The XX Congress of the International Union of Crystallography (Florence, 23-31 August 2005): A Report on a Most Remarkable Scientific Reunion

摘要

The XX IUCr Congress has been a huge success, as also testified by the numerous messages of appreciation received by the organizers after the event. The congress had approximately 3000 participants from across 62 countries (200 were officially registered accompanying persons). This is probably a record participation for IUCr Congresses. About one forth of the total participants were students and, of these, 450 persons were financially supported thanks to the generous contributions from various international organizations, such as the European Commission, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the IUCr, the British and Italian Crystallo-graphic Associations, and the local student support organization (ARDSU), which provided low-cost, yet comfortable accommodations. Last but not least, the resources became available by invited speakers and chairs, who agreed to participate at their expenses, have allowed the attendance of the many young or unprivileged researchers.