Croatian-Slovenian crystallography

The eighth annual joint meeting of the Croatian Crystallographic Assn and the Slovenian Crystallographic Society took place in June, 1999, at the hotel Istra on a small island in the Mediterranean. The meeting was held under the auspices of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and was sponsored by the Ministry of Science of the Republic of Croatia; Pliva, Pharmaceutical, Chemical, Food and Cosmetic Industry, (Croatia); Renacon, (Croatia), a representative of Philips Analytical; SCAN, (Slovenia), a representative of JEOL and Oxford Instruments MAG; Bruker AXS, (Austria); Molecular Structure Corp., (UK); and Hotel Sol Club Istra,(Croatia).

The topics of the meeting were chemical, physical, biological and applied crystallography and mineralogy. 80 participants from eleven countries, presented short oral contributions. Plenary lectures concerned:The chemistry and evolution of the catalytic structures in serine hydrolases (G.G. Dodson, UK); Modern perspectives in XRD studies of minerals (D. Yu. Pushcharovsky, Russia); GPD-4-keto-6-deoxy-D-mannose epimerase/reductase, a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of activitated L-fucose (M. Bolognesi et al., Italy); Ionic fluorides in soluble organometallics (A. Demsar, Slovenia); and Metal saccharinates and their complexes with N-donating bases (G. Jovanovski, Macedonia).

A half-day boat excursion visited an aquarium at the Centre of Marine Research, Rovinj, and a 10 km fjord, called the Limski Kanal. While on board the boat, the participants enjoyed grilled fish, Istrian wine, and a magnificent sunset.

The ninth conference will be held in June, 2000, in the Republic of Slovenia. For information contact I. Leban in Ljubljana (ivan.leban@uni-lj.si)

A. Tonejc, Chair of the Organizing Comm.
S. Popovic, Sec. of Croatian Cryst. Assn