maintained by Lodovico Riva di Sanseverino, fax +39 0512094904, Email: riva@geomin.unibo.it
TO THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF CRYSTALLOGRAPHY
Some photos of Erice and surroundings have been made available by Michael Quayle and Gareth Lewis, Bristol, participants at Erice 1998. Some more are being added from time to time; three by Martin Ulrich Schmidt, Clariant, Frankfurt a. Main, participant at both Erice 1998 and 1999..
Professor Antonino Zichichi, born in Trapani and now Research Director at CERN, Geneva realized that Erice, sited on a hilltop, 751 m above sea level, could represent an ideal place for specialised meetings with a limited number of participants. Isolation, a wealth of archaeological sites, and the echoes of 3000 years of history and prestige are the main attractions on this mountain, dominating Trapani and the extreme north-western edge of Sicily.
In 1963 Professor Zichichi began organizing yearly meetings on Subnuclear Physics, bringing together young and famous physicists. Later he founded the "Ettore Majorana" Centre, named after a young and promising Sicilian physicist working in the thirties with Fermi. He disappeared in 1938 under mysterious circumstances, during an overnight ferry trip to Naples where he had just been appointed full professor of Physics.
The Centre is a non-profit organization which has gained wide reputation for its excellent facilities; each year hundreds of scientists are invited or selected by those responsible for meetings in about 100 disciplines, to attend the "International School" (a misleading and unfortunate title). Each School organizes advanced study institutes or - more rarily - workshops ( officially called "courses" ) at intervals of one to five years. However, new activities have recently begun: each year, near the end of August, the international press has reported on the peace talks among top nuclear physicists - mainly from China, Russia and USA - invited to Erice by Prof. Zichichi with the aim of discussing and encouraging a nuclear weapon ban. In addition, scientists from all over the world have just started "residential" projects in Erice in the newly established World Research Laboratory.
In Erice, a progressive effort at restoring ancient monasteries and churches has produced very agreable places where scientists and their meetings can be hosted. Of course, it is a difficult task to transform the buildings to attain modern standards and yet preserve their original atmosphere. There is a large main lecture hall with 250 seats, three halls with 100, 80 and 60 seats respectively and a few smaller ones. The maximum number of participants, in order to hold an effective meeting in Erice, would be 120. Accommodation is provided mainly in twin-bedded rooms with a bath or shower.
The idea of an International School of Crystallography (acronym ISCoC) was suggested in 1972 by Professor Michael M. Woolfson, FRS, of York University to Lodovico Riva di Sanseverino, now at Bologna University. Since 1974, crystallographic meetings at Erice have been held each year (except 1979) and have dealt with a variety of topics (see the summary of activities).
After a short, stimulating directorship by Nobel Laureate Dorothy Hodgkin, the direction of the ISCoC has been assumed by Professor Tom L Blundell, FRS, then at Birkbeck College, London, since Oct. 1996 at the Department of Biochemistry, Cambridge University, who has taken up the responsibility for the scientific planning. Topics and dates have been selected well over the end of the century; proposals for future activities are welcome.
The scientific Director of a Course, who is nominated by Professor Blundell, is a dynamic leader in the topic indicated by the course title; he/she should be able to contact crystallographers as well as exponents of other fields. Non-crystallographers are required when - as is often the case - the meeting deals with frontier topics. The Director of a Course is responsible for inviting the lecturers and for planning an attractive scientific programme; maximum collaboration is assured by the Executive Secretary of the ISCoC, Lodovico Riva di Sanseverino till 1994, Paola Spadon now.
Thousands of posters announcing each meeting are circulated a year in advance to personal addresses and it is customary to receive 2 to 3 times as many applications as there are places available. The selection is not only based on qualification but also on geographical distribution. The most cosmopolitan course, in 1977, was attended by 81 participants from 33 countries and in 1988, 206 scientists (an exceptional number - as ever with Molecular Biologists) came from 37 countries. In April 1990, two crystallographic courses were run simultaneously in two different halls. During the spring 1996 only 19 days had elapsed when a second cour se started, while in 1997 two courses have been held simultaneously (22 May till 2 June), with a few common lectures in the same hall. The simultaneous running of two meetings will be repeated in May 1999.
The general policy for producing printed material consists of requesting each invited lecturer to write a 5-10 pages summary of his contribution, including a comprehensive list of references. The collected lecture notes are distributed to participants on their arrival; in 1987 the book was mailed to home addresses well in advance, but the result was not worth the effort. Lecture notes provide a general guide, but the extended bibliography is a unique tool for those stimulated into increasing their acquaintance with the topic after attending a meeting. Twentytwo such photoset reproduced volumes and eighteen proper books, published by international printing companies, have appeared in the past twentyfour years. Proper monographs play an essential role when the subject of a meeting is a pioneering initiative.
Due to their interdisciplinary character, Erice crystallographic courses are attended by specialists from various fields. This is frequently the starting point for closer scientific contacts: both lecturers and "students" are encouraged to spend the full period of the course in Erice and the person-to-person exchange of ideas and expertise often provokes and/or stimulates future collaborative research projects.
School financing is composed of fees ( about 60% ), international grants ( 25% ) and local sources while expenditure consists of subsistence ( about 70% ), lecturers' travel ( 20% ) and organizational costs. The well known difficulty of fund raising is increased owing to the fact that the meetings are on a yearly basis. The organizers are involved in a continuous effort, trying to increase the number of grants: several national institutions have been convinced to share the travel and/or the subsistence costs. In addition to having paid travel for the 21 invited speakers, the organizing commiuttee for the 28th course was able to waive fees to 86 out of the 114 participants.
As well as the scientific schedule, special care is dedicated to providing a knowledge of local culture and history, as well as to overcoming national discrimination. To help improve the efficiency of the course, a questionnaire is distributed and participants are invited to express (anonymously) any criticism and to make any suggestions they might feel necessary. A careful reading of a report based on the answers to this questionnaire can be of great help to the organizers of succeeding events.
A deep sense of gratitude is due to Directors and co-organizers of these meetings; without their generous, time-consuming efforts, the crystallographic activity in Erice would never have become popular. Some satisfaction can be derived from the table reporting a statistical comparison between relevant data published by the "Ettore Majorana" Centre in 1990, and those resulting from the activity by the International School of Crystallography, a single discipline amongst the hundred now active in Erice is available here
Posted by Lodovico Riva di Sanseverino in Dec 1994 and updated on Oct 24, 1996, 22 June and 15 Sept 1997, 1 July, 11 Oct, 11 Dec 1998 and 2 Nov 1999
maintained by Lodovico Riva di Sanseverino,
fax +39 0512094904, Email: riva@geomin.unibo.it