INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF CRYSTALLOGRAPHY
The diffraction of X-rays by crystals was discovered in the early 20th century and rapidly developed into a well-established discipline that plays a crucial role in fields such as physics, chemistry, biology,materials science, metallurgy, mineralogy, and geology. The School was founded in 1974 with the goal of promoting crystallographic knowledge within the scientific community and educating new generations of scientists. Since then, courses have been organized almost every year, addressing the most current trends in the field—from methodological developments to applications across all areas of science—highlighting key advances and the exciting progress of these disciplines. In response to the rapid evolution of structural sciences, the School has broadened its scientific scope to encompass all aspects of the field, ranging from quantum crystallography and crystal engineering to cryo-electron microscopy. Throughout this expansion, it has maintained its core mission: to educate future scientists about technical advances in structural sciences and to provide them with the tools and knowledge that can shape their future careers.
www.crystalerice.org
1979 - 2023: Tom Blundell
2024 - : Giovanna Scapin
Active courses
Quantum crystallography
Directors: J. CONTRERAS – P. DOMINIAK
30 May – 7 June 2025
Electron crystallography
Directors: A. EGGEMAN – M. GEMMI – T. GORELIK
30 May – 7 June 2025
Past courses
59th Course:
Powder diffraction: Advancing real materials in the information era
Directors: D. BILLING – M. LEONI – D. SISAK JUNG
31 May – 8 June 2024
58th Course:
Structural drug design 2023: biology, chmistry and computers
Directors: G. SCAPIN – C. DEAN – F. von DELFT
2 – 10 June 2023
57th Course:
Diffuse scattering: The crystallography of dynamics, defects, and disorder
Directors: N. ANDO – A. GOODWIN
3 – 11 June 2022
56th Course:
High pressure crystallography
Directors: K. DZIUBEK – S. DEEMYAD – H. MAYNARD-CASELY
3 – 11 June 2022
Giovanna Scapin
Giovanna Scapin graduated magna cum laude in 1985 from the University of Padua (Italy) with a degree in Organic Chemistry. In 1989 she received her PhD in Organic Chemistry from the same university with a thesis on Structural Biology. In February 1990, Giovanna joined the laboratory of Dr. James C. Sacchettini at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx (NY) as a postdoctoral fellow and subsequently as Instructor. Her interest initially focused on a class of small fatty acid binding proteins that had been related to obesity and diabetes.
Subsequently, most of her work involved bacterial enzymes that could be used as targets for the design of novel antibiotics. During the 6 years Giovanna spent at Albert Einstein she mentored several graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.
In 1997 Giovanna joined Merck and Co., Inc, where she was involved in several drug discovery projects, providing structural biology support for diabetes, inflammation and oncology targets. Her more recent work focused on the diabetes target DPP-4, on novel antimicrobial targets, and on the structure-function of antibodies. In 2016, while still working at Merck, she joined the New York Structural Biology Center – Simons Electron Microscopy Center as an embedded scientist to learn single particle CryoEM hands-on; after 18 months Giovanna went back to Merck full time, where she established a new cryoEM facility.
In March 2020, Giovanna joined NanoImaging Services as Chief Scientist of the newly established NIS-East Client Center in Woburn, MA, where she is currently CSO.