IUCr Associates Programme renewals due

The IUCr Associates Programme was launched at the IUCr Congress in Hyderabad in 2017. It was hoped that the Programme would both raise some money for the IUCr’s good works and also provide more of a sense of community for those who chose to join. It cost USD 200 for three years, with a reduced rate of USD 60 being available for retired crystallographers, students and crystallographers in developing countries. We would like to express our thanks to those who have joined the Programme. For those who joined in 2017, renewal notices will be sent out shortly. Prices are unchanged for the next triennium. We have been surprised by how few Associates have used their membership benefits, so here is a reminder of some of the best ones:

1. A 50% discount off the purchase price of printed volumes of International Tables for personal use – do you have space on your shelf for the new Volume H: Powder diffraction? Or perhaps you never got around to getting the new edition of Volume A: Space-group symmetry. Volume I: X-ray absorption spectroscopy and related techniques is due out next year and you can use the discount as many times as you like. Discounts are also available on other IUCr books and books from some other academic publishers.
2. Vouchers for six free downloads of articles from IUCr Journals.
3. A 20% discount on the fee when publishing an article in an open-access IUCr Journal (IUCrJ, Acta E and IUCrData). Associates also currently pay a lower fee for publishing open access in the IUCr’s hybrid journals.

Between 2017 and 2019, we estimate that the IUCr spent almost USD 1 million on outreach and education. This includes providing bursaries for young scientists to attend meetings, paying for Visiting Professors to attend schools and workshops, and President’s Fund grants to allow financially disadvantaged crystallographers to attend the Hyderabad Congress. This figure does not include fee waivers that subsidise open-access publications from scientists in low-income countries or the cost of books and open-access vouchers provided as prizes at meetings. Those were worth more than USD 100,000 in the same period. Some of these good works are funded by the generosity of the Editors of IUCr Journals, some of whom donate a proportion of their honoraria to the IUCr Outreach and Education Fund or the Crystallography in Africa initiative, but the income from the Associates Programme has also been used to fund this. 

Left: IUCr Travel Award recipients at ECM32, and right: IUCr Executive Committee member Wulf Depmeier and guest present the IUCr Journals Poster Prize (Applied Crystallography) to Raffael Rameshan (centre) (Technische Universität Wien, Austria).

I am proud of what the IUCr has achieved and very pleased with how my Associates Programme membership fee has been spent. I hope that those of you who have become Associates feel the same way.

If you would like to join the Associates Programme or to donate money to the IUCr, the links are here:

https://www.iucr.org/people/associates/become

https://www.iucr.org/outreach