CrisDi School: disseminating crystallography in Piedmont, Italy.

The Interdepartmental Research Centre for the Development of Crystallography (CrisDi) aims to be an institution of reference for researchers at the University of Turin interested on the field of diffraction (X-rays, neutrons and electrons), to promote the knowledge and dissemination of crystallography, and to facilitate the access to available laboratory instrumentation (diffractometers and TEM) and to large scale facilities (synchrotron and neutron sources). CrisDi hosts scientists with interest in the fields of solid state chemistry and physics, organic, inorganic, organometallic and theoretical chemistry, mineralogy, biology, pharmaceutical and agricultural sciences. The Centre encourages the design and the development of new methodologies and applications, and supports the enhancement of the available instruments. The submission of proposals at large scale instruments is encouraged specially for young researchers and PhD students. The cultural and scientific interchange among crystallographers coming from different disciplines is strongly encouraged by CrisDi. A main task of the CrisDi is the annual organization of a post-grade level School with a series of courses dedicated to: (i) basic level crystallography (symmetry, theory of diffraction, crystal-chemistry), diffraction techniques (single crystal and powder X-ray diffraction, neutron and electron scattering); (ii) advanced level (high temperature and high pressure structural studies, macromolecular crystallography, time resolved crystallography and kinetic studies); (iii) spectroscopic approaches (XAFS, XANES, XES and NMR) in crystallography. The school, which is held every year in May for about 20 ECTS equivalent, has no tuition fees and is also open to non-academia people.