The IUCr-UNESCO OpenLab Colombia, dedicated to single crystal diffraction and partnered by Rigaku, took place at the Guatiguará campus of Universidad Industrial de Santander (UIS) in Bucaramanga, Colombia, on October 27 to 31 of 2014. The Laboratorio de Rayos X of UIS hosted this course which made use of the superb facilities of the laboratory, including the new dual-source Rigaku Single Crystal Diffractometer. The event was sponsored by the IUCr, Rigaku, and Vice-rectoría de Investigación y Extensión of UIS. Additional support was provided by Anditecnica and ICDD.

Thirty-four students and young scientists from Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Costa Rica attended the lectures and practical sessions. The meeting was organized by Prof. José Antonio Henao (UIS, Colombia), Miguel Delgado and Graciela Díaz de Delgado (ULA, Venezuela), and Akihiko Iwata (Rigaku-Latin America). Eric Reinheimer (RIGAKU-USA), Alexander Briceño (IVIC, Caracas, Venezuela), and Belkis Ramírez (ULA, Mérida, Venezuela), together with José Antonio Henao, Miguel Delgado and Graciela Díaz de Delgado delivered lectures related to symmetry, diffraction, data collection and reduction, structure determination and refinement, graphical representation of crystal structure, and validation, among other topics. They were joined by Rodolfo Moreno Fuquen (Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia), Teresa González de Briceño (IVIC, Caracas, Venezuela), Reinaldo Atencio and Julia Bruno-Colmenárez (IVIC-Zulia, Venezuela) for practical sessions.

Participants at the IYCr2014 OpenLab Colombia

The OpenLab provided an excellent setting to strengthen the collaboration between Colombian and Venezuelan crystallographers and coincided with the celebration of Chemist’s day in Colombia on October 31. An event dedicated to powder diffraction is planned for 2015. The venue, Venezuela or Colombia, will be decided soon.