Third national congress in Mexico

The Third Mexican Crystallographic Congress, hosted by the U.of Sonora in Hermosillo City, México, in November 2001, was organized by the Mexican Crystallographic Society (SMCr) and the Mexican Committee for Crystallography. It was attended by 150 people and included eighteen plenary lectures, 117 oral and poster presentations, four courses, three workshops, an exhibit of mineral crystals, and an industrial exhibition.

Plenary lectures included 'From crystals to rocks, a natural bridge between physics and geology' (F. Ortega, UNAM), 'Mineral spectrometry' (M. Ostroumov, Michoacán), 'Structure, properties and simulation of minerals' (L. de Pablo, UNAM), 'Social relevance of Crystallography' (G. Salas, Sonora), 'Biologic macromolecules' (M. Soriano, UNAM), 'Recognition and linking sites in proteins' (A. Rodríguez, UNAM), 'Structure and function of topoisomerases' (A. Mondragón, Illinois), 'The energy landscape of proteins at 0.54 Å resolution' (M. Teeter, Massachusets), '2- dimensional X-ray microdifraction' (U. Preckwinkel, Wisconsin), 'Pressure-induced phase transitions' (B. Winkler, Germany), 'High resolution X-ray diffraction of semiconductor materials' (S. Bates, Colorado), Intermolecular interactions' (M.J. Rosales, CINVESTAV), 'Identification of expandable clay minerals' (R.W. Berry, California), 'Phase diagrams for mixed oxides in Sol-Gel' (T. López, Mexico), 'Mapping and visualization' (B. Stec, Texas), 'K3Lu(PO4)2: a promising γ-ray scintillator' (J.M. Farmer Tennessee), ' Electron crystallography of human dental enamel' (J. Reyes-Gasga, UNAM), and 'Understanding grain boundary structure' (D. Romeu, UNAM). Courses on 'Crystal growth' (H. Riveros UNAM, J. Olson, Colorado, and A. Moreno, UNAM), 'Macromolecular crystallography' (A. Mondragón, Illinois), 'Diffraction in electron microscopy' (M. Ávalos, California, and A. Maldonado, Sonora), and 'Crystallography Techniques in Clay Mineralogy' (R.W. Berry, California, and J. Ledesma, California), and workshops on 'Powder X-Ray diffractometry' (U. Preckwinkel, Wisconsin, G. Picco, Spectramex, and C. Duarte, Sonora), 'Crystallographic shapes for youngsters' (A. Cordero, UNAM) and 'SHELX97' (B. Stec, Texas, and R. Sotelo, Sonora) were run. A 'Lotto of the materials' for children was offered by P. Quintana (Yucatán). Students received course books. The exhibition featured new equipment and services from Bruker, Philips, Bede, Pona, Hitachi, and Spectramex. Additional information is available at www.unam.mx/smcr. The congress was sponsored by the Education Dept of the Mexican Government (SEP), the Nat’l Council of Science and Technology (CONACyT), the Latinoamerican Centre of Physics (CLAF-Mexico), the Nat’l U. of Mexico (UNAM) and the SMCr. Crystallographers of Morelia City, in Michoacán, México, will host the congress in 2003.

Adolfo E. Cordero-Borboa, cordero@fisica.unam.mx