Indian World of Crystallography
The 270 papers presented at the XXIX National Seminar on Crystallography
at the Dept of Crystallography and Biophysics, U. of Madras,
Guindy Campus in Dec. 1998 covered crystallographic applications
to biomedicine and material science, biocrystallography, organic,
and inorganic structures, physical properties, crystal growth
and characterization. K. Lal, treasurer of the Asian Crystallographic
Association opened the meeting. A highlight of the meeting was
a talk C.N.R. Rao, F.R.S. on "Crystallography in the Study
of the Chemistry of Materials". Other highlights included
sessions on Synchrotron Radiation, weak interactions, polymeric
network design, supramolecular organic metal coordination complexes,
smart materials, graphite nanotube formation, characterization
of nanoparticles, high temperature and high pressure studies.
V. Pattabhi
Chemical Crystallography in Latvia
A meeting honoring Latvian crystallographer and chemist M.E.
Straumanis was held at Riga Technical U. on the 100th anniversary
of Straumanis's birth (Nov. 23, 1898) with support from the Latvian
Academy of Sciences, Latvian Chemical Society and Latvian Crystallographic
Assoc. Straumanis received an engineer-chemist degree from Latvian
U. in 1925, a PhD degree in 1927 and a Rockfeller fellowship.
From 1931-1935 Straumanis and A. Ievins developed a method for
accurate lattice parameter measurement known as the "asymmetric
Debye-Scherrer method". From 1944-1947 he studied metal
corrosion at Marghburg U. (Germany) before taking up a positon
at school of Mine and Metallurgy, Missouri U. (USA) where he
continued studies on titanium, zirconium, halfnium and thorium
interactions with acids. In 1967 the electrochemistry lab at
MU was named the Straumanis Lab for Electrochemical Studies.
He published more than 300 papers and was a co-authors of "50
years of X-ray Diffraction." The meeting included lectures
on Straumanis' contribution to crystallography and other fields
and
A space group of participants at the 7th Conference
of SCS in September, 1998. Photo courtesy of D. Poleti)
reports of X-ray studies carried out by Latvian crystallographers
in the field of inorganic and organic chemistry. A special issue
of the Latvian Chemical Journal N3, 1998 has been devoted to
Straumanis 100th anniversary.
A. Mishnev, Latvian Crystallographic Assoc.
Serbian Crystallographers
After the disordering of the previous Yugoslavia, crystallographers
in Serbia recrystallized as the Serbian Crystallographic Society
(SCS) in the spring of 1992. The cell of the SCS contains 80
members from Serbia and Montenegro working in crystallography
and related fields through different symmetry operations. The
asymmetric unit contains a 25 scientists hard-core acting as
seeds for all investigations. The SCS belongs to the IUCr through
the European Crystallographic Association subgroup. Since 1992
the September Conference of SCS has grown to three days and includes
formal sessions (opening ceremony and plenary lecture), three
working sessions, a half-day excursion and, the conference dinner.
A book of one-page abstracts (CIF format not accepted!) has been
printed every year. Plenary lecturers from abroad, A. Kalman,
G. Argay (Budapest, Hungary), A. Spasoevic-de Bire (Paris, France),
N. Furmanova (Moscow, Russia) and R. Tellgren (Uppsala, Sweden)
presented well-ordered lectures. We hope that they enjoyed our
lattice. The seventh-fold conference was held in Vrnjacka Banja
a well-known spa in Sept. 1998. A limited number of conference
reports are available free of charge (in English and Serbian),
contact L. Karanovic (ljika@helix.chem.bg.ac.yu).
The Eighth-fold conference will be held in the first half of
Sept. 1999 in Kragujevac.
D. Poleti
