Welcome to the

International Union of Crystallography

2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2009 has been awarded jointly to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, UK, Thomas A. Steitz, USA, and Ada E. Yonath, Israel, for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome. The research honoured not only by the 2009 but also by the 2006 (Roger D. Kornberg, USA) and 2003 (Roderick MacKinnon, USA) Nobel Prizes in Chemistry would not have been possible without the use of crystallographic methods.

Portraits of crystallography

Science is a social activity, and the history of science is the history of the men and women who work, often alone but more usually in collaboration, building on inspiration, insight, hard work - and in large measure on the enjoyment and sheer exhilaration of discovery. For many years one of us has been privileged to chronicle the social side of crystallography in photographs taken at Congresses, conferences, symposia, workshops and all the other occasions when we come together to celebrate our science.

The attraction of the photographic record is obvious. One of the highlights of last year's Congress in Osaka was the Exhibition of photographs (from the Duax collection and those of André Authier, Chris Gilmore and Syd Hall, amongst others). Many participants enjoyed retreading Memory Lane, seeing themselves in their youth, or remembering their friends, mentors and heroes of times past.

The IUCr is therefore launching on this web site a large collection of (mostly) informal photographs of crystallographers and their friends and families, stretching back to the 1920s. The first galleries draw from some of the contributions to the Osaka Exhibition, and from the IUCr's own archives. More will be added as we continue to catalogue and annotate the photographs contributed to the Osaka Exhibition. We encourage you to consider contributing to this collection, especially if you have images from older or historically important meetings.

We hope that everyone will enjoy this survey of the human face of crystallography.

Gjønnes Medal in Electron Crystallography

The Gjønnes Medal in Electron Crystallography recognizes an outstanding contribution to the field of electron crystallography. The award is accompanied by a certificate and funding to present an invited Keynote Lecture at the triennial International Congress of Crystallography. The award is named in honour of its first recipient, Professor Jon Gjønnes of the University of Oslo, who received the award at the XXI IUCr Congress in Osaka, in August 2008. The subject of Professor Gjønnes' Keynote Lecture was 'Electron diffraction intensities and structure analysis'.

This award is managed by the Awards Sub-committee of the Commission on Electron Crystallography (CEC) of the IUCr. This Sub-committee is responsible for soliciting and evaluating and recommending a nominee to members of the CEC for final approval, or recommending that no award be made.

Nominations are now open for the Gjønnes Medal in Electron Crystallography. Nomination is open to scientists and engineers in all areas of electron crystallography.  The next Gjønnes Medal will be awarded at the Madrid Congress in August 2011. Further details of the award and the nomination procedure can be found in a separate announcement.

The deadline for receipt of nominations is 30 April 2010.