Executive Outreach Officer of the International Union of Crystallography, He coordinates outreach and educational activities of the IUCr. He was the Coordinator of the activities for the UN International Year of Crystallography in 2014 and coordinates its legacy.

BSc in Chemistry (1993) and PhD in Mineralogy and Crystallography (1997), Michele Zema is researcher with habilitation for Full Professorship at U. of Pavia, Italy, with 25+ years’ research and teaching experience in the fields of mineralogy and structural chemistry. He was awarded with Premio Panichi 2008 by the Italian Society for Mineralogy and Petrology.

Michele Zema has initiated several activities for the development of crystallography worldwide. He is Scientific Director of the IUCr-UNESCO OpenLab, a network of crystallography schools and labs implemented in over 25 countries, and of the X-TechLab, a crystallography hub for Western Africa, recently established in Benin. He has directed and organized several international crystallography schools, including the 1st European Crystallography School in 2014 and the first two editions of the Crystallography Beyond Diffraction series, which he has founded.

He serves or has served on several other roles and international initiatives, including: Executive Committee for Lightsources for Africa, the Americas, Asia and Middle East Project (LAAAMP); Steering Committee for the African Light Source; Steering Committee for the foundation of the African Crystallographic Association; IUCr Committee for the Crystallography in Africa initiative; IUCr Commission on Gender Equity and Diversity.

He convened a session at the World Science Forum 2017 and one at the CiLAC Forum 2018. He acted as facilitator for the foundation of several national crystallographic associations worldwide.