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1. Introduction
Stanko Popović
Crystallography in Croatia has a long tradition. The University courses
in Mineralogy started already in the last decades of the 19th century.
Mladen Paić used powder diffraction in his PhD studies at Sorbonne,
Paris, in the thirties of the 20th century. As the Head of the Physics
Department, University of Zagreb, appointed in 1946, he strongly
supported research in crystallography. Drago Grdenić started to study
crystal structure of mercury compounds by single crystal XRD in Moscow
in 1946-48 in the laboratory of A. I. Kitaygorodsky. In 1948 he
continued his research in Zagreb, where he founded X-ray crystal
structure analysis. Soon a group of talented younger crystallographers
(Katarina Kranjc, Stjepan Šćavničar, Antun Bonefačić, Aleksandar Bezjak,
Boris Kamenar, Boris Matković, Zvonimir Ban, Milan Sikirica, Mladen
Topić, Biserka Kojić-Prodić, Stanko Popović) was formed, studying
crystal structure and microstructure.
In 1966 the crystallographers in the former Yugoslavia established an
association named the Yugoslav Centre of Crystallography (YCCr), which
acted under the auspices of the Yugoslav (now: Croatian) Academy of
Sciences and Arts in Zagreb. D. Grdenić was elected the President and B.
Kamenar the Secretary of YCCr. That same year, YCCr was accepted to IUCr
(at the General Assembly of IUCr in Moscow, during the 7th Congress of
IUCr). Most of the members of YCCr performed their research in Croatia.
From 1966 to 1991, 25 annual crystallographic conferences were held in
Yugoslavia, most of them were organized by the YCCr members from Croatia
and Slovenia. The invited speakers at those conferences were eminent
crystallographers from abroad ( among others Mario Nardelli, Giuseppe
Allegra, Mario Mammi, Gastone Gilli, Davide Viterbo and Lucio
Randaccio-Italy, Alajos Kalman-Hungary, Sidney Cyril Abrahams- USA, Ivar
Olovsson-Sweden, Mihail Porai Koshic and Yuri Struchkov-USSR, John
Helliwell, C. Keith Prout and Nobel laureate Dorothy Hodgkin-UK). Also,
6 joint Italian-Yugoslav crystallographic conferences were organized in
that period, thanking to a friendly cooperation with Italian
Crystallographic Association. All those activities established strong
ties among crystallographers in Croatia and scientists abroad; many
crystallographers from Croatia specialized in prominent international
laboratories. A number of scientists from other republics of the former
Yugoslavia obtained MSc and PhD degrees in Zagreb.
In the seventies and eighties of the 20th century the laboratories in
Zagreb were equiped with modern instruments for XRD, TEM and associated
methods, enabling researsh of crystal structure of inorganic,
organometallic and organic compounds, as well as microstructure at
ambient and elevated temperature. YCCr published a journal, the
Annual of the Yugoslav Centre of Crystallography, containing
(in English) papers based on plenary lectures and abstracts of short
contributions given at annual conferences, the lists of papers of the
YCCr members published in journals, the titles of MSc and PhD theses of
the YCCr members, and minutes of annual YCCr Assembly meetings. YCCr
was also a member of the European Crystallographic Committee ( ECC ); B.
Kamenar was the Vice-President and President of ECC in the period
1978-84. Thanks to the confidence of ECC in YCCr, the 13th European
Crystallographic Meeting should have been organized in Ljubljana,
Slovenia, in 1991 by YCCr. Due to the agression on Slovenia and Croatia,
the ECM13 was transferred toTrieste ( two months before the Meeting was
planned) thanks to good relations among crystallographers in Italy
(L.Randaccio), Croatia (B. Kamenar) and Slovenia (L.Golič). The main
Meeting lecture was given by the Nobel laureate Robert Huber (Germany),
and a satelite meeting, Synchrotron radiation in Crystallography, was
also organized.
After desintegration of Yugoslavia and proclamation of independence of
Croatia in 1991, the
Presidency of the Croatian
Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb, made a decision of ceasing the
existence and activities of YCCr. The Presidency also decided to
appoint members of the Initiative Board ( B. Kamenar, B. Kojić Prodić,
S. Popović, B. Gržeta ) who would suggest the necessary steps for
foundation of a crystallographic association, as the successor of YCCr.
Following the unanimous suggestion of
crystallographers in Croatia,
the Precidency of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts founded the
Croatian Crystallographic Association (CCA) on February 28, 1992 and
approved the Statutes of CCA. Boris Kamenar was elected the President
and Stanko Popović the Secretary of CCA. The same year, CCA was
accepted to the European Crystallographic Association (at the Meeting of
ECA, Enschede, during ECM14) , and to IUCr in 1993 ( at the General
Assembly of IUCr in Beijing, during the 16th Congress of IUCr).
Since 1992, CCA and the Slovenian Crystallographic Society organize
annual joint Crystallographic Meetings with international participation,
alternatively in Slovenia and in Croatia. The reports on the Meetings
can be found in the IUCr Newsletter. Many famous
crystallographers have been invited speakers at these Meetings ( among
others, Carmelo Giacovazzo and Giuseppe Zanotti-Italy, Menahem
Kaftory-Israel, Istvan Hargittay-Hungary, Mariusz Jaskolski-Poland,
William Duax-USA, Howard Flack and Nenad Ban-Switzerland, Panče
Naumov-Japan, Robert Dinnebier and Hartmut Fuess-Germany, Boštjan
Kobe-Australia, Eleanor and Guy Dodson-UK, Ekkehart Tillmanns-Austria).
The papers based on plenary lectures are published in journals
Croatica Chemica Acta (for Meetings held in Croatia) and in Acta
Chimica Slovenica (for Meetings held in Slovenia). For instance,
crystallographers from 13 countries attendetd the Meeting in 2007. In
2010 the Meeting is held in Slovenia, and in 2011 in Croatia
(traditionally in the middle of June). The members of CCA actively
participated in edition of a special issue of Croatica Chemica Acta,
Vol. 82 (2009), the Festschrift dedicated to
academician Drago Grdenić, the honorary Chair of CCA, on the occasion of
his 90th birthday. Davor Balzar (now in USA) was a member of the IUCr
Commission on Powder Diffraction, Biserka Kojić Prodić is a Co-editor of
Acta Cryst C, and Stanko Popović was a member of the EPDIC
Committee.
Nowadays, about one hundred scientists are gathered in CCA, and
crystallography is the main field of research in at least ten
laboratories ( universities, scientific institutes, industry). Thanks to
modern equipments, computing facilities and international cooperation
(e.g. GI SAXS at Elettra, Trieste), the crystallographers in Croatia now
study biologically active molecules, proteins, medium and big
organometallic molecules, pharmaceuticals, microstructure of composites
and its relation to properties, and other crystallographic topics of
interest in chemistry, biology, physics and mineralogy. Short reports on
research in several prominent laboratories in Croatia are given below.
The members of the Executive Committee of CCA (since January 12, 2006;
reelected on May 5, 2009) are:
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Marija Luić, Secretary, marija.luic@irb.hr
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Dubravka Matković Čalogović, Vice Chair,
dubravka@chem.pmf.hr
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Stanko Popović, Chair, spopovic@phy.hr
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Darko Tibljaš,
dtibljas@geol.pmf.hr
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Antun Tonejc,
atonejc@phy.hr
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Aleksandar Višnjevac,
aleksandar.visnjevac@irb.hr
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Kristian Vlahoviček,
kristian@bioinfo.hr
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Boris Kamenar, Honorary Chair,
bkamenar@chem.pmf.hr
The
activities of the Executive Committee should be approved at annual
meetings of the Assembly of CCA, gathering all members of CCA. More
details on CCA can be found at
www.hazu.hr/kristalografi.
Logo of CCA contains the abbreviation of CCA in Croatian, hkz
(Hrvatska kristalografska zajednica
), Miller indices, hkl, and coordinates of atoms,
xyz, all bounded with the national flag, red, white, blue
(author of logo Biserka Gržeta, CCA member).
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