SIG-05 Activity Reports 2001-2008

2007-2008

1. Introduction.

In the reported period the SIG5 has organized or is organizing a number of meetings and workshops, detailed below. It has also succeeded in establishing two new poster prizes for mineralogical and inorganic crystallography, which to date were not represented by any prize. The annual meeting of the SIG was held on Saturday 25 August 2007 at 18:15, at the “Karam1” hall, “Palais des Congrès”, Marrakech, Morocco, at the occasion of ECM24 and concentrated mainly on the proposals for microsymposia and keynote lectures at the forthcoming ECM25. The question of updating the title of the SIG has been raised too, which aims at covering a field, crystallography of inorganic phases, which naturally falls in our area but is not actually explicitly present in the SIG title. An email discussion is currently going on among the SIG members. The trend seems to be in favour of a title that would follow more or less closely that of the corresponding IUCr Commission on Inorganic and Mineral Structures.

2. Past Activities.

Title: XVI International Conference on crystal chemistry and diffraction “#FF0000”>sstudies of minerals (Miass, Russia, 2-6 July 2007)

Number of Participants: 150

Short Description: W. Depmeier, G. Ferraris and D. Pushcharovsky were members of the Programme Committee; WD and GF were also invited speakers. See http://meetings.mineralogy.ru/Default.asp

Title: “Minerals as advanced materials” Workshop (Apatity, Russia, 8-12 July 2007).

Number of Participants: 25

Sponsors/Organizers: IUCr CIMS Commission

Short Description: W. Depmeier and G. Ferraris were invited speakers. An outcome of this workshop is the volume “Minerals as advanced materials I” (S. V. Krivovichev editor) published by Springer.

Title: ECM24 – XXIV European Crystallographic Meeting (22-27 August 2007)

Number of Participants: 800

Sponsors/Organizers: European Crystallographic Association (ECA)

Short Description: SIG5 organized eight microsymposia and one plenary lecture (see http://sig5.ecanews.org/Previous.php#ECM24)

Title: “Workshop on structure elucidation by combining magnetic resonance, computation, modelling and diffractions(SMARTER)” (Aveiro, Portugal, 6-7 September 2007)

Number of Participants: 110

Short Description: The workshop was organized organized by J. Rocha. see http://www.primarius.org/smarter/

Title: II International Conference “Crystallogenesis and mineralogy” (St. Petersburg, Russia, 1-5 October 2007) and its satellite “Structural chemistry of inorganic actinide and lanthanide compounds” (St. Petersburg, Russia, September 29 – October 1st, 2007).

Number of Participants: 200 and 80, respectively.

Short Description: W. Depmeier was chair and invited speaker in both meetings. G. Ferraris and D. Pushcharovsky were members of the International Committee. See http://www.minsoc.ru/confs.php?cid=39

Title: II International Workshop on Layered Materials “Structure and Properties” (Vercelli, Italy, 28-29 March 2008).

Number of Participants: 100

Short Description: G. Ferraris was member of the Organizing Committee. W. Depmeier, and G. Ferraris were members of the Programme Committee. J. Rocha was an invitedspeaker. See http://www.layeredmaterials.mfn.unipmn.it/

3. Future/Programmed Activities.

Title: VI International Symposium “Mineralogical Museums”, 17.-20. June, 2008

Sponsors/Organizers: St. Petersburg State University, Russia; Kiel University; Germany

Short Description: http://www.mineral.pu.ru/conf , W. Depmeier is chairman

Title: 1st joint SIMP-AIC meeting “Learning from and for the Planet Earth” – Structures and models in Earth, Materials and Life Sciences. Sestri Levante, Italy, 7-12 September 2008

Sponsors/Organizers: Italian Crystallographic Association, Italian Society of Mineralogy and Petrology, University of Genova, CNR

Short Description: A journey from the inner towards the surface of the planet Earth, to study reaction surfaces in minerals and in geo- and nano-materials http://simp.dst.unipi.it/SIMP-AIC2008/

4. Other matters.

5. Five year ‘overview’, brief activity report (2004-2008)

In the indicate period, the SIG5 actively contributed to the organisation of three ECMs with 18 microsymposia and 2 plenary lectures, two ECM satellite conferences, one IMA meeting, two schools (Nancy and Rome) three workshop (Rome, Aveiro and Vercelli) as well as one Open Commission Meeting and four microsymposia at IUCr-XX in Florence, 2005. The SIG also promoted two new poster prizes, EMU poster prize for mineralogical crystallography and Zeitschrift fĂźr Kristallographie prize for inorganic crystallography, assigned for the first time at ECM24 in Marrakech.

6. Estimated number of active members: 136 (see http://listes.uhp-nancy.fr/wws/info/ecasig5)

Supplementary Materials.

All supplementary material is available at the SIG website, http://sig5.ecanews.org

“Courier New, monospace”>The SIG wishes to update the title to “Mineral and Inorganic Crystallography” of the SIG with the approval of the Council.

2006-2007

1. Introduction.

In the period 2006-2007 the SIG5 has organized or is organizing a number of meetings and workshops, detailed below. It has also succeeded in establishing two new poster prizes for mineralogical and inorganic crystallography, which to date were not represented by any prize. The annual meeting was held on August 8, 2006,during ECM23, and concentrated mainly on the proposals for microsymposia at the forthcoming ECM24.

2. Past Activities.

Title: IMA-2006 – XIX General Meeting of the International Mineralogical Association (23-28/07/2006)

Number of Participants: 800

Sponsors/Organizers: International Mineralogical Association (IMA)

Short Description: Congress and General Assembly of the IMA held every four years. SIG5 members where conveners of several sessions (see

http://www.congre.co.jp/ima2006/scientificsession/index.html)

Title: Satellite Conference of ECM23 on Mathematical and Theoretical Crystallography (4-6/08/2006)

Number of Participants: 49

Sponsors/Organizers: ECA-SIG5, IUCr commissions Mathematical and Theoretical Crystallography, IUCr commission on Inorganic and Mineral Structures

Short Description: Three-day satellite conference just before the ECM congress. Part of the conference was devoted to symmetry and topological aspects of inorganic and mineral structures (see http://www.lcm3b.uhp-nancy.fr/mathcryst/leuven2006.htm).

Title: ECM23 – XXIII European Crystallographic Meeting (6-11/08/2006)

Number of Participants: 800

Sponsors/Organizers: European Crystallographic Association (ECA)

Short Description: SIG5 organized five microsymposia and one plenary lecture (see http://www.lcm3b.uhp-nancy.fr/ecasig5/Previous.htm#ECM23)

3. Future/Programmed Activities.

Title: ECM24 – XXIV European Crystallographic Meeting (22-27/08/2007, Marrakech, Morocco)

Sponsors/Organizers: European Crystallographic Association (ECA)

Short Description: SIG5 has proposed eight microsymposia and one plenary lecture (see http://www.lcm3b.uhp-nancy.fr/ecasig5/Activity.htm#ECM24)

Title: SMARTER – (Structure elucidation by coMbining mAgnetic Resonance, compuTation modEling and diffRactions) Crystallography Workshop (6-7 September 2007, Aveiro, Portugal)

Sponsors/Organizers: IUCr commission on Inorganic and Mineral Structures

Short Description: Multidisciplinary workshop focussing on complementary techniques for investigating the structure and properties of the inorganic and mineral phases (see http://www.primarius.pt/smarter/)

Title: Short course on amphiboles (29-31 October 2007, Rome, Italy)

Sponsors/Organizers: SIG5, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the Mineralogical Society of America

Short Description: A short course on amphiboles whose lecture notes will be published in the “Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry” series (see

http://www_crystal.unipv.it/amphiboles/home.htm )

4. Other matters.

The SIG5 has requested and obtained the establishment of two new poster prize for your scientists in the field of mineralogical and inorganic crystallography:

  • EMU poster prize for mineralogical crystallography. The European Mineralogical Union (EMU) will assign an award to a young scientist for the best poster on mineralogical crystallography to be presented at IUCr, ECM and IMA meetings. The award consists of two volumes of “EMU Notes on Mineralogy” published in occasion of the EMU schools.
  • Zeitschrift fĂźr Kristallographie prize for inorganic crystallography. Zeitschrift fĂźr Kristallographie will assign an award to a young scientist for the best poster on crystallography of inorganic materials to be presented at the ECM 24.

Massimo Nespolo, secretary of the SIG, has been elected Councillor representative of the Individual Members for the period 2006-2009.

Supplementary Materials.

none

2005-2006

SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS

IUCr-XIX. 2005 was the year of the IUCr Congress and General Assembly (IUCr-XX, Florence, August 2005). The SIGs of the ECA do not have official role at the IUCr congresses. Our SIG participated in the organization of the Open Commission Meeting of the IUCr commission on Inorganic and Mineral Structures, as well as in the microsymposia No. 7 (Crystal Chemistry of Inorganic and Mineral Compounds), 14 (Modularity and Modulation in Inorganic and Mineral Structures), 35 (Polytypism and Twinning) and 54 (Crystallography at Conditions of Earth and Planetary Interiors).

The SIG5 has also co-organized the International School on Mathematical and Theoretical Crystallography in Nancy, France, 20-24 June 2005, where the examples and exercises presented in the school were for the large part taken from the inorganic and mineral kingdom (http://www.lcm3b.uhp-nancy.fr/mathcryst/nancy2005.htm)

Annual meeting and officer elections

The annual meeting of the SIG has been held during the IUCr-XX Congress. During this meeting, new officers for the 2005-2008 period have been elected, namely:

  • Chair: Wulf Depmeier (Kiel)
  • Vice-Chair: Artem R. Oganov (ZĂźrich)
  • Secretary: Massimo Nespolo (Nancy), confirmed

The next elections of the officers will be held in 2008, in occasion of the XXI Congress and General Assembly of the IUCr (Osaka, August 2008).

Forthcoming activities:

ECM-23. At ECM-23 Leuven the SIG#5 has obtained one plenary lecture: “Elegant and mysterious crystal structures of rare and new minerals” by Dmitry Pushcharovsky

and the following microsymposia:

  • MS18 – Crystallography in art and archeological sciences (Chair: Dirk Visser – Co-chair: Gilberto Artioli) – with SIG#12
  • MS19 – Phase transitions in inorganic and mineralogical materials (Chair: Massimo Nespolo- Co-chair: Ulli Bismayer) – with SIG#12
  • MS20: Crystallography of planetary interiors(Chair: Abdelmalek Thalal- Co-chair:Sergey Krivovichev)
  • MS21 – XAS: EXAFS and XANES (Chair: Caterina Rinaudo – Co-chair: Rik Van Deun) – with SIG#6
  • MS22 – Industrial mineralogy (Chair: Herbert Poellmann – Co-chair: Jan Elsen) – with SIG#12

The SIG#5 is also co-organizer of the Satellite Meeting on Mathematical and Theoretical Crystallography, that will be held just before ECM-23 ( http://www.lcm3b.uhp-nancy.fr/mathcryst/leuven2006.htm)

 

2004-2005

ECM-22. At ECM-22 Budapest the SIG#5 proposed five microsymposia:

  • Mineralogical crystallography
  • Crystallography of planetary interiors (with SIG#11)
  • Microporous and mesoporous materials (with SIG#8)
  • Clays and their industrial application (with SIG#12)
  • Forensic and archaeometric crystallography and materials (with SIG#12)

and one plenary lecture: “Quantum mechanical calculations on large systems as clathrates” (Karlheinz Schwarz). The plenary lecture was not accepted; besides, partly due to another almost concomitant meeting, the Middle-European Clay Conference, the last two microsymposia had to be merged into a new one, with the title “Investigation techniques in mineral science”. SIG#5 members were also active in the organization and participation to the Satellite Meeting (http://www.lcm3b.uhp-nancy.fr/mathcryst/satellite.htm).

CIMS School. The SIG was directly involved in the organization of a School on “Micro- and mesoporous mineral phases – Mineralogical, Crystallographic and Technological aspects” in Rome, 6-7 December 2004 (http://www.lcm3b.uhp-nancy.fr/cims/micromesoporous.htm), whose main organizer was the IUCr Commission on Inorganic and Mineral Structures (CIMS). The School had over 100 participants, with 32 oral and 53 poster presentations. Proceedings will appear in a thematic volume of the RiMG series.

Activities in 2005. In August 2005 the Congress and General Assembly of IUCr will be held in Florence, and ECM activity takes a year rest. Nevertheless, SIG members are involved in the organization of IUCr microsymposia, especially through the CIMS Commission. At the time of writing this report, a final list of microsymposia and participants is not available yet.

Before the IUCr Congress, a School on Mathematical and Theoretical Crystallography will be held in Nancy, from 20 to 24 June (http://www.lcm3b.uhp-nancy.fr/mathcryst/nancy2005.htm) and the SIG is among the organizing bodies.

Officers elections. The current officers of the SIG will end their period next August. Elections of the new officers will be held during the IUCr congress in Florence.

Massimo Nespolo

 

2003-2004

Scientific Meetings

ECM-21. For the first time in the ECA history, the annual ECM congress was held in Africa, namely at Durban Convention Center, Durban, Republic of South-Africa. Although the geographic distance made the number of participants inferior to the average for an ECM congress, the SIG succeeded in organizing several activities, including a plenary lecture “The wonderful world of crystal structures of sulfosalts”, by Emil Makovicky) three microsymposia entirely organized by our SIG (“Mineralogical Crystallography”, “Modular aspects of inorganic crystals” – dedicated to the memory of Boris B Zvyagin, and “Crystallography at extreme conditions: recent results and new developments”) and two microsymposia in cooperation with SIG-12 (“From minerals to materials science”, and “Perovskites ancient and modern” – dedicated to the memory of Helen D. Megaw).

Forthcoming ECM-22. The ECM-22 will be held in Budapest, from 26 to 31 August. The choice of the period was particularly unfortunate for our SIG, because it overlaps with the International Geological Congress in Florence 20-28 August), the 13th European Microscopy Congress EMC 2004 (22-27 August, 2004, Belgium), and partly with the 6th EMU School “Spectroscopic methods in mineralogy” (30 August – 6 September). In addition, the European Powder Diffraction Conference, EPDIC-IX (Czech Republic, 2-5 September, 2004) is very close to the ECM-22. A number of possible speakers have already engaged in those meetings, making the participation to ECM-22 by mineralogists more problematic. A plenary lecture proposed by our SIG “Quantum mechanical calculations on large systems as clathrates” (Karlheinz Schwarz) was not accepted and two microsymposia proposed in cooperation with SIG12 (“Clays and their industrial application” and “Forensic and archaeometric crystallography and materials”) did not receive enough abstracts (partly due to another almost concomitant meeting, the Middle-European Clay Conference) and these two microsymposia merged into a new one, with the title “Investigation techniques in mineral science”. Other microsymposia which have been approved and, at the time of writing this report, got enough abstracts, are “Mineralogical crystallography”, “Crystallography of planetary interiors” (with SIG11) and “Microporous and mesoporous materials” (with SIG8).

Members of the SIG will probably be present in other microsymposia and plenary lectures, not directly organized by our SIG.

Web site and mailing list

The website of the SIG, located at http://sig5.ecanews.org/ has been partly redesigned and is now compatible with the standards of the W3C consortium.

The mailing list, located at http://listes.uhp-nancy.fr/wws/info/ecasig5, is open to everybody interested in the SIG activity.

Activities beyond the action field of ECA: satellites and schools

The secretary of the SIG organizes a Satellite meeting of the ECM-22 on “Crystallography at the start of the 21st century: Mathematical and Symmetry Aspects”, from 24 to 26 August 2004 (http://www.lcm3b.uhp-nancy.fr/mathcryst/satellite.htm), supported by the Hungarian National Committee of the IUCr and the Organizing Committee of ECM-22 and sponsored by the IUCr-CIMS commission, and a summer school in Nancy (20-24 June 2005), on “Mathematical and Theoretical Crystallography” (http://www.lcm3b.uhp-nancy.fr/mathcryst/nancy2005.htm), under the auspices of the ECA and supported by the IUCr-CIMS commission

The 6th EMU School “Spectroscopic methods in mineralogy” is prepared by SIG5 members Anton Beran & Eugen Libowitzky (Vienna, Austria), August 30 to September 3, 2004 (http://www.univie.ac.at/Mineralogie/EMU_School/). The symposium “micro- and mesoporous mineral phases, mineralogical, crystallographic and technological aspects”( http://www.lcm3b.uhp-nancy.fr/cims/micromesoporous.htm) is organized by Giovanni Ferraris, 6-7 December 2004, in Rome (Italy).

M. Nespolo

 

2002-2003

SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS
IUCr-XIX. 2002 was the year of the IUCr congress and general assembly (IUCr-XIX, Geneva, August 2002). The SIGs of the ECA do not have official role at the IUCr congresses. Notwithstanding, our SIG succeeded in obtaining both a microsymposium on “Mineralogical Crystallography” and an Open Commission Meeting (Chairs in both cases: Dmitry Pushcharosky and Massimo Nespolo).
Forthcoming ECM-21. The forthcoming XXI ECM will be held in Durban, South Africa. Microsymposia will be divided into five focus area. Our SIG is active in the second area, “Material and Minerals”, and in the third area, “Experimental and Computational Techniques”, with a plenary lecture (Emil Makovicky: “The wonderful world of crystal structures of sulfosalts”) and four microsymposia: “Mineralogical Crystallography” (chairs: Tonci Balič Zunič and Ekkehart Tillmanns ) “Modular aspects of inorganic crystals” – in memory of Boris B Zvyagin (chairs: Stefano Merlino and Massimo Nespolo), “From minerals to materials science” (in cooperation with SIG12; chairs: Eugenio Scandale and J Kreisel), “Crystallography at extreme conditions: recent results and new developments” (chair: Michele Catti). Two other microsymposia have been cancelled because of the insufficient number of speakers.
Members of the SIG are however present in other microsymposia, not directly organized by our SIG.

Web site and mailing list
 The website of the SIG has moved to a new address: http://sig5.ecanews.org/ .The mailing list has moved too. Until September 16, 2002, the mailing list was hosted at Yahoogroups, a free provider ad-supported, which however appears to be blacklisted either directly by some university departments or via DNS black lists, probably because of the commercial ads contained in the message footers. The mailing list is now hosted is on a server of the University Henri Poincar? Nancy, and the address is: http://listes.uhp-nancy.fr/wws/info/ecasig5 . To avoid spam attacks, subscription requests require approval by the list owner but the list is unmoderated: all members can post.

Annual meeting and officer elections
 The annual meeting of the SIG has been held during the Congress of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) in Edinburgh (September 2002). The venue was decided on the basis of a poll conducted among the SIG members, which had shown that IMA meeting was going to see a larger participation with respect to IUCr meeting. During this meeting, new officers for the 2002-2005 period have been elected, namely:

Chair: Herta Silvia Effenberger (Wien)

Vice-Chair: Tonci Balič-Zunič (Copenhagen)

Secretary: Massimo Nespolo (Nancy), confirmed

The next elections of the officers will be held in 2005, in occasion of the XX Congress and General Assembly of the IUCr (Florence, August 2005).

Activities beyond the action field of ECA.

  1. Activity inside the IUCr. The SIG has actively promoted the creation of a new Commission of the IUCr (Commission on Inorganic and Mineral Structures: IUCr-CIMS), which has been officially established during the IUCr-XIX congress in Geneva. The past Chair and Vice-Chair of the SIG are now Chair and member respectively of this new Commission. The secretary of the SIG is consultant of this Commission.
  2. Satellites. The secretary of the SIG has proposed a Satellite meeting of the ECM-22 (Budapest, August 2004) on “Mathematical and Symmetry Aspects”. This satellite, which will be held in Budapest, 22-24 August 2004, just before the ECM meeting, is supported by the Hungarian National Committee of the International Union of Crystallography and the Organizing Committee of ECM-22 and sponsored by the IUCr-CIMS commission.
  3. Relations with EMU. Members of the SIG are cooperating with the EMU ? European Mineralogical Union ? in the organization of the EMU schools and in the publication of the “EMU Notes in Mineralogy”.
  4. Relations with IMA. The next Congress of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) will be held in Kobe, Japan, in September 2006. The secretary of the SIG has undertaken some early contacts with the organizing committee of the Congress and has obtained, on behalf of the SIG, one microsymposium on “Mineralogical Crystallography”, which should include three sections: 1. Crystal structures, defects structures and topology of minerals; 2. Modular aspects of mineral structures; 3. Structural studies at non-ambient conditions. Although it is still too early to discuss the details about this microsymposium, it is our opinion that members of the SIG have good chances of being appointed chair and/or co-chair.

M. Nespolo

 

2001-2002

From Massimo Nespolo
May 12, 2002  

Report on the activities of the Mineralogical Crystallography SIG  

SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS

1. At the ECM-20 (Krakow, August 2001), the following microymposia have been organized:

a) Mineralogical crystallography (Chairs: Dmitry Pushcharosky, Thomas Armbruster)

Polymorphism and solid-state chemistry (in cooperation with the SIG#7) (Chairs: Joel Bernstein, Massimo Nespolo). This microsymposium was organized after the Program Committee in Krakow refused to accept our proposal for a more specific microsymposium on Polytypism and OD structures”; but it was however a success, and was the first microsymposium entirely dedicated to polymorphism in inorganic compounds after an almost uninterrupted domination by organic chemists

c) Mineralogical Crystallography of Deep Earth (in cooperation with the SIG#11) (Chairs: Martin Kunz, Alessandro Pavese)

A fourth symposium, Electron crystallography of materials and minerals (in cooperation with the SIG#4) (Chairs: Bernard Grobety, M. Wolcyrz), was cancelled due to insufficient number of speakers.

2. At the forthcoming IUCr-19, following a last minute action to face the lack of mineralogical presence at this IUCr meeting, we obtained an entire microsymposium “Mineralogical Crystallography“, to be held on August 8, afternoon session (Chairs: Dmitry Pushcharosky, Massimo Nespolo:).

3. The SIG will be present also at the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) 2002 in Edinburgh, were the annual meeting of the SIG will be held. The venue has been decided on the basis of a poll conducted among the SIG members, which has shown that IMA meeting will see a larger participation with respect to IUCr meeting). It has been emphasized the importance of taking contacts, in that occasion, with the organizers of the next IMA meeting, to be held in Japan in 2006.

2001 SIG MEETING

The annual meeting of the SIG5 has been held at the Faculty of Chemistry, Jagellonian University, Krakow, on Sunday, 26th August 2001, in occasion of the 20th European Crystallographic Meeting. A report of the meeting is available online at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ecasig5/message/29 . In occasion of the 21st ECM, which will be held in 2003 in Durban, South Africa, it has been decided to propose a microsymposium with the title “Mineralogical Crystallography of Ore Minerals”, Chairman Emil Makovicky. Other microsymposia will be decided at the next meeting during the IMA Congress. The SIG is in favour of maintaining the present composition of the programme committee of ECM meetings, i.e. with the presence of a representative of each SIG. Possible organizing activity of the SIG in occasion of EMPG and EUG meetings was mentioned; but the feeling is that these meetings cannot host strictly crystallographic topics of mineralogy. It has been proposed to organize one or more topic-oriented workshops outside the frame of larger meetings. Topics like Mineral Physics, High Pressure Mineralogy, Modular Mineralogy were mentioned, but no decisions were taken. A call for topics and candidates (both locations and convenors) is open.

PROMOTION ACTIVITIES

Taking into account the lack of an IUCr commission specifically devoted to inorganic compounds, the chair of our SIG has presented to IUCr an official proposal for the institution of a “Commission on Inorganic and Mineral Structures (CIMS)”, which is now under consideration, the final decision being expected at the time of IUCr meeting in Geneva. The lack of such a specific IUCr Commission is considered among the causes that lead to a decreasing presence of mineral and, in general, inorganic scientists at the IUCr meetings. The success of the SIG in the case of the ECA suggests that an analogue organism in the IUCr will be able to invert that tendency.

M. Nespolo

2000-2001

At the meeting of SIG#5 in occasion of ECM-19 (Nancy, August 2000) it has been decided to extend the period of nomination of the officers to three years. The present officers (G. Ferraris, chair; D. Yu. Puscharovsky, vice-chair; M. Nespolo, secretary) will thus remain in charge until August 2002 and the new officers will be nominated in occasion of the IUCr-19 in Geneve. The contribution of SIG#5 to ECM-20 in terms of symposia was discussed. The report of the meeting in Nancy is available at the SIG#5 home page.

The home page of SIG has been redesigned and enlarged and includes now also a rich repository of links, announcements of the events of interest for the SIG, short report of the future activities in which the SIG is involved, and a form by which request from membership can be directly submitted. The home page moved to the following address: http://takechan.kiso.tsukuba.ac.jp/ecasig5/

and is hosted by the University of Tsukuba. The home page has been announced to the newsgroups related to mineralogy and crystallography and has been submitted to the main search engines, where it is now listed.

A mailing list for the SIG members has also been started. The home page of the mailing list has the address: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ecasig5/

where archives, database, links, calendar and space to upload files of common interest are also available. Members of the SIG can send messages the moc.s1732370280puorg1732370280oohay1732370280@5gis1732370280ace1732370280 and these will be distributed to all the members. Reply has been set to send answers to the person who posted the message, whereas replies to entire list are obtained by hitting the “reply to all” button. An automatic reminder is also available in calendar section: events of special interest for the members, like deadlines for the registration to meetings, are send out automatically to the list a few days before the deadline.

At the forthcoming ECM-20 (Krakow, August 2001), our SIG succeeded to organize the following Symposia:

  • Mineralogical crystallography (Chairs: Dmitry Pushcharosky, Thomas Armbruster)
  • Polymorphism and solid-state chemistry (Chairs: Joel Bernstein, Massimo Nespolo)
  • Electron crystallography of materials and minerals (in cooperation with the SIG#4) (Chairs: Bernard Grobety, M. Wolcyrz)
  • Mineralogical Crystallography of Deep Earth (in cooperation with the SIG#10) (Chairs: Martin Kunz, Alessandro Pavese)

A meeting of SIG#5 will organized in Krakow.

M. Nespolo