From the President
I am writing this on holiday in the knowledge that the IUCr Congress in
Glasgow has passed off successfully. In fact it was the largest IUCr
Congress ever held, with slightly more than 2600 participants in total.
Those of you who were there, and I suspect that means most of you, could
hardly have been left in any doubt that the Scottish Exhibition and
Conference Centre site was a superb location for our meeting, providing both
excellent lecturing facilities as well as a great exhibition hall. It is
such a relief now to realise that it is all over and that it has been such a
success.
I believe that the UK Crystallography community owes an enormous debt to
those who bore the real brunt of the organising. Chris Gilmore, ran the
local organisation of the meeting with incredible efficiency and attention
to detail ( even achieving the impossible with the Glasgow weather), and
Judith Howard produced a scientific program of very high quality and
variety. I know how much effort they put into the Congress and I wish to
record my deep personal thanks, as well as those of the British
Crystallographic Association, to them both. In addition I would like to
express my admiration for the way that Gill Houston of Northern Networking
ran the day to day organising in the background with her delightful and
hardworking team (Gill was the lady that many saw each day barking orders
into a mobile phone, running the conference with the precision of a military
operation !).
I was pleased to see one of our oldest members, Arnold Beevers, attend the
IUCr Meeting and I think that at the J.M. Robertson Symposium held during
the Congress it became apparent just how much influence he had played on the
development of so much crystallography that today we take for granted.
You will also have seen that the BCA had its own stand in Glasgow, run by
Kate Crennell and Stephanie Harris. You will be interested to know that they
raised a substantial amount of money through selling BCA material ,
including a book on Crystals partly sponsored by the BCA. We also received
40 new subscriptions for membership.
Now to two matters for the future. First of all I invite nominations for the
Dorothy Hodgkin Prize in 2000. All nominations (see opposite page ) should
be sent to me by the end of September. The second matter is to remind you
all that I shall finish my term of office as President during the next
Spring Meeting in Heriot Watt University. I hope that, as we did the last
time, there will be a contested election, and so I invite you to suggest
names to me before the end of the year.
At this point I think I will go back to the barbecue !
Mike Glazer
Oxford,
25 August 1999
How do we preserve our Crystallographic heritage?
SHOULD WE PRESERVE CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC MATERIAL?
If so, WHAT, & WHY, & WHEN, & HOW, & WHERE, & WHOSE?
Arrangements already exist in England, and doubtless elsewhere also, for the
archiving of the papers of prominent crystallographers, but no formal
arrangements appear to exist for the preservation of equipment, although a
number of artefacts have been given to the Science Museum, and to some other
museums.
The recent surge of interest in preserving computers has led to many of the
old valve machines being reconstructed, and the strong influence of computer
technology on the development of modern crystallography suggests that a
proper chronicle of this interaction would be valuable .
However, there is another problem ---- crystallographic film. Ilford Industrial B from the 1950's has already deteriorated, while Ilford Industrial G appears to be alright at present. Professional advice is being sought on this problem.
The other problem is that data now tends to be recorded on magnetic media of some kind. Who still has any paper tape? Any punched cards? Any old magnetic discs? Any large reels of magnetic tape? Or the programs to interrogate them? There are many horror stories of lost archival material, and archivists are still rather dubious about magnetic storage for the long term.
We know the position in the UK. We would welcome views from people in other countries concerning the preservation of crystallographic material.
H. Judith Milledge, University College London
Editor's Note: I displayed the above plea on the BCA Stand during the IUCr XVIII exhibition; I am reprinting it here because I am not sure how many people saw it there and I agree it is a serious problem; we should act now before archival material degenerates further. The Manchester meeting on '50 years of Crystallographic Computing' showed us how closely the growth of crystallography is linked to advances in computing power. When students learn about crystallographic techniques in future will they have any idea of how X-ray film was used in the days before 'black box' structure analysis? Does it matter?
There is a UK 'National Film Archive', but when I telephoned them to ask how to archive scientific film with them I discovered that they take a very narrow view of what is meant by 'film'; they only understand about moving picture film from newsreels or films made for entertainment. Using film as a recording medium for scientific data is apparently outside their remit. So who should preserve such material? Is it a job for the IUCr?
I am asking the BCA Council to consider this problem and I should like to
arrange further discussion at the BCA Annual Meeting next April. Meanwhile
please let me have your comments and views.
NEW Advanced Certificate in Powder Diffraction on the
Web
Web site: http://pd.cryst.bbk.ac.uk/pd/
We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting registrations for this course.
This new Advanced Certificate course proposes to offer training in powder diffraction, one of the major techniques for solid-state materials research. It will concentrate on providing the necessary crystallographic and computational skills required for an understanding and usage of powder diffraction. This new course is delivered via the Internet and makes use of innovative technologies for distance learning. The course is ideally suited for students new to solid-state chemistry/physics and material science. For more information please browse the URL above.
In addition we are now accepting new registrations for our highly-acclaimed
course in Protein Crystallography on the Web. This course is ideally
suited for students of biochemistry, molecular biology, bioinformatics,
biophysics and/or organic chemistry who want to know in mainly
non-mathematical detail how to determine protein structure, the quality of
the structure, and how to interpret crystallographic papers. It will also
appeal to those who envisage a further career in this exciting and rapidly
expanding field.
Course details are available at:
http://px.cryst.bbk.ac.uk/
Royal Society News - from their June Newsletter
Ever since the launch of Project Science in 1996, the Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship Scheme has been a top priority for the Society's development and fund raising campaign. Recently two major new commitments with a total value of £412,000 have been confirmed - helping to ensure the scheme enjoys a bright future. Filtronic plc a microwave electronics company is the latest corporate partner in the scheme. Lady Helen Appleton, widow of the Nobel prize winning Fellow of the Royal Society, Sir Edward Victor Appleton left investments now worth over £250,000 in a reversionary bequest to the Society to help promote research excellence. The money will be used to create a permanent endowment known as the Sir Edward Victor Appleton Fund to help give financial security to the Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship Scheme.
The Society has joined ISTOR, an international project funded by the US
Andrew W Mellon Foundation, to put leading American and British Journals
on-line. An electronic archive of the Society's Transactions and
Proceedings will be created starting this summer with the very first
issue of the Philosophical Transactions published in 1665. This
massive project will create a wealth of scientific data previously only
available to a limited audience.
To encourage promising graduate students to pursue crystallographically
oriented research, the International Centre for Diffraction Data (ICDD) has
established a Crystallography Scholarship Fund. While the Ewald Prize
is awarded every three years to an internationally recognized
crystallographer, little effort has been made by science departments to
cultivate aspiring crystallographers. Convinced of the beneficial,
scientific impact of the proposed scholarships for crystallographically
oriented research, the ICDD has solicited funds from private and industrial
sectors to support this program. The ICDD has awarded twenty-eight
scholarships in the amount of $2,000 each since 1992. The year 2000
Scholarship Award has been increased to $2,250. Applications for the
year 2000 awards must be received by ICDD
no later than 29 October 1999.
Qualifications for the applicant:
The applicant should be a graduate student seeking a degree with major
interest in crystallography e.g. crystal structure analysis, crystal
morphology, modulated structures, correlation of atomic structure with
physical properties, systematic classification of crystal structures, phase
identification and materials characterization. There are no restrictions on
country, race, age or sex. The term of the scholarship is one year.
The recipient may make application for one renewal at the end of the first
year. Because a limited number of scholarships are awarded, renewal
applications will be considered on a competitive basis in conjunction with
all applications that have been submitted up to the closing date.
Submit:
Restrictions on the scholarship fund:
A committee consisting of the ICDD Chairman, the Chairman of the ICDD
Technical Committee, the Chairman of the ICDD Education Subcommittee, and
three individuals without conflict of interest administer the awarding of
the scholarships. One or more accredited professors (with no conflicts
of interest) may be invited to assist in the selection of successful
candidates.
Applications must be received by 29 October 1999.
Fax transmittals will be accepted until 29 October 1999, however a hard copy
of the application must be mailed and received by ICDD no later than 1
December 1999.
E-mail applications are not acceptable.
Please mail to:
Secretary, International Centre for Diffraction Data,
12 Campus Boulevard, Newtown Square, PA 19073-3273 U.S.A.
Fax: +1 610-325-9823
ISSN for 'Crystallography news'
Additional address for BCA Web site
Birkbeck College Internet server staff have recently set up an additional
name as the first part of the address of the BCA home page, which can now be
acessed at:
http://bca.cryst.ac.uk/BCA/index.html
which we hope will be easier for you to remember. The address is just like
that on a letter,
first the section (bca)
then the department (cryst),
then the type of institution (ac)
then the country (uk).
Upper or lower case letters are equally acceptable to
this server.
The old address also works so there is no need to change any of your
existing links.
Page last updated 17 Oct 1999
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