The 3rd Conference of the Asian Crystallographic Association (ASCA'98) was held during 13th-15th October in the Hotel Equatorial, Bangi near Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
The scientific highlights of the conference were the four excellent plenary lectures and the IUCr 50th Anniversary symposium. In addition to the above, 14 microsymposia covered a range of topics from diffraction theory to protein crystallography. Biological, chemical and physical crystallography were all well represented. Lively poster sessions, held each afternoon, provided plenty of time for participants to discuss their findings. Attendance at the sessions was always excellent, with standing room only during certain microsymposia held on the final day.
The social program began with an evening poolside reception and even a heavy tropical downpour failed to dampen the great atmosphere. The highlight of the social program was without doubt the eight course Chinese dinner, complete with traditional Malaysian music and dancing. The dinner had been opened in spectacular style by piper Inderjit Singh, who led in Chris Gilmore, Chick Wilson and Kenneth Shankland (all in kilts, of course) to the strains of 'Scotland the Brave’. Chris assured all AsCA participants of a warm welcome in Glasgow for IUCr 1999.
The conference bore all the hallmarks of a very well organised meeting, with much of the credit going to Prof. A. Hamid Othman, chair of the local organising committee. Likewise, the programme committee deserve great credit for putting together such a well balanced scientific programme.
Lorraine McBride and Kenneth Shankland
This triennial International Conference on Crystal Growth was held in Jerusalem, Israel in July 1998. This was my first conference; I was very impressed by the huge number of delegates participating, about 900. There were 5 parallel oral sessions on each of 5 days Morning sessions began with a 45 minute plenary lecture from a renowned expert. I was particularly impressed by the interesting and entertaining description by the Nobel prize winning, Sir Harold Kroto of his group's work on the science of buckminsterfullerene. He described his discovery of this new form of carbon and went on to explain new applications of nanotechnology. Buckminsterfullerene can arrange itself in the form of very strong tubes which can be used to strengthen other materials. His group has discovered ways of using catalytic control of nanotube construction. He also expressed delight in the increased public awareness of the benefits of science. The public definition of a "chemical" is largely negative, with bad associations with pollution, pesticides and nuclear disasters. Sir Harold believes that interest in the C60 molecule, which is aesthetically pleasing and widely discussed in the public arena has helped to dispel the myth that all chemicals are bad.
The sessions I found most interesting included those on surfaces and interfaces, templated crystallisation, industrial crystallisation and crystallisation phenomena in foods, pharmaceuticals and bio-related materials. I work on additive mediated wax crystallisation, and would eventually like to extend my knowledge to the area of pharmaceutical crystallisation, so there were many relevant talks. One of the first lectures was given by M. Plomp from The University of Nijmegen. He monitors crystal morphologies at surfaces using atomic force microscopy. I was interested to find that he had examined n-alkanes crystallised from solution and observed monosteps in equidistant trains. In the session "Templated Crystallisation" my colleague, Carol Peacock, spoke on the applications of NEXAFS spectroscopy (Near Edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure), and I was pleased to find that work carried out by S.A. Safran (Weizmann Institute) supported results obtained using NEXAFS on the surface freezing of n-alkanes.
Bridgid Heywood (Keele University) gave perhaps the "best talk" in the conference. She described attempts to mimic the crystallisation processes used in nature. We were fascinated by the description of how the slow release of pharmaceuticals into the body can be facilitated using dendrimers based on calcium carbonate. Her group plan to crystallise calcium carbonate to make more natural prosthetic limbs.
I gave a poster during the first of the two poster sessions held during the conference. The title of my poster was "Additive Mediated Wax Deposition in Pipeline Environments: a Structuro-Kinetic Perspective". It detailed the apparatus I have built and some of the results I have obtained in my attempts to understand the bulk and surface nucleation of wax with and without the presence of inhibitors. With approximately 140 posters in each session, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that I spent the entire afternoon explaining my work to the many delegates who showed an interest. I received a lot of feedback and am especially grateful to Tjakko Zijlema from the Delft University of Technology who has since posted me very useful information.
The conference was a very valuable experience academically, and spending a week in Jerusalem was a chance in a lifetime experience. I loved the Old City, and was very moved by the religious sites. I thank the BCA for their monetary contribution which enabled me to attend this conference.
Alison Hennessy,
Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh
(with a little editing by Kate Crennell)