The First European School on Crystal Growth (ESCG) – Fundamentals of Crystal Growth – was held at the CNR Research Area in Bologna on 5-8 September 2015.
The aim of the ESCG School was to bring together PhD students and young researchers from all over Europe and the rest of the world in a warm and stimulating atmosphere to introduce them to the fundamental concepts and mechanisms governing crystal growth processes. Nowadays, many schools, tutorials and brief courses on specific aspects of the growth of advanced materials are being offered to the International Crystal Growth community; however, the importance of raising the new generation of crystal growers with an in-depth knowledge of the fundamental concepts at the basis of crystal growth science is never enough emphasized.
To fill the gap, the ESCG School addressed the fundamental aspects of the science and technology of crystal growth, with emphasis on the fundamental thermodynamics, fluid-dynamics, kinetics and atomistic mechanisms ruling crystal growth processes; these mechanisms were presented along with principles of crystallization from the melt, liquid and vapour, for application to the synthesis of bulk, epitaxial, and nanosized crystals. The ambition of the School was to give the attendees a unitary view of the science and technology of crystal growth, despite the many and apparently diverse materials fields it nowadays applies. Selected senior experts in the field gave the lectures, answered questions and were available for discussions.
ESCG was also the official AIC School 2015. It took place in conjunction with the Fifth European Conference on Crystal Growth (ECCG5), which was held also in Bologna in the days after the School.
Chair: Dr. Paola Prete
