Peter Goodman (1928-1999)

Peter Goodman's fundamental contributions in the field of symmetry analysis have found widespread industrial application, in this case extending from metallurgy to microelectronics and from the characterization of minerals to the fabrication of ceramics. Outstanding among his contributions was the use of the convergent incident beam, a technique in electron diffraction to study bonding and determine the presence or absence of a centre of inversion, to analyze the non-symmorphic groups and to determine chirality. Peter had passion for the graphic arts and a deep humour and a wry sympathy for human frailty. He served as chairman of the IUCr Commission on Electron Diffraction, edited Fifty Years of Electron Diffraction, organized a variety of conferences and, memorably, wrote the definitive chapter on space group determination by electron diffraction.