Welcome to Basel

Dear Colleagues and Friends, dear Participants of ECM-30,

On behalf of the European Crystallography Association as well as the Swiss Society for Crystallography, it is our pleasure to invite you to Basel on the occasion of the 30th European Crystallography Meeting, ECM-30, to be held from 28 August until 1 September 2016.

The Swiss Society of Crystallography was born in 1968 and connects scientists from all disciplines for which crystallography is important. Together with the European Programme Committee from the SIGs and GIGs of the ECA, we are setting up an exciting programme with excellent and fascinating science. With a total of ca. 45 half-day microsymposia and more than 15 keynote speakers, as well as two plenary lectures, a large number of hot topics from biology, chemistry, physics and mineralogy will be covered. Make sure you check out our programme and do not forget to submit your abstract for oral or poster presentations in order to share your science with your colleagues.

ECM-30 will be a four-day vibrant and intensive scientific meeting with many learning opportunities in every current aspect of crystallography. In addition, there will be a Young Crystallographers meeting, workshops and user meetings, lunch meetings, and a social programme, which will allow scientists from all over Europe and the world to meet, connect and exchange.

Basel is a welcoming, active and enterprising city of open minded citizens that excel in business as well as in the arts. Right at the Swiss-German-French border in the heart of Western Europe, it is easily reached by air, train and car. The famous Basel mathematicians Bernoulli and Euler are of course known to many of you. In addition to the architecturally interesting campuses of some big pharmaceutical and chemical enterprises, world-renowned museums, like the Beyeler or the Vitra Design museum, are ready to welcome you.

So, while youre here, please make sure to enjoy - at least for a short while - beautiful Basel and Switzerland.

Hoping to meet you in Basel,

Katharina M. Fromm
University of Fribourg

Jrg Schefer
Paul Scherrer Institute