January 2000 Newsletter

Contents

1. Editorial
2. Chairman's Message
3. BCA Spring meeting - IG Content 3 -5 April 2000, - Programme
4. Annual General Meeting 4 April 2000 - Notification
5. The Industrial Group at IUCr Glasgow,4-13/8/99 - Reports
6. The 21st Philips Durham Conference 20-23/9/99 - Report
7. Autumn Meeting 4/11/99 - Report
8. Book review Industrial Applications of X-ray Diffraction, Chu ng & Smith
9. ICDD Workshop St Helens College 6-8/12/99 - Report
10. Spreadsheets Library of Excel Routines
11. Committee Members and Addresses (2000)

Editorial

Help Needed.

That was a busy summer, wasn't it? As you will see from this issue there have been a tremendous number of very well attended mee tings over the summer and autumn period. They all had a high quality technical content and, hopefully, were enjoyed by many crystallographers. However behind the actual meetings there is a lot of effort put in by many people, often in their own time, to get the meeting, venue and speakers organized and in the right place at the right time. The willing time and effort put in by volunteers behind the scenes is thus vital to the success of meetings like these. This is particularly true of the Industrial Group who are loosing 5 of the committee at the AGM (see inside) as their terms of office have expired. The committee therefore needs your help. If you feel that you could spare some time and are willing to help run the IG and its meeting please come forward. The task is not very onerous and new people always bring in new ideas which keeps everyone else on their toes. The Industrial Group Committee needs some new volunteers, NOW! Also thanks to all who wrote up the reports for this issue and best wishes to everyone for the Xmas and 'special' New Year break.

Forthcoming Events
BCA Spring Meeting 2000
Heriot-Watt University, 3 - 5^th April.

See this issue for details. Please note the sample preparation workshop. Your input is needed to make this work

Other Plans For 2000
IG Workshops on:
Structural Materials
Non Ambient Diffractometry

These are still in the planning stages - details in next newsletter. Any th oughts or wishes as to what these should cover or contain are very welcome

Thanks to Philips Analytical who sponsored the distribution of the paper edition of this Newsletter.

Colin Small

Chairman's Message

It would seem appropriate at the start of a new millennium to be thinking about doing lots of new things. Being the Industrial Group, we already seem to have done most of them over the past year. The Forum a t Coventry was well-attended and well-received. Our main difficulty now is to find a way of building on that success without compromising other activities, but the committee is working on it. The Glasgow Congress was a great success for most of those who attended, but sadly incompatible with the circumstances of many industrial crystallographers. However, it was good to have a representative selection of industrial crystallography on the IG display (now on the web site) and Dave Taylor was elected t o the BCA Council at the AGM. We finished our old millennium activities with a rather different Autumn Meeting at Birkbeck College. This took the form of a hands-on workshop looking at some of the computing resources available to us over the internet and by other means. We intend to incorporate the "hands-on" approach into next year's events. Many thanks to all those who have made 1999 such a successful year and given so much of their time and energy. You will find items on what's to come in 2000 el sewhere in the Newsletter. The format for the year's events may look familiar, but there is novelty built into the individual sessions. As an example, I would encourage you to have a go at one or more of the samples available for the Specimen Preparation Workshop at the Spring meeting. Prepare them and measure the data in the comfort of your own lab, then get properly into the fray as we compare approaches and prejudices at Herriot Watt (confidentiality assured unless you spill the beans yourself or give someone else permission so to do). Keep watching the web site as I am sure you will continue to find new things there of real interest to you. I have just heard that Jo Jutson plans to retire at the end of 1999. Sadly, that also means she will be stepping down from the role of vice-chair. We will greatly miss the many contributions that we have enjoyed from her over the years, but I am sure you would all like to join me in wishing Jo a very long and happy retirement. A very happy Christmas and prosperous New Year to you all. I look forward to growing a little wiser with you and enjoying your company at our meetings next year.

Steve Norval

THE 16TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

of the Industrial Group of the British Crystallographic Association

will be held at the:

BCA Spring Meeting, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, on 4th April 2000.

Nominations are sought for Vice-Chair and 5 Committ ee Members to serve for three years from April 2000.

Nominations, which shall be proposed by not less than two members of the Group and shall be accompanied by the written consent of the nominee, shall be sent to reach the Honorary Secretary of the Group not later than seven days before the Annual General Meeting.

The name and address of the Secretary is:

Prof. Chris Frampton, Roche Discovery Welwyn, Broadwater Rd., Welwyn Garden City, Herts. AL7 3AY

Newsletter Mailing list.

It is important that the Industrial Group maintains an up to date mailing list.

Please let Dave Taylor (address in list of officers) know if you change address, if there is a more appropriate contact in your organisation or you no longer require a paper copy.

The Newsletter is now posted on our WEB site: (http://bca.cryst.ac.uk/BCA/IG/ig.html). We have back issues in place from 1995. Why not have a browse and let me know what you think. Almost 100 members are now being informed by e-mail when each new edition is mounted helping us to save costs.

We hope to extend this method in future especially to our overseas members who incur high postal charges. If you are prepared to switch from a paper copy (and help save the trees) to e-mail notification of the WEB posting, then send an e-mail to:
Dave Taylor [email protected] - with the title WEB NEWS.

Dave Taylor