Crystallography matters ... more!

The preservation and conservation of our cultural heritage is a significant contemporary worldwide concern. Advanced scientific methods and techniques are essential for the identification of materials present in historic objects of cultural heritage and processes occurring therein. These methods can also help to give a deeper understanding of the technology and craftsmanship of old masters. Modern analytic methods are important in studies of authenticity and can be applied as diagnostic techniques in practical conservation.
The aim of the conference is to promote the development and use of X-ray and other modern techniques in order to extract information from objects of cultural heritage. The conference is also a forum to bring together scientists whose major expertise is in a high-tech field and museum professionals (art historians, conservators and curators) whose particular responsibility is the organization and preservation of collections, and to disseminate the newest results in the area of scientific investigation of art objects.

The first session of the conference entitled “Role of crystallography in science, art and everyday life” was opened for general public and was preceded by presentation of the Plus Ratio Quam Vis Medal to Professor Henk Schenk, past President of the International Union of Crystallography.

The conference was attended by over 90 participants.

A photo gallery of the event is available at http://www.chemia.uj.edu.pl/nauka-i-badania/konferencje/x-ray/gallery

Many initiatives have been and are being organized to involve schoolchildren at Mudaliarpet, Pondicherry (India) into crystallography on the occasion of IYCr2014.

1. At first, the students were given a brief introduction on various crystals, which made them think about how crystals are formed.

2. Following this, a team of students were selected for a project on Crystal Growth - investigating the size, shape and number of crystals formed, taking various substances such as table salt, sugar, epsom salt, borax, potassium nitrate and alum. 

3. A Radio Talk was given by the teacher and the students on the "International Year of Crystallography".

4. A lecture was given on the topic to the school students, following which a demonstration -cum- exhibition, along with a poster presentation by the teacher is to be arranged for view for the public around the school locale. 

5. A next attempt to telecast the above in the television is made.

6. Students of our school are participating in the IYCr2014 Crystal Growing Competition. 

The photograph exhibition "Entre Art et Sciences: le Corail en Images, de l'Animal au Cristal" will be hosted at the Scientific Centre of Monaco (CSM) from 7 April to 3 June 2014.

The exhibition and lectures "World of Crystals" (original title Svět krystalů) aim at showing the amazing shapes of the crystals from the whole world and from the Železné hory (Iron Mountains) National Geopark in particular.

The exhibition will be inaugurated on 6 May at 6.30 pm in the exhibition hall of the Vodní zdroje Chrudim s r.o.

Opening times: Monday to Friday, 8.00 to 4.00 pm.

Download the poster of the exhibition

1. Hot topics in macromolecular crystallography (by prof. dr. Elspeth Garman, University of Oxford, UK)
2. The whole is more than the sum of its parts (by prof. dr. Hans-Beat Buergi, University of Bern, Switzerland)
3. Charge density (by prof. dr. Dietmar Stalke, University of Goettingen, Germany)
4. Absolute structure and absolute configuration (by prof. dr. Howard Flack, University of Geneve, Switzerland)
5. Twinning in crystallography (by dr. Regine Herbst-Irmer, University of Goettingen, Germany)
6. Advanced solutions from the Cambridge Structural Database (by Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre, UK)

The workshop aims at:

• Promotion of excellence and innovation in crystallography,
• Transfer of state-of-the-art knowledge and know-how to the most talented and motivated PhD students and postdocs in crystallography and related disciplines,
• Popularization of crystallography, and
• Celebration of the International Year of Crystallography (2014) in Croatia.

Participants, who will be chosen among the highly motivated applilcants - young scientists working in crystallography and related fields, will be invited to present their own research via short (15 to 20 min) talks or on posters. A small number of participants invited to the workshop (20) will give a chance to young crystallographers to share their ideas and experience among them, as well as to discuss their work and problems they encounter with the experienced senior scientists who will be attending the workshop as lecturers or tutors.

Download the leaflet 

International Summer School of Crystallography (11–17 May 2014)

Tutor: Prof. Carmelo Giacovazzo

Speakers: Prof. Henry Chapman (CFEL), Dr. Thomas Schneider (EMBL), Dr. Gleb Bourenkov (EMBL), Dr. Thomas A. White (CFEL), Dr. Adrian Mancuso (European X-FEL)

Venue: Center for Free-Electron Laser Science at DESY, Hamburg (Germany)

Sponsors: Hamburg Center for Ultrafast Imaging (CUI - Excellence Cluster), PIER Helmholtz Graduate School, IMPRS-UFAST Graduate School (Max-Planck Society)

We are pleased to announce the first International Summer School of Crystallography at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science at DESY, Hamburg (Germany). In course of the International Year of Crystallography 2014, Prof. Carmelo Giacovazzo will give a full week of lectures on the basics of crystallography, as well as the basics of modern phasing methods in protein crystallography. The course will cover basic mathematical understanding of crystallographic point and space groups, diffraction experiments, structure factor calculations, systematic absences, determination of space groups and many additional topics.
After the discussions of theory, one afternoon will be spent to learn about modern applications of protein crystallography using advanced light sources, such as 3rd genereation synchrotrons and X-FELs.
The course will be given mainly for PhD students working in the field of crystallography, but exceptions for motivated PostDocs and MSc students can be made. The course will mostly cover mathematical background of crystallography, hence we are looking for students, having a (bio)physics background. This will NOT be a workshop covering protein crystallographic programs but rather the theory behind those programs.

The registration fees are currently discussed (most likely around 150 EUR), accommodation will be arranged by the DESY guest house and has to be covered separately by each applicant. The course will start Sunday (11.05.2014) around lunch and will end Saturday (17.05.2014) around lunch.

Application deadline will be end of February 2014 and notification of accepted applications will be sent during March 2014.
Applicants must provide a motivation letter, as well as a CV, directly to the organizer Cornelius Gati (cornelius.gati@cfel.de).

Please contact Cornelius Gati regarding further questions (cornelius.gati@desy.de).

We are looking forward to welcoming you in Hamburg!

Download the poster of the school 

Following the great success obtained in Reggio Emilia, the exhibition “L’ENIGMA ESCHER- PARADOSSI GRAFICI TRA ARTE E GEOMETRIA”, a major retrospective exhibition of the work of Maurits Cornelis Escher, will be on display at "Il Filatoio di Caraglio" (Cuneo, Italy) from 29 March to 29 June 2014.

The exhibition presents the work of the Dutch graphic artist from his debut on the scene to his latest years, bringing together 130 works, including lithographs, etchings and drawings, on loan from museums, libraries and national institutes – among which the Galleria d’Arte Moderna of Rome and the Fondazione Wolfsoniana of Genoa – as well as from some important, private collections.

A special section is dedicated to tilings, with a panel illustrating the 17 crystallographic planar groups and some original examples of Escher's plane-filling drawings.

The exhibition is included in the events for IYCr2014 celebrations in Italy. 

Read the press release on the Reggio Emilia exhibition mentioning the connection with IYCr2014 (in Italian)

The exhibition will open on May 9th with a speech by Sven Lidin, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Lund University and Chairman of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

Read the short biographies of all speakers of the FCT-NOVA lecture series at http://xtal.dq.fct.unl.pt/iycr2014/Speakers.html

The exhibition "Living with crystal" (original title in Slovenian: Živeti s kristali), organized on the occasion of the International Year of Crystallography, will be open from 13 February 2014 to 11 January 2015 at the Slovenian Museum of Natural History, Ljubljana. 

On display: Photographs of minerals, Crystal drawings, Mineral and crystal collections, Jewellery, Fluorescent minerals, Interactive presentation of minerals and rocks on Biedermeier tables, Interactive play "Umek the Mineralogist", Microscopic world of crystals.

Authors: Miha Jeršek, Mirjan Žorž, Breda Činč Juhant, Katarina Fuchs

The course was held at the Hacettepe University, Department of Physics Engineering from Monday 12th to Wednesday 14th of May 2014. There were also hands-on practical computer applications.

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Lars ERIKSSON (Stockholm University, Arrhenius Laboratory, Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry)

Download the poster with the programme of the course

This MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) explains the basic building blocks of crystals, their symmetrical structure and introduces free software for crystal structure exploring. To be enrolled to this online course, visit the web site and click on the green button "Enrol with email".

The course is organized in chapters, every week a new chapter will be launched starting on April 18th.

Frank Hoffmann and his team from the University of Hamburg invite you to be part of the crystal admiring community.

The exhibition “In the unusual world of crystals” shows the beauty of crystals, the history of their investigations and their various applications. 

The exhibition was organized to celebrate the International Year of Crystallography IYCr2014 and the 650th Jubilee of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. 

Sites of Exhibition:

• Faculty of Chemistry JU,  14 May -14 June 2014
• Jagiellonian University Professors Garden, Krakow, 14-18 May 2014
• Main Jagiellonian Library , Krakow, 18 June – 18 July 2014
• Institute of Low Temperature and Structure Research PAS, Wroclaw, 26-28 June 2014

and is scheduled to be displayed in many other places (Krakow, Wroclaw, Czestochowa, Poznan, Opole, Warsaw) in the second half of 2014.

A photo gallery is available at http://www2.chemia.uj.edu.pl/krysztaly_wystawa/?page_id=77

More about the exhibition (in Polish): http://www2.chemia.uj.edu.pl/krysztaly_wystawa/

14. Mai 2014:Prof. Thomas Armbruster, Universität Bern

„Kristalle: die Erforschung ihrer Eigenschaften im Wandel der Zeit"

Der Vortrag findet im Rahmen des IYCr2014 um 18:30 im Vortragssaal des Naturhistorischen Museums statt.

Einlass 18:15 unter Vorlage des Mitgliedsausweises bei der Kassa

Gemeinsame Veranstaltung der Freunde des Naturhistorischen Museums (http://freunde.nhm-wien.ac.at/aktivitaeten/vortraege.html) und der Österreichischen Mineralogischen Gesellschaft (http://www.univie.ac.at/OeMG/vwien.html)