Spring Meeting 2010 Programme

Registration is now open at: http://www.crystallography-meetings.org.uk/spring10.php

A full version of the Programme timetable can be viewed or downloaded here. As usual the meeting will be packed full of symposia, plenaries, the exhibition, a Software Fayre and several satellite meetings.   

Prize Lectures and Plenary Speakers

This year we are due to present two prize lectures and are honoured by the presence of two eminent scientists who are both FRS and also knighted!

Professor Dame Louise Johnson DBE FRS (Dept of Biochemistry, University of Oxford & Diamond Light Source Ltd) is the awardee of the Hodgkin prize and will open the meeting with a lecture entitled, "Forty years of structural biology: where we have come from and where might we be going?"

Professor Sir John Meurig Thomas FRS (Dept of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge) is the recipient of the prestigious Bragg Lecture prize and will give a lecture entitled “The Essence and Promise of 4D Electron Microscopy’. JMT will speak about real space crystallography, electron energy-loss spectroscopy and many things which are currently of interest to synchrotron-oriented studies. He will also pay homage to the Braggs and recall some important history about the Royal Institution. To quote, “It will be an interesting journey through X-ray crystallography, Imaging and Electron spectroscopy”!

Our plenary speakers this year will be Professor Simon Billinge (Columbia University), who will give the IG Teaching Plenary and Dr Lynne McCusker (ETH Zürich) who will deliver the PCG Plenary. There will also be the usual CCDC Younger Scientist, PCG Thesis and Young Crystallographers Industrial Group Prize Lectures in addition to the Alun Bowen lecture to be given by the retiring BCA devotee, David Taylor.

Symposia

The following symposia have been timetabled and news of the invited and contributed talks will follow shortly:

Satellite Meetings and Workshops

• The Young Crystallographers will again organise their Satellite Meeting from 1pm on Monday 12^th April and finishing at 11.15 on Tuesday 13^th April. As announced at last years YC satellite meeting, 2010 will see the establishment of the Parkin Lecture as the YCG prize lecture in special recognition of the late Dr Andy Parkin and his contributions to the Group. The YCG committee is proud to present the Foundation Lecturer for the inaugural Parkin Lecture: Prof. Simon Parsons (University of Edinburgh). The lecture is scheduled for 10:30 on Tuesday, 13^th April, and will be this year’s link between the YC Satellite and the main Spring Meeting - so all main meeting delegates are welcome to attend!
• On Tuesday 13th there will be a workshop on ICDD led by Cyrus Crowder who will be assisted by Tim Fawcett, Dave Taylor & David Rendle and supported by Martin Gill & Richard Morris. Led by ICDD experts, this workshop will be a hands-on opportunity to learn how to get the most out of PDF-4+. More information is available on the workshop flyer by clicking here.
• A second hands on workshop: Local structure, data corrections matters (How to collect and correct data for Pair Distribution Function and total scattering analysis) will be held after the main meeting closes at 13:30 on Thursday 15^th April.  This workshop will follow on from the PDF and Reverse Monte Carlo analysis workshop held before the 2007 BCA spring meeting. The aim will be to enable people to produce data suitable for the analysis tools demonstrated in the last workshop. If you would like to attend this workshop or would like further information please email the organizer, Matt Tucker (matt.tucker@stfc.ac.uk), so the level of interest can be gauged.
• CCDC will host a "Cambridge Structural Database Discussion Forum" at the end of the Meeting. The session will provide an opportunity for expert and non-expert CSD users to share problems and solutions. The aim is to enable users to get the maximum benefit from their use of the CSD. Attendees will be encouraged to identify problems or limitations they have found in their use of CSD, from depositing data, through data content of CSD entries, to getting what they want when searching. CCDC editorial staff, software developers and research and applications scientists will be on hand, but discussions between users as well as CCDC staff will be encouraged so we can all learn from each other. The session will take place at 1.30 p.m. on Thursday 15th April and last a maximum of 2 hours. Refreshments will be provided and there is no charge for attendance.