Open Meeting of the Commission on International Tables for Crystallography

The chairman of the Commission on International Tables, Hartmut Fuess, opened the meeting by giving a brief overview of the International Tables series. Nicola Ashcroft (the technical editor) gave a presentation of the features of International Tables Online.

Mois Aroyo, the new editor for Volume A and the Brief Teaching Edition of Volume A, then outlined his proposals for (1) the development of Volumes A and A1 in the online edition of the volumes; (2) the next (sixth) print edition of Volume A; and (3) the Brief Teaching Edition of Volume A. Mois’ proposals for the online versions of Volumes A and A1 include a database that can be used to calculate symmetry information for the user’s choice of non-standard space-group setting. Mois then outlined his proposals for the print edition of the volume, which included rearranging the content of the volume into three parts. The first part would contain chapters offering a didactic approach to space-group symmetry, the second part would contain a guide to the plane- and space-group tables and the tables themselves, and the third part would contain chapters on advanced topics. His proposals for the Teaching Edition were again to arrange the book into three parts: the first part forming an introduction to Volumes A and A1, the second part containing example space-group tables and the third part containing chapters on applications of space-group symmetry. Mois also kindly reported progress on the second edition of Volume A1 on behalf of the editors, Hans Wondratschek and Ulrich Mueller, who were unable to attend. They expect to finish their work on the new edition soon.

A statement from the editor of Volume B, Uri Shmueli, who could not be at the meeting, was read out. Uri’s statement included a list of the new articles in the third edition of Volume B, which has just been published. Uri, who has now announced his retirement, was warmly thanked in his absence for his great contribution to International Tables over the years. Hartmut Fuess explained that he had started work towards the fourth edition of Volume C by contacting the existing authors. He expects to be able to prepare a list of authors and a contents list for the new edition by the end of 2008. Andre Authier, the editor of Volume D, was unable to attend, but Hartmut reported on his behalf that the volume is selling well and there are no plans for a new edition in the immediate future. Danny Litvin, co-editor of Volume E with Vojtech Kopsky, summarised the changes that will be made to the next edition of Volume E. The new co-editor of Volume F, Daniel Himmel, presented a list of new articles that he, Eddy Arnold and Michael Rossmann will be inviting for the second edition of the volume, which is expected to go to press in 2010. Brian McMahon, co-editor of Volume G with Syd Hall, reported that Volume G is selling well and there is no immediate need to consider a new edition.

Proposals for new volumes of International Tables and new material for inclusion in the existing volumes were then discussed. Hartmut Fuess mentioned that he plans to submit a proposal for a volume on powder diffraction early in 2009. Gervais Chapuis gave a presentation on the 3D scanning groups of superspace groups, a database of which could be included in International Tables. A demonstration of a program for three-dimensional visualization, Space-Group Visualizer, was then given by one of its authors, Dr Eckhard Hitzer. To close the meeting, a photograph of the editors and Chester staff was taken by Bill Duax.