Dear Colleagues, We are pleased to invite you to the scientific session "Modular Aspects of Mineral Structures" to be held at the 21st General Meeting of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA 2014, Sandton Convention Centre, Gauteng, South Africa, 1-5 September 2014) organized by: Massimo Nespolo, Université de Lorraine, France Marco Pasero, Università di Pisa, Italy Sergey Krivovichev, St.Petersburg State University Description: Modular structures are built by modules (blocks, rods, layers) which differ either in the chemistry or in the crystallographic orientation / position. They include polytypes and OD structures, polysomatic and homologous series, cell-twins, as well as twins and epi/syntaxies. The structure-building principle allows fine tuning of both structure and chemical composition and represents one of the most outstanding mechanisms by which Nature produces a wide range of minerals from a relatively limited number of building blocks. The understanding of the features of these minerals represents a challenge both for the experimental mineralogist and for the theoretician and opens a huge horizon for crystal engineering. Oral and poster contributions covering the above subjects are welcome (deadline for abstract submission 28 February 2014). Further information can be found at: http://www.ima2014.co.za -- _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ Prof. Dr. Massimo Nespolo CRM2 UMR - CNRS 7036 Institut Jean Barriol, FR 2843 Université de Lorraine Faculté des Sciences et Technologies BP 70239, Boulevard des Aiguillettes F54506 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy cedex France tel: 03.83.68.48.85 fax: 03.83.68.43.00 massimo.nespolo@crm2.uhp-nancy.fr http://www.crystallography.fr/crm2/fr/labo/pages_perso/Nespolo/ MaThCryst Workshops and Schools http://www.crystallography.fr/mathcryst/meetings.php 2014 INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF CRYSTALLOGRAPHY http://www.iucr.org/iycr _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/