions. To facilitate the participation to these sessions the Second South-African School of Fundamental Crystallography will be run as a Satellite meeting of IMA-2104.

Pre-requisites

The participants are expected to know basic matrix algebra (how to multiply matrices and vectors, how calculate determinant and trace of a matrix), fundamental electromagnetism (waves, diffraction) and basic chemistry.

Program

• Introduction to group theory
• Crystallographic point groups
• Stereographic projection and the morphology of crystals
• Space groups
• Exercises on the space group diagrams from Volume A of the International Tables
• Fourier transforms and convolutions
• Scattering from an electron, an atom, a unit cell, a crystal
• Diffraction symmetry: Laue classes, Friedel's law, resonant scattering
• General, zonal and serial reflection conditions and their use to determine the space-group type
• Group-subgroup relations and their application to phase transitions
• Twins and modular structures
• Use of the Bilbao Crystallographic Server in the study of the structure and properties of crystals

Language

The official language of the Schools is English. No simultaneous interpretation has been provided.

Venue

The School will be held at Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences of the University of the Free State.

Invitation

"Dear Friends and Colleagues,Â

We cordially invite you to attend the 1st International Symposium on Halogen Bonding (ISXB-1) which will be held in Porto Cesareo (Lecce, Italy) on 18-22 June 2014.
This international symposium will cover all aspects where halogen bonding (XB) plays a role, spanning supramolecular chemistry, materials sciences, and life sciences. In particular, the ISXB-1 will encompass both traditional XB core areas, e.g. crystal engineering and molecular modeling, and less established fields, like, among others, catalysis and polymer chemistry.
The program will comprise plenary and key-note lectures by internationally renowned leaders in the field. Oral communications and posters presentations are also scheduled. Flash communications of selected posters, mainly by students, will be pursued and opportunities are planned for young scientists' networking with both peers and recognized leaders in the field."
WELCOME TO THE ISXB-1!
Pierangelo Metrangolo, Giuseppe Resnati

The workshop will focus on the latest advances of the crystallographic methods for solving structures by both powder (Module 1) and single crystal (Module 2) diffraction data.
In particular, it will be devoted to the use of the latest versions of EXPO and SIR, two packages widely used by the international scientific community. The workshop will include theoretical and practical sessions. Participants will have the opportunity to personally use EXPO and/or SIR under the supervision of the authors.
EXPO is able to solve crystal structures by powder diffraction data using reciprocal as well as direct space methods. It is able to carry out the full pathway of the solution process, from indexing to Rietveld refinement. With respect to the previous version, it has been enriched with new powerful computing tools: e.g. the covariance principle based completion method (COVMAP) for structure model optimization; the RAndom Model based Method (RAMM) and the Hybrid Big Bang-Big Crunch approach for structure solution in reciprocal and direct space, respectively. The graphical interface has been improved making the program very user friendly.
SIR can solve ab initio crystal structures of small- and medium-size molecules, as well as protein structures, using X-ray or electron single crystal diffraction data. Several new abilities have been implemented: e.g. a new phasing method (VLD), simulated annealing techniques to exploit prior knowledge of the molecular geometry, molecular replacement methods for solving proteins, including a pipeline useful to automatically refine and complete the structure. The graphical interface has been further improved and allows the straightforward use of the program even in difficult cases.

International School on Fundamental Crystallography

Fourth MaThCryst school in Latin America

La Plata, Argentina, 27 April - 10 May 2014
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 spring 2014 we organize a school in Argentina, in continuation of our activity in the region after the previous shools in Havana, in Montevideo and in in Uberlândia.

Pre-requisites

The participants are expected to know basic matrix algebra (how to multiply matrices and vectors, how to calculate determinant and trace of a matrix), fundamental electromagnetism (waves, diffraction) and basic chemistry.
Note: There will be an introductory a one day preparatory session for students that need some help to comply with the prerequisites on Sunday April 27.