The XXXV Annual Meeting of the Italian Association of Crystallography (AIC) was held in Ferrara from September 18 to 21, 2006, and was organised by the Department of Chemistry and the Centre for Structural Diffractometry of the University of Ferrara.
Ferrara is one of the most beautiful towns in Italy, and is located near to the Po Delta. The Historic Centre of Ferrara was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as a shining example of a Renaissance city that has retained its historic centre virtually intact. The founding of the university in 1391 was the beginning of a new era of cultural development that made the Este court one of the most important in Europe.
The XXXV meeting of the Italian Association of Crystallography was attended by 142 scientists active in researches based on Crystallography and Crystal Growth. The meeting included 6 plenary lectures (given by Guy Orpen from Bristol University; Artem Oganov from ETH, Zurich; Bart Kahr from Washington University; Luigi Nassimbeni from Cape Town University; Thomas R. Schneider from European Institute of Oncology, Milan; Fabia Gozzo from P. Scherrer Institute, Villigen), 16 keynote lectures, 23 oral communications and 68 poster presentations organised into 7 micro-symposia:
* MS1: Diffraction and Spectroscopy: Complementary Approaches in the Crystal-Chemical Characterization of Minerals;
* MS2: Crystal Growth and Nano-Sciences;
* MS3: Computational Studies and Crystallography;
* MS4: Biocrystallography;
* MS6: Recent Developments in Powder Crystallography;
* MS7: Structure of Metal Complexes in relation with Chemical Properties and Reactivity.
More details concerning the conference program can be found at: http://web.unife.it/convegni/aic2006/
The recipients of the “Nardelli Prize 2006” (which recognises excellence and novelty of the researches done by young crystallographers) summarised their results during the Opening ceremony of the meeting. Luca Bindi (University of Florence) reported on “Unusual Crystallographic Approches to Study Complex Minerals: the Case of Modulated and Conductive Compounds” and Rita Berisio (University of Naples) reported on “Inactivation mechanism of antibiotics through X-ray crystallography”.
The AIC medal was awarded Giuseppe Filippini in recognition of the careful and clever work done for the Italian Association of Crystallography and the European Crystallographic Association. Two poster prices for young researcher, kindly sponsored by Rigaku Europe, were awarded to Fabrizio Nestola and Loredana Erra.
The meeting was co-sponsored by the University of Ferrara, Ferrara Town Hall and by the companies PANalytical S.r.l – Milano, Rigaku Europe – Kemsing (UK), Bruker AXS S.r.l. – Milano, Berco S.p.A – Copparo (I), and Matrix Technologies, Cinisello Balsamo.
Following a long tradition, the meeting ended with a conference dinner at the “Il Don Giovanni” restaurant, in one of the historical and beautiful buildings in Ferrara.
The next annual meeting will be held in Copanello (Calabria) in the last week of September 2007; for the first time, Italian researchers in the various areas of interest for crystallography and crystal growth will gather with their Spanish colleagues. More details will be given soon on the website.