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 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.