2015 Conference Topic Areas

The school is organized as a satellite event to European Crystallographic meeting â€" ECM29 in Rovinj, Croatia, 23-28 of August 2015. The school intends to cover main directions of contemporary research in the area of electron crystallography. The lectures are designed to meet the needs and interests of participants with diverse background â€" materials science, physics, chemistry, geology and biology. The participation in the school is granted with one ECTS credit point.

The program of the school comprises three days of lectures and tutorials and is structured as follows: each of the three days, a set of four lectures are given during each morning while the afternoon sessions are devoted to tutorials. The first day lectures are devoted to basic crystallography concepts and specifics of their application to electron diffraction. The second day lectures cover the structure solution methods and their use for structure analysis based on electron diffraction data. The third day lectures deal with specific crystallographic problems â€" lattice defects, modulated structures and poorly crystalline materials, seen by electron scattering. Tutorials will be given in small groups and interactive manner in order to encourage active discussions. A poster session gives students a possibility to present their research to the lecturers as well as to other participants.

As last but not least point it should be mentioned that active evening program facilitating free communication of students from different countries and also the lecturers should not be underestimated, and is in many cases a basis for fruitful scientific collaboration in the future.

Application of synchrotron tools

Plant & Agricultural Science

Art, Art History & Cultural Heritage

The workshop will cover both theoretical modelling of the mechanical behavior of materials and structures under dynamic loading and all aspects related to friction and contact.

There will be eight main themes: 1. Constitutive relations and modelling 2. Numerical simulations 3. Perforation and Impact 4. Crashworthiness 5. Experiments and inverse methods 6. Friction and interaction 7. Surface and contact 8. Shock and Blast Loading

Unconventional Superconductivity: Materials and Mechanisms

From Molecular Information to Function

From Molecular Assembly to Functional Materials

The IOP's Dielectrics Group is hosting its biennial conference at the National Physical Laboratory to explore the ever expanding areas of influence of dielectrics research and application. The year 2015 will mark the 44th anniversary of Dielectrics Group, and formerly Dielectrics Society, conferences in the UK.

The conference will welcome contributions from physicists, chemists, materials scientists, engineers and technologists. The aim is to encourage much cross-over between the main themes.

The conference will include all areas of study pertinent to dielectrics. This year there will be a special session on Quantum Technologies so that delegates may learn about this important new area of Dielectrics research. The 4 sessions will be as follows: + Dielectric Breakdown + Hi-K Dielectrics and Applications + Quantum Technologies + Experimental Techniques

This is the 23rd World Forum on Advanced Materials, also known as PolyChar 23. This conference follows a large number of PolyChar conferences that have come before it and have established a measure of excellence and a special culture of friendship and collaboration for this forum. These include recent PolyChar conferences in Rouen France, Siegen Germany, Dubrovnik Croatia, Gwangju Korea, and most recently PolyChar 22 was held in Stellenbosch South Africa in 2014. This is the first time after over ten years that conference is returning to the U.S.

PolyChar has a tradition of having a day long short course before the start of the conference. The short course is a set of lectures by experts in the field describing different aspects of interest to the participants of PolyChar. This year the short course is set for May 11, 2015, and includes the following presentations:

1. Holger Schönherr, Germany, Microscopy
2. Brett P. Fors, USA, Photochemistry in Polymer Science
3. Witold Brostow, USA, Friction, Wear and Scratch Resistance
4. Bernhard Blümich, Germany, Solid State NMR.
5. Dirk Schubert, Germany, Rheology & Processing
6. Jean-Marc Saiter, France, Glass Transition and Glass Transition Temperature
7. Jean-Michel Guenet, France, Scattering
8. Kevin Menard, USA, Dynamic Mechanical Properties
9. Sven Henning, Germany, Micromechanics

We are pleased to announce the second International Summer School of Crystallography at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science at DESY, Hamburg (D). Prof. Carmelo Giacovazzo will lecture on the basics of crystallography, covering mathematical understanding of crystallographic point and space groups, diffraction experiments, structure factor calculations, systematic absences, determination of space groups, background of phasing for structure determination of biomolecules and many additional topics. Participants will also learn modern applications and instrumentation of protein crystallography experiments at advanced light sources, such as 3rd generation synchrotron and XFELs.

Speakers:

Prof. Carmelo Giacovazzo (University of Bari),

Prof. Henry Chapman (CFEL / DESY, University of Hamburg),

Prof. Arwen Pearson (CUI, University of Hamburg),

Dr Thomas Schneider (EMBL), Dr. Gleb Bourenkov (EMBL),

Dr Adrian Mancuso (European X-FEL),

Dr Thomas White (CFEL / DESY)

The summer school program is geared 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 will be theory oriented.

Besides the lessons there will be guided tours of PETRAIII/European XFEL, a BBQ and a harbor boat trip scheduled.

Accepted applicants will be asked to pay a registration fee of approx. 100 EUR (includes coffee breaks and lunch). In addition, participants will have to pay for their own travel expenses, accommodation will cost 70 EUR at the DESY Guest House (the rest will be covered by the school budget).

The application deadline is on the 15th of March, 2015. Notification of accepted applicants will be sent end of March. Places and accommodation are limited to 30 students in total.

The application is as simple as follows:

Applicants must provide a motivation letter, as well as, a CV, directly to the organizer Cornelius Gati (cornelius.gati@desy.de).

Developing the Synergy between Biophysics and Medicinal Chemistry to Deliver Better Drugs

The use of biophysical techniques in drug discovery is rapidly increasing, and many pharmaceutical companies have set up in-house biophysical platforms to speed up the target-to-candidate process and improve the quality of small-molecule therapeutics through a better understanding of their interactions with their targets.

However, biophysics for drug discovery had not yet been the subject of a dedicated conference: most of the time, it is the topic of a specialised session within drug discovery conferences, and on the other hand biophysical meetings are often very academy-oriented and rarely extend their scope to drug discovery aspects.

Aiming at filling this gap, the first NovAliX Conference 'Biophysics in Drug Discovery', which was held in October 2013 in Strasbourg, France, was a real success, attracting more than 160 people from 20 countries.

Bringing together the medchem and biophysics communities, the conference, with a 2/1 ratio of participants from industry/academia, was a dense and rich event with lively discussions after presentations, around the posters and during the round table.

The second edition of the conference intends to further develop the synergy between biophysics and medicinal chemistry, which is key to deliver better drugs on a shorter timeline. The following topics will be discussed during the conference:

• Method Development & Emerging Technologies
• Biophysics for Integral Membrane Proteins
• Impact of Biophysics on Drug Discovery Projects
• Use of Kinetics in Drug Discovery
• Epigenetics (Special Focus of the conference)

The Scientific Programme will be completed by a large Poster Session, a Commercial Exhibition as well as an interesting Social Programme around Strasbourg, a city of culture, home of the European Parliament and a UNESCO landmark.

With the increased demand for APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients) to reach the marketplace, chemists in early stage development are expected to have a greater understanding of solid form and crystallisation. This single day event, presented by a selection of industrialists and academics in their field of expertise, will provide an introduction to this area, specifically initial crystallisation experiments, solid form selection and formulation and how these matters are handled using real industrial examples.

Lectures

• Crystallisation: why, what, how and when? Dr Simon Black, AstraZeneca
• Title to be advised, Prof Alistair Florence, University of Strathclyde
• Understanding the crystal morphology of molecular crystals from a solid-state and interfacial chemistry perspective, Prof Kevin Roberts, University of Leeds
• Cocrystals; synthesis, properties and medicinal chemistry, Prof Kim James, Peakdale
• Caffeine and Paracetamol: small molecules for big headaches, Dr Kreso Bucar, UCL
• Polymorphism studies of a preclinical candidate in a CRO environment. Lessons learnt (again), Dr David Pearson, Charles River Laboratories

The aim of this School is to provide a comprehensive foundation for researchers in the field of soft matter, liquids and complex fluids

The lectures will introduce key topics of current interest together with the theoretical, experimental and computer simulation approaches used to address them. The School is directed towards postgraduate students from a wide range of backgrounds including physics, chemistry, chemical engineering and biophysics.

The school will start with a welcome reception early evening on Sunday 12 April and finish with lunch on Thursday 16 April. There will be lectures on Liquid Crystals, Polymer Physics, Biophysics and Neutron Scattering & Disordered materials.