‘Ex Africa semper aliquid novi’ we could say quoting Pliny the Elder, after the success of PCCr1, the 1st Pan Africa Crystallographic Conference which took place in Dschang, Cameroun between 5th and 11th October 2016. The conference counted more than 200 participants from all over the world, mainly from several countries across Africa. The conference merged an excellent scientific program with an intense activity of round tables and networking to foster the creation of a steering committee gathering active representatives of crystallographers from most of the African countries, in order to initiate a roadmap to found an African Crystallographic Association in the future. Representatives of the main Crystallographic Associations, IUCr, ECA, LACA, ACA and AsCA were in Dschang, and ECA was represented by the President Alessia Bacchi, the Past President Andrè Roodt and the Treasurer Christian Lehmann. ECA sponsored PCCr1 and offered bursaries for the participation of four African young researchers: Belay Alebel Nibret (South Africa), Halidou Ibrahim (Niger), Sawadogo Moustapha (Burkina Faso) and Badiane Alfred Manga (Senegal). You can feel a flavour of the success of PCCr1 by looking at some pictures here.
Discussion going on at the CCDC booth
Some of the poster prize winners with the jurors Claude Lecomte and Susan Bourne