The 12th Bologna’s convention on crystal forms – CF@Bo n.12 – took place on 10-12 September 2023 at the University of Bologna.
As in the previous eleven occasions, the meeting was organized jointly by the Molecular Crystal Engineering group of the Department of Chemistry G. Ciamician and by PolyCrystalLine S.p.A., former spinoff company of the MCE group.
In keeping with the tradition of CF@Bo, the main objective of the meeting was that of providing a forum for an open academy-industry discussion of the new challenges that the theme “crystal forms” presents daily to researchers in both working environments.
CF@Bo also represented an opportunity for young researchers to meet senior scientists and researchers from both academy and industry and to establish new collaborations. The historical G. Ciamician Chemistry Department building and the Aemilia hotel premises provided a good location for appreciating both history and comfort for the more than 120 participants.
The community gathering in Bologna for CF@Bo n.12 was very well balanced both in terms of scientific contributions by the speakers and in terms of participation from industry and academy as well as in terms of gender and of nationality. In two and a half days 32 oral presentations were delivered by a number of top-notch scientists equally distributed between academy and research institutions and private labs and industry. Besides, on the second day 54 posters were presented and the best posters were awarded poster prizes sustained by Crystal Growth & Design and CrystEngComm.
As many as ten registration fees of young participants could also be waved thanks to the contribution of individual speakers and of the Italian Crystallographic Association.
Following an ongoing discussion within the community, a special session on the additional challenges faced by women in science was also organized and the important issue of sustainability of meetings and conferences was also discussed during the meeting.
Here is the workshop photograph taken in the ancient lecture room of the Chemistry Department G. Ciamician.