IYCr2014 (International Year of Crystallography, 2014)    (if you don't see a menu on the left, use this link)


2014: International Year of CrystallographyThe United Nations, in its General Assembly A/66/L.51 (15 June 2012), after considering the relevant role of Crystallography in Science, decided to proclaim 2014 the International Year of Crystallography. Click also on the left image!



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Also in this context, 11 November 2012 marked the centenary of the presentation of the paper by a young William Lawrence Bragg (1890-1971), where the foundations of X-ray crystallography where outlined. For this reason, the International Union of Crystallography (
IUCr) published a fascinating set of articles that the reader can find via the following links:
The first 50 years of X-ray diffraction were commemorated in 1962 by the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) with the publication of an interesting book entitled Fifty Years of X-Ray Diffraction, edited by Paul Peter Ewald.

It is also very interesting to read the articles collected in the special issue of Nature (2014), dedicated to Crystallography, especially:
among other from the archive included in the same special issue. Nearly in the same context, Nature has also released this interesting article, entitled Structural biology: More than a crystallographer, about the training currently expected from crystallographers working in the field of structural biology.



Blas Cabrera - Julio Palacios
Left: Blas Cabrera (1878-1945)
Right: Julio Palacios (1891-1970)

In this context we should mention that our history in this Institute can be traced back to the first school of modern crystallography in Spain. This initiative began under Blas Cabrera (1878-1945) –who later became director of the “Instituto Nacional de Física y Química”
(nowadays Institute of Physical-Chemistry “Rocasolano”) and his pupil Julio Palacios (1891-1970). See also the page entitled "On our origins" (left menu).



Julio Garrido and the first article in Acta Cryst.

Left: Julio Garrido (1911-1982)
Right: The first article in first volume of Acta Cryst.

In March 1948, when Acta Crystallographica appeared, the very first article published in its first volume was signed by
Julio Garrido (1911-1982), a pupil of Julio Palacios, on “Observations sur la diffusion des rayons X par les cristaux de ClO3Na” (Acta Cryst. (1948) 1, 3-4). In that first issue there was also a note from J. Garrido about the carnitine structure, as well as a review of the book by J. Garrido and J. Orland “Los rayos X y la estructura fina de los cristales: Fundamentos teóricos y Métodos prácticos” (1946). It was a clear signal of the international significance of some of the work being undertaken at the "X-ray Section" of this Institute.

The links to Julio Garrido refer to his obituary written in 1982 by the crystallographer and physicist Luis Bru (1909-1997) in a Spanish newspaper. See also this short CV of Julio Garrido as it was published by the Spanish Royal Academy of History.


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