Executive Committee and Council News
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1st joint SIMP-AIC International School a satellite workshop of the Goldschmidt Conference 2013
Camerino (Italy), 4-8 September 2013
Topics
Stability and transformations of crystalline phases | Tensors and anisotropic physical properties of crystals | Vibrational properties | Microstructures and textures | Ab initio calculations | TEM | Electron diffraction | EBSD (Electron Back-Scatter Diffraction) | XAS
Lecturers
Giulio Ottonello (Genova) | David Mainprice (Montpellier) | Luca Lutterotti (Trento) | Mauro Gemmi (Pisa) | Marta Corno (Torino) | Gennaro Ventruti (Bari) | Pieter Glatzel (Grenoble) | Carlo Lamberti (Torino) | Rocco Caliandro (Bari) | Giuseppe Cruciani (Ferrara) | Anna Grazia Moliterni (Bari)
Tutorials
Quantitative Texture Analysis software (MTEX and MAUD) | Qualitative Phase Analysis by XRPD (QUALX)
ECA Executive Committee Visit to ECM28 Venue–University of Warwick, 28.03.2013
Reported by Georgina Rosair and Santiago Garcia-Granda.
Announce (PDF)
One Day Workshop at Crystallography
September 25th 2014
Tirana, Albania
Organized by Geological Society of Albania (GSA) and European Crystallographic Association(ECA) in collaboration with Institute of Crystallography-CNR (Bari, Italy)
Announce (PDF)
A discounted society rate of US$45/£25/€36 for all 4 issues of Crystallography Reviews is available for ECA Individual Members. Details are on the subscription page. The rate includes all 4 issues that the journal publishes a year, and these would be sent to the members as one print volume at the end of the year.
We also currently have some crystallography related free content available. It would be great if these could be posted as news items on both websites and I would be happy to send you further such news in the future if appropriate.
The IUCr has established a bursary scheme for young scientists attending the annual meetings of the Regional Associates. This is additional to the young scientist support that the IUCr already provides and is aimed at facilitating the attendance of young scientists from the area covered by one Regional Associate at a meeting of a different Regional Associate. The aim is to broaden the knowledge of the awardees and enable them to establish contacts that will be of great help to them in their careers. [More info at the IUCr website]
The registration form for ECM28 will be released at the end of November. Satellite Meetings which are confirmed by 19 November 2012 will appear on the registration form and gain from reduced administration costs and greater publicity. Please contact Sandy Blake (email: ) to discuss Satellite proposals and Northern Networking Events (email: ) to discuss organisational arrangements for your Satellite Meeting. The latest available information about ECM28 is on our website ecm28.ecanews.org - please check there regularly.
Dear fellow crystallographer,
This is to communicate the excellent news that the United Nations has declared that 2014 will be the official International Year of Crystallography.
The initiative had been proposed by the International Union of Crystallography and spearheaded by the Moroccan Crystallographic Association.They have worked closely with the Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Morocco in the United Nations along with helpful support from a number of delegations to the United Nations from other countries. The IUCr thanks the Moroccan authorities for the help and cooperation extended to us in bringing this proposal to fruition.
The declaration of IYCr 2014 provides all of us with a wonderful opportunity to sustain and renew our commitment to this outstanding subject. It has brought us together, whether we consider ourselves as crystallographers, or as physicists, chemists, biologists and materials scientists who work extensively with crystallography and its related techniques.
Ours is a very old subject, which shifted its emphasis from a study of crystals to a study of structures over a hundred years ago. Today, the subject is poised towards a study of dynamics and properties. All healthy scientific endeavour can recreate and reinvent: crystallography is a meaningful example of this.
I would like each and every one of you to use this opportunity to stimulate and ignite an interest in crystallography amongst students, scientists and the general public.
The declaration of IYCr 2014 by the United Nations is the finest endorsement for a subject that has weathered time and tide and continues to thrive. It signifies that crystallography has continuing cultural relevance and, in the end, this is the only justification for carrying out science in this rapidly changing world with its political and social flux and constant economic variables.
I will write about IYCr 2014 in more detail in the IUCr Newsletter but, in the meantime, I would ask all of you to participate in this happy occasion.
Gautam R. Desiraju
President, International Union of Crystallography
The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) and Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) announced on August 15, 2011, that CrysAlisPro users can now perform pre-experiment reduced cell checks directly from within the popular crystallography data collection and processing software package.
CellCheckCSD, developed for automated use through CrysAlisPro, enables users to check their pre-experiment unit cell against the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD), the world's repository of small molecule crystal structures, before collecting a full diffraction dataset. This will allow quick evaluation of whether a new crystal sample has been published before and help to identify situations where starting materials or a reaction by-product have been crystallised by accident. The aim is to avoid wasting any valuable diffractometer time due to unintentional collection of a full dataset for a known crystal structure.
Dr. Pete Wood, Research and Applications Scientist at CCDC, commented that "We are delighted to be able to provide CellCheckCSD as a free service to the crystallographic community. The convenience of running automated reduced cell checks will be of great benefit to both the non-experts and crystallography specialists using CrysAlisPro. This should noticeably improve the efficiency of many crystallographers around the world".
"We are extremely pleased to be working with the CCDC in order to provide such a valuable addition to CrysAlisPro", said Dr. Leigh Rees, Agilent General Manager, X-ray Diffraction. "Our software is constantly improving and we provide regular updates to our users, free of charge. CellCheckCSD is now available to all users of CrysAlisPro, and this added functionality will undoubtedly improve the effectiveness of Agilent X-ray diffractometer users across the globe".
CellCheckCSD can be downloaded free of charge from the CCDC website at: www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk/free_services/cellcheckcsd/
June 7th 2011
The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) is pleased to announce that structure factors are now being accepted with CIFs for deposition to the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD).
Colin Groom, Executive Director, commented that "The CCDC supports the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) in highlighting the importance of retaining and validating experimental data. We strongly recommend that all journals publishing crystal structures should encourage their authors to provide these data in electronic CIF format."
"The deposition of structure factors to the CSD is extremely welcome and will greatly facilitate the work of reviewers" said Sylvain Bern?s, co-editor Acta Crystallographica Section E. "Archived structure factors also promise to be a rich source of data for research related to statistical bias in x-ray structures and in detection of systematic errors in data collections".
CIFs and structure factors can now be deposited with the CCDC via our web-based deposition form at: www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk/services/structure_deposit.
Further information on publication standards can be found on the IUCr website: www.iucr.org/index.html/leading-article/2011/2011-06-02.
Details available in PDF format.
The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) is pleased to offer WebCSD users early access to newly published structures, processed automatically using our specialist in-house software.
Our specially developed software attempts to determine the correct connectivity, resolve any structural disorder, generate a compound name, 2D diagram and extract additional textual information contained in the deposited CIF, automatically creating a CSD X-Press entry. The entries are flagged in WebCSD as 'Structure Pending' and each structure has an associated reliability score, indicating the confidence level of the automatic processing.
New structures will be added to CSD X-Press on a continual basis as they are published or deposited as Private Communications and will evolve into full CSD entries following scientific editing. These editorial procedures will continue to ensure that structures are checked and validated by expert chemists and crystallographers, and further enriched with valuable chemical data.
The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) is proud to announce the archiving of the 500,000th small molecule crystal structure to the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD)
"The determination of 500,000 crystal structures is a remarkable achievement. However, the scientific community is hungry for the next 500,000 and the knowledge these will undoubtedly bring. As the CSD grows both in size and in the complexity of structures it contains, the database not only helps us to answer our questions about molecular structure and interactions, but tells us what those questions should be."
-Dr Colin Groom, Executive Director of the CCDC
The CSD's 500,000th structure is the anti-convulsant drug Lamotrigine, published in Acta Crystallographica, C65, o460-o464, 2009, by Balasubramanian Sridhar and Krishnan Ravikumar of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology in Hyderabad. The CSD reference code for the structure is EFEMUX01. Lamotrigine (Lamictal) was discovered by GlaxoSmithKline and approved by the US FDA for the treatment of epilepsy in 1994 and additionally for the treatment of bipolar I disorder in 2003. Lamotrigine is chemically unrelated to other anticonvulsant or mood regulating medications, and is distinguished by its relatively benign side effects. It is frequently effective in patients who have not responded to antidepressants or other mood stabilisers. The CSD contains chemical structure information on several close variants of the compound, all of which, when used together, provide invaluable information to the life sciences community in their quest to optimise the efficacy of such medicines.
For more information see www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk or contact:
Dr Gary M. Battle
The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre
12 Union Rd, Cambridge, CB2 1EX
Phone: +44 1223 336408
Email:
.
The recent article The birth of the European Crystallographic Committee (ECC) and of the European Crystallographic Meetings (ECMs) by André Authier is available as Open Access.
The Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the year 2009 has been awarded to three crystallographers:- Thomas A. Steitz (Yale University, USA), Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (Cambridge, UK) and Ada E. Yonath (Weizmann Institute, Israel).
The ECA offers its congratulations to all three of the Awardees and expresses a deep satisfaction in the important role played once again by crystallography in this research, and by two of the three crystallographers being based in Europe (Venki and Ada).
Particular congratulations are addressed to Ada Yonath, an Individual Member of the ECA, and who was awarded The European Crystallography Prize presented at the 19th European Crystallography Meeting 'ECM19' in Nancy, France, August 25-31, 2000, at which Professor Yonath described the work for which she is being honoured.
The detailed X-ray crystallographic structural studies on ribosomes, which are very large molecular complexes containing up to 100000 atoms, have provided vital information on the mechanisms, and origin, of life. In fact, these complex units, which are combinations of RNA and protein, are amazing factories where the protein chains assemble together, one amino acid after another in a proper sequence, which is a coded piece of DNA called a "gene". It is a process known as replication and is achieved with a remarkable 'fidelity'. X-ray crystallography has also been used to analyze at the atomic level the complexity of bacterial compared with mammalian ribosomes and thereby to reconstruct their functionalities in terms of structure-properties relationships to be exploited for therapeutic purposes. In fact, the bacterial ribosome is the target of about 50% of the anti-bacterial drugs. The availability of high resolution ribosome crystal structures is of primary importance in order to create new antibiotics, which, if inserted in the ribosome's catalytic area, can thereby inhibit bacterial protein biosynthesis. This is a vital new approach given the present resistance of new strains of bacteria that now occurs for the more common antibiotics.
The technology required to pursue the X-ray crystallographic work has crucially involved synchrotron radiation. Press releases were naturally issued by the ESRF, Grenoble; the SLS in Switzerland; the NSLS, USA; and the APS, USA noting where various X-ray crystallographic data sets were collected and the activities on the relevant SR Facility Advisory Boards of the Nobellists. This effort at the SR Facilities stretches back a long way; the ECA Immediate Past President, Prof John R Helliwell, remarks "I recall in 1984 missing the televised Wimbledon Ladies Tennis Final to go from home in Warrington to Daresbury Laboratory to assist Ada (Yonath) on SRS Station 9.6. I recall also that Ada had great stamina working several days with very little sleep. Although Ada obtained diffraction data from her early ribosome crystals the advent of improved detectors and the planned specification for the ESRF, under discussion at that time, were clearly going to be major players in facilitating the ribosome project. Ada also made extensive use of the DORIS synchrotron at that time."
Overall, this is a great event not only for the Nobellists but also the SR Facilities where the X-ray crystallographic data were obtained. The wider field of ribosome crystallographers can also be proud of their work and the understanding now obtained. It is a great moment for crystallography.
The lecture given by Ada Yonath at the XX IUCr in Florence can still be downloaded from the Congress website with her kind permission.
Prof Santiago García-Granda, ECA President
(Many thanks to Prof. John R. Helliwell and Carlo Mealli for help and inspiration in writing this note)
A celebration day will be held on June 10, 2009, at the Materials Science Institute in Darmstadt. Details available as a PDF file (in German).
A discounted society rate for Crystallography Reviews is now available for ECA Individual Members. Details at the subscription page.
The IUCr is pleased to announce that Dr David Sayre (Department of Physics, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA) has been awarded the eighth Ewald Prize for the unique breadth of his contributions to crystallography, which range from seminal contributions to the solving of the phase problem to the complex physics of imaging generic objects by X-ray diffraction and microscopy, and for never losing touch with the physical reality of the processes involved.
The presentation of the Ewald Prize will be made during the Osaka Congress Opening Ceremony on 23 August 2008.
The 2008 release of the CSD System introduces the NEW Materials Module of Mercury CSD. The Materials module facilitates in-depth analysis and comparison of crystal forms, applicable to problems such as: co-crystal design, counter-ion selection, polymorph prediction and the study of packing patterns in the CSD.
The Materials Module is available to academic CSDS subscribers at no additional cost. The CCDC does have charitable status as Registered Charity Number 800579 granted by the Charity Commission for England and Wales. This is in recognition of the scientific objectives of the organization, and ensures that all income earned by the company is applied for the benefit of science.
For further details see: http://www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk/products/csd_system/materials_module/
A fourth blind test of crystal structure prediction is being organised to evaluate current methodologies in ab initio crystal structure prediction for molecular crystals. Previous such blind tests (the latest was published in Acta Cryst B, 2005, vol 61, 511-527) have been a valuable exercise in gauging the reliability of computational methods. The upcoming blind test, whose "targets" will be announced mid-January 2007 and will run until July 2007, is open to participation from any research group involved in developing new methods for crystal structure prediction. Anyone interested in participating should contact Graeme Day, University of Cambridge ( ) for details
The European Crystallographic Association (ECA) and the European Neutron Scattering Association (ENSA) announce the creation of a prize in honour of the late Erwin Felix Lewy Bertaut, in memory of his scientific achievements which are cornerstones in both crystallography and neutron scattering.. Details available at this page
Two new poster prizes will be awarded in occasion of ECM-24. See the annoucement here.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Gregori Aminoff prize in crystallography for 2006 to professors Stephen Harrison, Harvard University and David Stuart, Oxford University, "For their remarkable contributions in virus crystallography"
The prize will be presented at the Academy in Stockholm at 6 p.m. on June 7, 2006. A two-day symposium will be organized June 7-8 to the honour of the prizewinners. The symposium will illuminate the latest developments and results in the field of structural work on viruses and its contribution to our understanding of phylogeny, infection mechanisms as well as defence against viruses.
The symposium is supported by the Academy through its Nobel Institute for Chemistry.
See the PDF leaflet for invitation
Nominations for the Aminoff prize 2007 should be sent to Ann-Kristin Danielsson Kristin@nobel.kva.se before May 2, 2006.
For the Aminoff committee
Anders Liljas
Molecular Biophysics
Lund University
Box 124
SE-221 00 Lund
Sweden
Tel. +46-46-2224681
e-mail:
The Tunisian Crystallographic Association has organized in Monastir (Tunisia) from 03 to 05 June 2005 the first Workshop on Crystallography.
Professor Hartmut FUESS (Technische Universität Darmstadt) delivered an invited talk entitled:
"Experiences in-situ using synchrotron radiation"
The course of the workshop, delivered by Professor Pierre BORDET (Laboratoire de Cristallographie de Grenoble), was focused around:
"The Structures Refinement using Rietveld Method"
Tutorials on data collection and structures refinement were also given using PC computers.
More than fifty young researchers and Doctorates attended the workshop.
The Tunisian Crystallographic Association is member of ECA until August 2005 ( Florence meeting).
The First Tunisian Crystallographic Meeting (TCM 1) will be held in Monastir (Tunisia) in Mars 2006.
Executive Committee:
Adress:
Association Tunisienne de
Cristallographie
Ecole Nationale d'Ingenieurs de Monastir
5019 - Monastir – Tunisia.
Tel/Fax: + 216 73501786
Email:
See the Positions Available page.
See the Positions Available page.
Application Deadline: 31 October 2005
To encourage promising graduate students to pursue crystallography oriented research, the International Centre for Diffraction Data (ICDD) has established the Ludo Frevel Crystallography Scholarship Fund. Multiple recipients are selected on a competitive basis, each receiving an award of USD 2,250. Applications must be received by the ICDD by 31 October 2005.
Qualifications for the applicant: The applicant should be enrolled in a graduate degree program during the 2006 calendar year with major interest in crystallography, e.g. crystal structure analysis, crystal morphology, modulated structures, correlation of atomic structure with physical properties, systematic classification of crystal structures, phase identification and materials characterization. There are no restrictions on country, race, age or sex. The term of the scholarship is one year.
Submit:
Scholarship awards are made possible by donations from both private and industrial sectors. Donations can be directed to the Ludo Frevel Crystallography Scholarship at the address below.
Visit our web site at: http://www.icdd.com/resources/awards/frevel.htm
Please mail to:
Scholarship Committee
c/o Corporate Secretary, International Centre for Diffraction Data
12 Campus Boulevard
Newtown Square, PA 19073 3273 U.S.A.
See the Positions Available page.
See the Positions Available page.
See the Positions Available page.
The ECA executive committee decided in 2004 to give the ECA prize the name "The Max Perutz Prize". The Perutz family have been contacted and agreed to this suggestion.
Biographies of Max Perutz are available here and here.
The first four laureates of the ECA are:
First ECA prize (2000): Prof. Ada Yonath , Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel
Second ECA prize (2001): Prof. Jochen R. Schneider, HASYLAB at DESY in Germany
Third ECA prize (2003): Prof. Carmelo Giacovazzo, University of Bari, Italy
2004 Max Perutz Prize : Prof. George Sheldrick, University of Göttingern, Germany
The next prize will be presented in Lueven at ECM-23 2006.
for more information see also: http://objcryst.sourceforge.net/
It has come to the attention of the European Crystallographic Community that the
European Parliament is about to legalize patents on software and algorithms, which would be extremely harmful to scientific research and innovation.
The legalization of patents on software and algorithms (fundamental parts of programs) could allow any person or company to "lock" whole new techniques.
Patenting software is equivalent to patenting ideas, which can be used in a variety of applications. This would be especially harmful to the scientific community where
most innovations have depended on collaborative projects and the diffusion of algorithms.
The situations between "heavy" industries and the software industry are very different. For instance in drug research, few pharmaceutical industries are producing
new products with development cycles which can take up to 10 years, with many researchers involved. These enterprises must be defended through patents to
encourage the publication of new inventions. On the other hand, there are more than a million software developers, contributing to new major inventions every few
months. Software innovation traditionally depends on diversity of effort from many contributors, and is not driven by developments from a protected
few.
As this new legislation would only stifle innovation and prevent new research on algorithms from both academic researchers and small and medium enterprises, we
believe that software should continue to he protected by copyright laws alone, in the spirit of the Munich convention, which excludes "discoveries, scientific
theories, mathematical methods and computer programs" from patent application.
August 28th 2003
The European Crystallographic Association represents the interests of more than 4000 crystallographers (both academics and industrialists) in Europe.
Crystallography underpins chemistry, mineralogy, pharmaceutical research and many other fields.
Contact person: Eleanor Dodson
E.Dodson@ysbl.york.ac.uk
Giovanni Ferraris
Elspeth F. Garman
Hans Grimmer
Carlo Mealli
Paola Spadon
The European Crystallographic Association is to award the third European Crystallography Prize to Prof. Carmelo Giacovazzo of the University of Bari, Italy. Prof. Giacovazzo is being recognized for his major theoretical and practical contributions to the solution of the phase problem in a wide spectrum of applications.
The European Crystallography Prize, which includes a
monetary award as well as a certificate of recognition, will be
presented during the Opening Ceremony of the upcoming 21st European
Crystallographic Meeting to be held in Durban, South Africa,
August 24-29, at which Prof. Giacovazzo will describe the work for
which he is being honoured.
Members of the European Crystallography Prize Committee, who were
appointed by the Executive Committee of the European Crystallographic
Association are: Professor Davide Viterbo (Coordinator), University of
Piemonte Orientale, Italy; Professor Leonid Aslanov, University of
Moscow, Russia; Professor Boris Kamenar, University of Zagreb,
Croatia; Professor ?ke Kvick, European Synchrotron Radiation
Facility, Grenoble, France; Professor Dino Moras, University of
Strasbourg, France; Professor Jochen Schneider, HASYLAB at DESY,
Hamburg, Germany; Professor Xavier Solans, University of Barcelona,
Spain.
Prof. Giacovazzo was born in Locorotondo (Bari), Italy and studied
Physics in Bari. He is Full Professor of Mineralogy at the University
of Bari and Director of the CNR Institute of Crystallography. After a
first period dedicated to the study of defects in minerals, he has
devoted his research interests do the development of Direct Methods
for the solution of the phase problem. His main theoretical
contributions are the Representation Theory and several probabilistic
formulae for the estimate of structure invariants and seminvariants.
From the practical point of view he has directed and coordinated a
research group for the implementation of widely used computer programs
for the solution of crystal structures not only from single crystal
data but also from powder diffraction data. More recently he has
developed new and powerful methods for solving
ab-initio
macromolecular structures using data collected at atomic resolution.
He has also provided a new probabilistic approach for the location of
the heavy or anomalous scatterers in SIR-MIR-SAD-MAD techniques and
for the subsequent phase estimation.
We are pleased to announce that the Third European Charge Density Meeting
(ECDM-III) followed by a European Science Foundation Exploratory Workshop will
take place June 24 - June 29, 2003 at Sandbjerg Estate, the University of Aarhus
conference center, in rural, pleasant surroundings in southern part of Denmark
near the border on Germany.
For the ECDM-III we intend to bring together in an informal atmosphere established leading scientists and young researchers in the field of charge
density studies in the spirit of the previous successful European Charge Density
Meetings which took place in Nancy in 1996 and in Sitges near Barcelona in
1999. A special feature at ECDM-III will be presentation/demonstration of some
of the most successful software (XD, Valray, Molly-N, WinXPRO2003, Enigma) used
in the modelling of charge density distributions and calculation of derived
functions, based on accurate diffraction measurements.
IUCr support:
It is a great pleasure to announce that the ECDM-III will be
sponsored by the International Union of Crystallography. We have obtained funds
to assist the participation of a number of young scientists.
Furthermore, in order to stimulate interdisciplinary discussions of the importance of charge density research in chemistry, physics and biology, we are
arranging in direct succession of the ECDM-III a
workshop
entitled:
"New Information from Modern Charge Density Studies", which we are happy
to announce will be supported by the European Science Foundation. For the
workshop we have assembled a very strong panel, whose members will contribute
talks and take part in discussions, also joined by participants of the ECDM-III
meeting, in an attempt to build common grounds for the many scientific fields
that utilize the information contained in the charge density. The ECDM-III and
workshop will thus provide a forum in which new directions for future charge
density studies can be envisioned and transnational cross-disciplinary networks
can be formed.
We invite you to participate in the ECDM-III arrangement. For more information and application, please consult the web-page at
http://www.chem.au.dk/ECDM-III
We are looking forward to hosting you at
Sandbjerg Estate and note, that there are good airline connections from major
European airports to Billund airport, a modern facility for which we will
arrange pick-up service from Sandbjerg Estate.
Finn Krebs Larsen Tel.: +45 8942 3897 e-mail:
Bo Brummerstedt Iversen Tel.: +45 8942 3969 e-mail:
Charlotte Secher Tel.: +45 8942 3884 e-mail:
Dear ECA member,
Knowing how difficult it is to pay 10 euros per year, and knowing that
some of you have not paid since 2000 or 2001, I would like to
encourage you to pay the 40/30 euro fees corresponding to the years
2000/2001, 2002 and 2003. You can do that by bank transfer or by a
simple check addressed to ECA and sent directly to me. Of course some
of you can always pay to your local fee collector
ECA needs all theirs members and Individual membership is highly
encouraged.
Best regards
Teresa Duarte (treasurer)
The first Crystallographic Algerian Congress (CRAC-1) was held at the University of Science and Technology Houari Boumedi?e (USTHB) from 2nd to 5th November 2002. About one hundred people participated, including a dozen of foreign lecturers (South Africa, France, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, USA).. Placed under the auspices of IUCr and ECA, whose presidents (W. Duax, IUCr and C. Lecomte, ECA) were present, this congress was the starting point for the creation of the Algerian Crystallographic Society. The association's council counts 23 members and the executive committee members are:
Mrs
Achoura Guehria-Laidoudi (USTHB): President
Mr Ahmed Bekka (USTOran): Vice-President
Mr Nour-Eddine Beanli-Ch?if (U. Constantine): Vice-President
Mr Said Tobb?he (C.R.N. Alger): Secretary General
Mrs Fadila Balegroune (USTHB): Treasurer
Mr. Kamel Taibi (USTHB): Assistant treasurer
The congress was devoted to development of crystallography in Algeria where only a few laboratories have 4 circles diffractometers at their disposal:
- 1 CAD4 at the laboratory of Sciences and Materials of USTHB (Mrs. Houria Rebbah) as part of the common department of the Chemical Institute,
- 2 CAD4 at the laboratory LCMCEPC of the University of Constantine (Mr. Nour-Eddine Benali-Ch?if),
- 1 CAD4 with CCD which is to be bought by the Crystallography-Thermodynamic Laboratory of the USTHB (Mrs. Achoura Guehria-Laidoudi) as part of the National Fund Research (FNR 2000).
Leading laboratories working in that specific field and/or in close domains are located in universities and academic centres of Alger, Annaba, Batna, Béjaia, Constantine, Guelma, Jijel, Mascara, Mostaganem, M'sila, Oran (USTO and University of Oran), Ouargla, Oum El Boughi, Sétif, Sidi Bel Abbès, Skikda, Tizi-Ouzou, Tlemcen, as well as nuclear research centres which are dependent on the COMENA and located in Ain-Oussera, Alger and Birine.
The second CARC-2 will take place at the University of Constantine in 2004.
Pr. A. Guehria-Laidoudi
The first Moroccan Crystallographic School, "Ecole Marocaine de Cristallographie, EMC1" was organized in Marrakech by the Faculté des Sciences Semlalia. About 100 university professors, researchers and doctorates attended the school which was partly sponsored by IUCr. Both IUCr and ECA presidents were invited for lectures; they also showed the activities of the Union and the Association.
The course was focused around X-ray structure determination on crystals and quasicrystals by single crystal or powder methods. European and Moroccan professors gave lectures. Tutorials on data collection, crystal structure solution and refinement were also given using PC computers. The school ended with a round table where the ways to promote Crystallography in Morocco were discussed. Most universities in Morocco have crystallography staff either in physics or chemistry with numerous research projects but all researchers are isolated in their own universities without any national and with few international coordination; also no laboratory in Morocco is equipped with single crystal diffractometers. All these reasons led to the foundation of AMC.
The first general assembly of AMC was held on February 1 2002. The goals of AMC are: gathering Moroccan crystallographers, breaking the international isolation and helping to get research instruments in the Moroccan laboratories . The executive committee members are given in Annex 2.
AMC is willing to be a member of ECA and this will be discussed and, hopefully, accepted in Geneva during the ECA Council meeting.
Congratulations to our colleagues and best wishes to AMC.
Foundation: February first 2002
Head-quarters : Faculté des Sciences - Semlalia - Marrakech, Bd du Prince Moulay Abdallah, 2390, Marrakech - Morocco
Founding Members : 68, from the
following institutions:
Université Cadi Ayyad, Marrakech
Université Mohamed V, Rabat
Université Hassan II, Casablanca
Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdallah, F?
Université Abdelmalek Saadi, T?ouan
Université Mohamed Premier, Oujda
Université Chouaib Doukkali, El Jadida
Université Ibn Zohr, Agadir
Université Moulay Ismail, Meknes
Executive Committee
Moklisse Abdelkader,
Marrakech, President
Boukhari Ali, Rabat, Vice-President
Tanouti Boumediene, FS
Semlalia, Secretary
Thalal Abdelmalek, FS
Semlalia, Treasurer
