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Editorial

[W. L. Duax]I am pleased to report a favorable response to a request for more information about crystallography in member countries of the IUCr. A letter was sent to representatives of national committees requesting information on crystallographic organizations, laboratories and activities in their countries. Material received from China, France, Israel, Poland, Serbia, Australia, the UK and the US appears on page 16. Other countries covered in meeting reports include India, Moldova, Germany, and Japan. If your country is not represented, we welcome your contributions. Information on awards to and elections of crystallographers are expecially welcome. Because Lithuania is not presently a member of the IUCr, Kazimierz Lukaszewicz sent the names of crystallographers in Lithuania to be added to the newsletter mailing list. If you can suggest names of crystallographers in countries not in the Union who can be added to the mailing list and invited to act as IUCr reporters, that would be greatly appreciated.

It saddens me greatly to report the recent loss to the crystallographic community of too many of its founders and leaders most recently, including Jeremy Cohen, Howard Evans, George Jeffrey, Zdzislaw Galdecki, Shizou Miyake, Don Rogers, Paul Sigler, and Jürg Waser.

This is the first issue having more than 24 pages since March 1996. Larger issues cost more to produce and distribute, but the introduction of new features and accumulation of meeting reports, honors and awards made it necessary to expand this issue.

The American Crystallographic Association (ACA) the North American Regional Affiliate of the IUCr is celebrating its 50th anniversary in St. Paul, Minnesota, July 22-27, 2000. Sessions will cover all aspects of crystallography. Highlights will include the Transactions Symposium “Using Crystallography to Understand Enzyme Mechanisms”, workshops on SHELX, the Cambridge Structural Database and How to Make Technical Presentations, the Buerger Award lecture of Lyle Jensen and the Warren Award lecture of Ian Robinson. The ACA will present its Public Service Award to Purnell Choppin, recently retired President of the Howard Hughes Medical Inst. at the Golden Anniversary Banquet. Efforts are under way to bring together as many of the charter members of the ACA who were present at the first meeting in Penn State in 1950 and as many of the 33 living past presidents as possible. The abstracts for the meeting are on the web at www.hwi.buffalo.edu/ACA/ACA00/abstracts.

The European Crystallographic Association, the European Regional Affiliate, will hold its 2000 meeting in Nancy, France August 25- 31. The ECM meeting consistantly covers all aspects of crystallography with a depth and range that is only matched by the IUCr Congress. Eleven plenary lectures and fourteen microsymposia gathered under eleven subcategories (aperiodic systems, charge spin momentum, computing, diffraction physics, electron crystallography, extreme conditions, instrumentation, biological materials, macromolecular methods, molecular interactions, powder diffraction and mineralogy) are required to cover the field and this doesn’t include eleven additional microsymposia needed to address topics such as ferro electricity, twinning, industrial applications and surface structure and function. The abstract deadline is May 1st. For additional information see the ECM-19 home page at http://www.lcm3b.unancy.fr/ecm19/. Get thee to a crystallography meeting (they are more fun than a nunnery).

17 November 2008